EcoZeal

You'd never dream this luxurious stole was woven out of stinging nettles.

Ouch! If you’ve ever gotten too close to a nettle you may be surprised to learn that people have been making clothing-quality fabric from this prickly plant since prehistoric times.

Although most people view nettles as an obnoxious nuisance, the plant has so many uses it resembles a department store with roots.

Vicious…but Versatile

Every part of the nettle plant is usable. Its young leaves are not only a highly nutritious source of iron, Vitamin A and many other nutrients, they’re delicious added to soups or casseroles, or steamed with butter, salt and pepper. (Cooking neutralizes the stinging hairs.) Nettle leaves are used to enrich compost and garden soil, and added to animal feed as a nutritious supplement. They’re also used in herbal medicine as a tonic and an anti-inflammatory.

The nettle plant yields not one but two colors of dye – green from the leaves and yellow from the roots. Nettle root is also used in Europe to treat enlargement of the prostate.

But it’s the fibrous stem of the nettle that holds the potential to revolutionize the clothes we wear. Like hemp and linen, nettle plants feature long stringy fibers that can be separated out through a process called retting. Retting is traditionally a time-consuming process, as the unwanted parts of the stem essentially have to be rotted away. But newly developed processes using enzymes speed up the process and could make nettle fiber a contender with cotton.

The Nettle Advantage

Nettle fibers are finer than those of hemp, and can yield a fabric comparable to – or even softer than – cotton. The fibers are hollow, offering superior insulating value. And the plant has an enviable environmental profile.

Nettles are perennial plants, requiring far less energy input than cotton or even hemp. They grow like the weeds with little or no irrigation or chemical applications. Nettles are easy on the soil – in fact, gardeners sometimes use them as a cover crop to help improve garden soil – and can be grown locally over a very wide geographic range.

Want to get your hands on some nettle fabric? Good luck. So far the pickings are slim – see below for a few. But keep an eye out – the lowly nettle may just prove to be the fabric of the future.

Here are a few companies offering products made from nettle fiber:

SunMoon Trading Center – Nettle fiber for spinning nad nettle yarn in skeins and balls.

Marc Phillips Decorative Rugs - Ask them about nettle fiber rugs.

Camira Fabrics – 25% nettle/75% wool, 100% biodegradable & compostable upholstery fabric.

Uniqlooks – Features a nettle stole with silk backing.