Organic Cotton

We, the dolls, wondered, what in the world is organic cotton? Why did Marty and Trish insist on using it to make us? Here's what they told us at bedtime one night:

Half of the time that cloth is made anywhere in the whole wide world, cotton’s the 1st choice.

Insects love cotton plants, so they get sprayed a whole lot. Ewee! Would you believe that 1/4 of the cost of all the whole world’s insecticides are used on cotton? Marty and Trish said "NO WAY!" to that cotton for us!

And then they told us that the farmers who grow our cotton can stay healthier since they stay away from those bug-killers. We like that. Don’t you think it’s great that what’s good for us is also good for the farmers?

Low Impact Dyes

Let the dolls continue their story.

We dreamed sweet things that night. Then of course we had more questions.

"We’re glad that we are organic, but what about the colors that they put on this cotton?" We wanted to know.

"Ah, sweetie, good question!" Marty said. "After the cotton is made into cloth, they put color into it. What they use is called dye."

"Dye, huh. So is dye OK for us?" We asked.

"Some of it is, Sweet Pea," Marty said. (There she goes again with that Sweet Pea thing) "But some dyes use pretty harsh stuff to make the color bright and to make it stay."

"Can that hurt us?"

Trish answered, "Maybe. It could make your skin itch. But Marty and I don’t like what these dyes do to our world."

"Like what?"

"Well, they have to use bad stuff in the dye to make it stick to the cloth, then use lots and lots of water to get the bad stuff out of the dyed cloth. And this water has to be cleaned up before it goes back into the rivers and streams. And all the bad stuff that they get out has to go somewhere too."

Boy Holding Doll"Ok," we said, "but our clothes are colored. What about that?"

"Marty and I only use cotton colored with low-impact dyes. They steer clear of the worst stuff in regular dyes and they don’t use as much water, either." said Trish.

"How about natural dyes? Wouldn’t they be good?" asked Happy.

"Oh, sure they would, but they might come off when they’re washed. Some of the stuff that’s used with natural dyes isn’t good for you either. So it’s low-impact dyes for you!" Said Marty.

Wow, organic cotton, low impact dyes. We’d heard enough right then.

Fair Trade

Boy Holding DollAs we all sat looking out at the high desert of Central Oregon one afternoon, we saw another chance to ask some more questions.

"OK, you two, remember when you were telling us about how we came to be? You said something about Fair Trade. Exactly what does that mean?"

Marty spoke right up. "Before we talk about Fair Trade we have something else we want you to know . . .

. . . in the beginning we wanted very much for you to be "made in the USA". We love our country and wanted you to be American made. We wanted to find somewhere that could sew up a whole lot of you right here in America. So I looked and searched.

I visited many people who sewed for a living. Some of them sewed a lot. I even found a place where folks with handicaps were learning to sew things to make a living.

Trish and I really liked that! We believe in this idea! But - you were too complicated for them to sew.

We finally did find a place that could sew up a bunch of you, but it cost so much for each one of you that we couldn’t afford it. We were very sad.

We almost gave up!

We hugged you all close and thought hard.

Then we heard about good people who make things in other countries. It doesn’t cost them as much to live there as it does here so they can work for less money.

"'Why don’t we try that?"' We said.

"So we started searching and learning about having things made in another country. We wanted to find just the right place for you dolls to start from."

"Did it take long to find what you wanted?" We wanted to know.

"It did, but we kept at it. Just when we thought we might have to give up we learned about a place in Costa Rica . . ."

"Costa Rica?" We chorused. "Where’s that?"

"Good question," said Marty. "It’s far away from us in a part of the world called Central America. We got in touch with Alvero and Judith who work in a place that sews things for people all over the world!"

We got excited. "Tell us about Costa Rica!" we insisted.

Trish laughed and said, "We can tell you more about Costa Rica later on, but right now I’ll just say that it is a beautiful, peaceful country that doesn’t even have an army! That might not mean much to you but we like it a lot!"

"And," Marty went on, "They do use Fair Trade ideals."

We all jumped up and down. Then we asked, "It sounds good. What does it mean?"

Marty said, "In our case it means that they pay their workers enough money to have a good life so folks don’t have to be too poor any more. And they work in a nice place, and they help out in the town where they live, too."