HEMPEA is a finnish sustainable brand, creating eco-friendly home textiles from 100% hemp fabrics. This spring we collaborated to create some unique products with some of their pre-consumer scraps - cut-offs in the production process of their bedding and home textiles. Their high quality, ethically made hemp fabrics are too precious to waste, so we took all the small, odd shaped pieces and created a collection of Wasteless Wonders products with them.
A big box of pre-consumer hemp scraps arrived at our studio and contained all kinds of different color strips of beautiful hemp fabric. After some sorting by sizes and colors, a rough plan for the different scraps was made. The thinnest strips would be best suited for crocheting baskets, as they were the perfect width and length for that. The medium wide strips would be ideal for weaving, as those could be folded and ironed, so that all raw edges are hidden inside. The widest strips and small panels of fabric would then be best suited for larger projects, like pillows, quilts or bags. Whatever would be left over could be used for very small scale patchwork or finally to make some stuffed inner pillows.
A few months later a full collection emerged. In between was a lot of ironing, weaving, sewing and crocheting, some failures and many successes. Not all the experiments made it into the final collection - there were some oddly shaped crochet baskets, some instable woven baskets and two odd mini rugs, that simply didn't work out. Those successful products, we will introduce to you in this article.
This pillow case was made using five different craft techniques. First, long wide panels of hemp fabric were patchworked together to form the base of the pillow. Next, the large colorful shapes were painted with water-based fabric paint. Missing pieces and embellishements were added with a punch needle, to create the textured and fluffy sections. The front panel was quilted with free formed lines onto backing fabric and then sewn together to finally form the pillow case.
This pillow is incredibly fresh - a unique characteristic of both the hemp fabric and the juicy orange motive. It works year round and adds a pop of color to any room.
This set of crocheted baskets is made with all the long and thin hemp strips and different recycled yarns. The fabric is enclosed by the yarn during the crocheting process, which also prevents it from fraying in the long run. The baskets are built like an edless coil or spiral and the changes in shape are created through the crocheting pattern and the slight variations in thickness of the fabric strips.
The different size baskets work perfectly as small and large storage containers, planters and of course a place to stash all your yarn and crocheting supplies.
This tote bag was one of the final items to be created from the scraps. The triangular pieces were cut from small leftovers and combined with other fabric scraps available in the studio. The front pocket is quilted and has two compartments. The rest of the bag is mirroring the colors of the patchwork and even features a silky black lining, that makes this bag reversible!
The pixels play mat can be used as a floor mat or baby quilt, a soft blanket for your pets or a textile wall hanging. The pixelated design is created by assembling four blocks from larger strips of fabric, cutting them once more after sewing and then rearranging and turning them to mix them up. The beige and white parts of the quilt are hemp scraps, while the pink, orange and blue accents are other fabric leftovers from our stash. The batting for this blanket was harvested from a secondhand play mat, that previously featured a very tacky design.
This piece was made in the same way as the crocheted baskets, with long thin fabric strips and in this case re-dyed recycled yarns. It is a quite unique piece of decor that can be used as a shallow bowl to hold your keys or as a base for arranging pieces of decor.
The essentials pouch was, like the arrows bag, created from smaller leftover pieces of hemp, combined with a soft blush pink and an electric blue. The patchwork pattern is based on triangles and then quilted with a diamond grid. The box pouch has a very sturdy construction, which allow it to hold its shape even when empty. The long zipper that goes around the corners of the bag allow it to open wide for easy access. It is the perfect size to store your travel toiletries, a large collection of pens or a knitting project in process.
This duffle bag features a large patchwork front and even a smaller patchwork pocket on the other side. Most of the fabrics are from our stash, but the last small pieces of leftover hemp were integrated into the pattern to finally empty the box. The bag features a sturdy canvas exterior and silky black interior. Together with the webbing straps and a bold pink zipper, all these supplies were sourced secondhand.
PS: the denim jacket featured in the image is also handmade from four differnt pairs of old jeans.
This rug is made with medium-wide strips of hemp fabric, all folded and ironed so that all raw edges are hidden. The rug was made on a large scale frame loom with a two tone warp, featuring black and white sections. During the weaving process, the ends of the fabric strips, rope and yarn accents were left unfinished on each side and later turned into fluffly tassles. In a (extremely tedious) process, the weave of the hemp itself was dissolved to leave only loose threads to create the frayed effect on each side.
This little pouch was made from small leftover hemp pieces and other linen and cotton fabrics from our stash. The orange and pink colors give a warm and fresh touch to the beige and white tones of the hemp. The pouch is the perfect size for a small sketchbook and pens or some travel essentials.
I hope this little showcase and introduction of all the project made you curios to see more of our HEMPEA line. You can find all the products on our collection page, were you can see more images and read all about the techniques and materials used, how long the products took to create and finally, how you can purchase them. Don't forget to visit HEMPEA on their website and check out their beautiful ethical and sustainable bedding and home textiles.
