How do you make bamboo clothes?

How do you make bamboo clothes?

This question is a close second to why bamboo.  At first, it was fun telling people that we have our kids peel individual fibres off of a bamboo stalk and make them weave it into a fabric, but we’re bored of that now.

This section isn’t very long, but you’ll need a dictionary and a stiff drink to get through this next couple of  paragraphs.

The first thing to keep in mind that our fabrics are made from the cellulose of the bamboo plant which technically makes them ’rayon’.  If the term rayon made you reach for that stiff drink - hang on!  Rayon is usually made from a manufacturing process that uses caustic chemical to convert the cellulose into a soluble compound which is regenerated into almost pure cellulose.  Whatever natural characteristics the fibres had would now be completely destroyed.  If you have ever heard the term ’regenerated cellulose fibre’ - this is what was being referred to.



We try to get our fibres by a much more environmentally friendly method stolen from the clever folks that began converting raw wood fibres into textile fibres back in 1992.  Instead of using a nasty chemical to convert the bamboo into usuable fibres, our guys use an organic solvent called amine oxide.  Even though this solvent is non-toxic, it is completely recycled during the manufacturing process saving money and helping the environment at the same time.  It all goes back to Master Chouinard’s famous statement - ’every time I do the right thing for the planet, I make a profit’.

Once you get usuable fibres, the process is identical to any other; spin fibres into threads or yarns and make fabric or knit.  Easy, innit?  The great thing about this process is that it allows all of the bamboo fibre’s natural characteristics to be retained.

So, to make this simple, from start to finish the process would look something like this - 1. Cut down the bamboo stalks  2. Chop up the stalks and soak them until they turn into a wet pulp  3. Let the cellulose dry  4. Chop up the dried cellulose and load into a heated, pressurized vat of solvent until the cellulose disolves into a clear solution  5. Filter the solution and pump it through a showerehead-looking thing called a spinneret to produce long strands of fibre which are then immersed in another solution of diluted amine oxide oxide to ’set’ the fibre strands  6. The fibre strands next get the salon treatment - washed, dried and combed  7. Ship the whole lot to a fabric mill where they work their magic.  See, told you it was simple!

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work just like that all of the time.  Just as there is more than one way to skin a cat, there are other methods to get the raw bamboo ready for spinning that involve using a caustic soda called  Sodium Hydroxide, carbon disulfide and bleach.  While we stress that we want the most ecologically sound fibres we can get, our spinners still cannot guarantee that our fabrics end up 100% chemical free.  In fact, if you speak to someone from a company that makes or sells bamboo clothing or fabrics and they tell you that they know for certain that their clothing has been made 100% chemical free - and they can do it with a straight face - I advise you not to play Texas Hold’em with them!

Now that you know the good and the bad, I’m going to hop up onto my soapbox.  No matter what you do in life, there are going to be nay-sayers and those that can pick apart the best ideas and find only the few negatives while ignoring a thousand positives.

The simple fact of the matter is that bamboo clothing is eco friendly because of the raw material - BAMBOO!  We are offering a viable alternative to manmade, petrochemical based clothing.  We are offering a product far superior to one made from a plant responsible for using more pesticides than any other (by the way, sodium hydroxide is a fairly benign little bugger despite its nasty sounding name; pesticides, by definition, are horrible).

It’s the bamboo itself that makes our clothes so special.  The manufacturing process is a secondary consideration and one that is being improved upon daily!  Please remember that the commercial use of bamboo as a fabric is still in its infancy and we are all at the bottom of the learning curve.

Perhaps you have heard of ’natural’ bamboo fabrics?  This is the process of mechanically shredding the bamboo to produce a fibre very much like linen.  As far as we know, our partners are the only ones developing this fabric and, as of now, the fabrics aren’t suitable for t-shirts or underwear.  As soon as we have something that we are happy to offer to the public, you’ll find it on our stockist’s shops and our little green website as well as the Spun Bamboo site in America.

We absolutely love our bamboo clothing; if you have any clothes made of bamboo then you’ll know why.  For those of you standing on the sidelines pointing out the few faults of bamboo clothes: quit yer bitchin and offer solutions!  We’re not saying that we’re perfect but we’re a lot ’less worse’ than almost everyone else.

My head hurts now.  Two foot and onshore; oh well, see ya in the water anyway.