The beginning of Truly Organic

We created Truly Organic apparel when we learned the truth about organic cotton. It's not that organic cotton is bad, it's the reality of what happens to organic cotton AFTER it is grown organically that is bad (ok, less than perfect). This is the story of what Leah and I learned about organic cotton, how most of the world's organic cotton is processed, how we can use natural dyes instead, and how we came to create Truly Organic Apparel.

When my sister Leah began quilting with organic cotton years ago, she found that almost all of the organic cotton she found had been dyed using synthetic petro-chemicals. With all of the benefits of organic cotton, many people are willing to overlook this minor detail in order to use more of this natural, organic fiber. Not Leah. She wanted to do better.

Leah decided that in order to make 100% organic quilts, she needed to find cotton fabric that hadn't been processed with any chemicals. None. The problem was, that Leah is a quilting artist, and artists need color. And this artist needed natural color. But not white, off-white, ecru and sort-of-white colors that she found. No, Leah needed COLOR. And so, after searching, researching and experimenting with onion skins without much success, Leah decided to do what any good quilter would do to find the perfect fabric. She went to India.

Leah spent 3 months traveling in India in search of naturally dyed, organic cotton. Leah lived on a working organic farm, learned about the ancient art of natural dyeing in the birthplace of Indigo, and met many wonderful, helpful people. Finally, near the end of her trip, Leah found what she was looking for... Yards upon yards of beatiful, colorful, organic and 100% naturally dyed cotton fabric basking in the sun on bamboo racks standing 20 feet tall. There was red, blue, yellow, orange, black and white. And all of it was 100% natural. No chemicals. None.

This was the beginning of Truly Organic Apparel.