Fabric Guides
Organic Cotton Khadi, An Even Better Alternative
With the increasing awareness about the environment, many have embraced Khadi fabric and many acknowledge the benefits of organic cotton. But we can adopt a newer approach to sustainability by combining the two to make something even better- Organic Khadi.
We will shed light on important details like how is organic khadi different and better from regular khadi and how is it made.
ORGANIC COTTON & ORGANIC KHADI
Organic cotton simply put is the cotton plant grown without the use of pesticides or chemical fertilisers or using genetically modified seeds. It has been embraced in recent years with people acknowledging the effects of the cultivation of the conventional cotton plant.
Khadi is a fabric made by handweaving yarns that have been handspun on a Charkha machine. We have been using organic cotton to produce a fabric through such a manual process. This fabric is the Organic Khadi & it combines the best of both khadi & organic cotton.
ADVANTAGES OF ORGANIC COTTON KHADI:
- Organic Khadi is a chemical free fabric with no harmful pesticides present in the fibre. Thus making it absolutely safe for human skin and the environment
- Organic cotton has a much smaller carbon emission than regular cotton. Adding to this, in the Khadi process where everything is manually done, the carbon footprint is further reduced.
- Organic Cotton has very minimal water and energy take. Growing organic cotton can decrease 62% of energy consumption compared to conventional methods. The process of hand-spinning and handweaving too consume no energy in the form of fossil fuel or electricity.
- Both the organic farming and Khadi process requires manual labour thus providing more employment opportunities.
It requires 10,000 litres of water to process just one single kilo of conventional cotton.
ORGANIC CERTIFICATION:
Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certification is a certification for organic cotton and is the worldwide leading textile standard. The GOTS certification oversees the entire textile chain & ensures the supply chain is free of harmful substances.
At Anuprerna, we work with artisans who weave from their homes in their respective weavers' clusters, spread across rural Bengal. Due to the decentralised nature of this system, it is difficult to acquire the GOTS certification. Thus we make sure to source organic cotton slivers from GOTS certified suppliers and then hand spin them into organic cotton yarn which is further woven in the handloom to produce the Organic Cotton Khadi Fabrics. In this new form, we are able to take the potential of organic cotton in terms of sustainability and ethics, to the fullest.
PROCESS OF MAKING ORGANIC KHADI
The GOTS certified organic cotton sliver we source, go through the following processes:
1) Roving and Spinning- The slivers are given a twist to produce a long narrow bundle of cotton in a process called Roving, which finally go for handspinning on the charkha. This is where Organic Khadi differs from a mill-produced organic cotton fabric.
2) Weaving- Handspun yarn composed of certified organic cotton goes through pre-loom process where the warp and weft yarn is prepared for weaving. On the handloom, the yarns, in the form of warp and weft are woven by the artisan to ultimately produce the Khadi organic textile.
You can read about Organic Cotton Production in detail, on our platform here.
Our priority has been to make sure that all our processes are ethical and sustainable. Organic Khadi is our step in that direction and we are always striving to look for ways to find and revive more ethical and eco-friendly Crafts.
Team Anuprerna
At Anuprerna, We Request Everyone To Contribute And Share. This Way We Can Create Global Recognition For These Beautiful Handwoven Craft & Textiles To Bestow Value Onto The Ordinary Lives Of Our Artisans With Extraordinary Skills. And We Believe That's The Only Way We Can Build A Sustainable And Ethical World For Ourselves.
