Did you know ...

[Melda]

That 100% wool can have up to 10 % of other content (nylon, poly, etc) in it and still be listed as 100% wool in the US? I was just told this by a fabric lady and i thought how crazy ....

[ChattyCat]

I thought that sounded odd. I went to the FTC's website and looked at wool labeling regulations. Apparently, they had a conference on this recently. It seems that all fibers must be stated. The only thing that could be vague was if there was less than 5% of something in the wool, in which case it could be labelled as "other fibers" instead of with the actual fiber name. Maybe the lady was mistaken??

[ChattyCat]

Okay, I read some more. And, the only other thing I could find was "excluding trim, comprising less that 5% of fabric content" So, if there was a 1 inch stripe of cotton every 21 inches, that could be considered trim (because it's a stripe), and labelled as "100% wool". But, if the cotton was blended throughout the wool, then it would be labelled as "95% wool, 5% cotton" or "95% wool, 5% other fibers" So, if a savvy shopper is paying attention and the fabric is complying with the law, there shouldn't be any problems.

FWIW, my dh has a BS in textiles. I'll ask him about it when he gets home, and see if he can remember anything about it. (He does absolutely nothing related to textiles now, but occasionally he suprises me and spouts off some random bit of textile trivia!)

[Melda]

i thought it was a lil odd myself ... how can you call something 100% if its now KWIM? But i put nothing past the govt' when it comes to their rules and regs ...