Sundae Jacket - Wobbly Waffle 'Sky Batch'

This boxy jacket has been with us since day 1. It appears humble but the handwoven fabric wears down so beautifully. The fabric is dyed and woven by a lovely group of ladies in Thailand and we’ll keep buying their fabric and making these for as long as they want to keep their shuttles moving.
The ‘Sky Batch’ is in every way the same as our usual Wobbly Waffle (nothing normal about it) but comes from a run of fabric where the indigo dye came out a little lighter. We felt it was light enough to matter although it’s honestly quite hard to show in photographs as they aren’t loads lighter. In any case these make up their own little ‘batch’. Think of it like a different special vintage of wine. For whatever reason the vat dyeing these hanks was acting a little more duck-egg blue that day.
This jacket (in this fabric) started as a Christmas gift - sort of. We developed this fabric over a year ago to make hand towels and tea towels. As such we went wild. We mixed three gauges of hand-spun yarn to create a super-textured fabric - and used both naturally dyed and naturally coloured cotton. A year after development it became clear this fabric would be amazing in a jacket - so we cancelled the towels (sorry mum) and made these.
If you’ve heard us harp on about naturally coloured cotton before you might want to skip to the end - but some special cottons are different colours naturally - tones of brown (some greener some browner).
For reasons that make sense for the ‘needs’ of industry but are quite sad for biodiversity coloured cotton has become a rare crop.
That said naturally coloured cotton is a very Story mfg. product. An almost forgotten heirloom and natural material that may provide a more sustainable solution. If we can grow cotton that is naturally coloured - we wouldn't need to dye at all. Few are working on this and they have quite different approaches - some are looking into genetically engineering cotton at the gene stage to create variants that grow in any desired shade. Others are taking a more natural approach of breeding old varieties to create new ones.
You may wonder why it even matters - it's a good question. There are many reasons but two stand out. Growing lots of one or a handful of the same plants is terrible for the planet (destroys soil) and risks catastrophe (a disease would wipe them all out). Secondly while extinction is natural when a plant dies out so does all the secrets it holds.
For our part we aren’t much of a force in the space other than a patron of those that are active. We’ll use it wherever possible - it's not only good for us and good for the planet but as with many natural things really beautiful and unique.  *Please note due to the natural processes and handwoven nature of the garment there may be some subtle variations in tone and texture. Each piece is unique and a reflection of its making.