Nicki Colls

Contributor This review aims to support all Australian council and community stakeholders to better understand local government climate change targets, actions, strategies and policies.

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CITY OF MELBOURNE VOLUNTARY LOCAL REVIEW 2022 Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners The City of Melbourne respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land we govern the Wurundjeri Woi…

Contributor | Facilitator | Synthesis Embracing Doughnut Economics to create a new compass for Melbourne Towards a regenerative Melbourne

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Million Jobs Plan Fast track Proposal Policy opportunities to unlock private sector investment in a low carbon economy Beyond Zero Emissions www bze org au 2 Beyond Zero Emissions acknowledges…

Contributor A unique opportunity to demonstrate the growth and employment potential of investing in a low carbon economy

Editor New research by Climateworks Australia, with the Monash Sustainable Development Institute as part of the Net Zero Momentum Tracker initiative, analyses the climate commitments and activities of 57 local government areas covering over half of

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Interview with Nicki Colls, co-founder of Fibreshed Melbourne, the grassroots organization working to rebuild local industry and textile supply chains by connection designers, brands, growers, mills, dyers and farmers.

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A new “farm-to-closet” vision for the clothes we wear–by a leader in the movement for local textile economies. There is a major disconnect between what we wear and our knowledge of its impact on land, air, water, labour, and human health. Even those

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Making your own clothes need not only be about the joy of taking something 2 dimensional and turning it into something 3 dimensional, it can also be about having creative control over the colours and fabric designs you are working with by using plant-based dyes. The most addictive and rewarding plant-based dyes to try is natural indigo. Using a natural indigo vat to dye cloth and clothing can turn you from a specialist in construction in a specialist in biology, chemistry, and what feels like magic. There are also some good environmental reasons to explore natural indigo as an option. In standard industrial processes, dyeing is one of the most polluting stages of cloth production. According to the World Bank, 17-20% of industrial water pollution comes from textile dyeing and treatment. Seventy two toxic chemicals […]

This story started when I learnt to weave. After hours of winding thread, stretching it tight and pulling each individual thread through a series of holes on the loom I realised that my lifelong assumption of how cloth is made was wrong. Making cloth from yarn is not as easy as it looks. It takes skill, many years of practice, and time. The second realisation came when I finally came to cutting the cloth from the loom. After hours of preparing the yarn, setting up the loom and then weaving the cloth, there was no way I wanted to cut into the precious cloth! My appreciation for every warp and weft had sky rocketed.   And it struck me that this is why ancient clothing from around the world used simple, minimalistic designs. Using whole pieces […]

Ever wonder where the incredible colours and textured fabrics of your clothing come from?

This month we are celebrating Plastic Free July, a monthly long challenge to reduce the amount of plastics we use. What’s that got to do with making clothes you ask? Well, it turns out there’s plastic in our fabric, minute pieces of plastic that will persist in the environment long into the future. So for Plastic Free July we are sharing ways makers can reduce their plastic footprint. How big is the problem? Clothing is the number one source of primary microplastics, contributing to over 34% of the global total.  And the number is set to grow with global production of synthetics becoming a larger proportion of production year on year. The version of microplastics found in our clothing are called microfibres. Scientists are finding this tiny debris from our cloth everywhere; in the soil, oceans, drinking water […]

Organic food labelling and availability has come a long way in the last 10 years and it is highly probably that you know where to find organic produce in your area. Textiles are lagging behind, but as consumers demand more transparency, fashion brands and retailers are looking to source certified products. This trend is slowly trickling through to dress making fabrics. The king of certification schemes is named the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS)  and certified products will be labelled as either “organic” or “made with x% organic.” Fabric certified as organic contains at least 95% certified organic fibres and those labelled as “made with x% organic” contain at least 70% certified organic fibres.   To achieve certification all stages of production and manufacturing must comply with strict criteria.   Certification under GOTS covers the whole supply […]

Textile production has negative impacts on the land, waterways, air, ocean and human health. Efforts to reduce the impacts on the environment and create a fair and equitable system of global production often focus on commercial production. As makers of our own clothing, we might consider ourselves removed from the fast fashion system, but as consumers of cloth our choices are still very much a part of the global textile market. We can make choices that are lighter on the earth. We can make choices that empower workers of farms and mills and we can influence an industry to change from the bottom up. Here is a quick guide to doing just that.  Once I have decided that I have a genuine need to source fabric for a project I prioritise sourcing based on these […]