MONTICELLO — A Monticello mother-daughter team is redefining handmade, sustainable style locally, showcasing their earth-friendly wardrobe staples and creative four-leaf clover keepsakes at two hometown venues.
Shoppers will be able to check out the work of Laura Woolridge, founder of Threads of Eden, and her 14-year-old daughter, Abigail Woolridge, the artist behind Four Leaf Treasures, when the pair displays their distinctive clothing and jewelry during Riverfest’s popular Art in the Park event on Saturday, July 12 at Ellison Park.
The mom-and-daughter duo debuted at the Monticello Farmers Market last week, sharing a booth July 3 that displayed Laura’s sustainable womenswear line, fashioned from hemp and deadstock fabrics, and made with zero-waste methods, along with Abigail’s hand-crafted earrings and rings, much of which features four-leaf clovers — something the teen has a knack for spotting in the wild.
“She finds four-leaf clovers the way most of us find three-leaf clovers,” Laura said. “Every piece is a tiny bit of natural magic.”
The homeschooled ninth-grader has found over 1,300 of these seemingly rare varieties of clover, which are associated with good luck and considered symbols of good fortune.
The odds of finding a four-leaf clover are quite low, with estimates ranging from one in 5,000 to one in 10,000, according to some sources. However, Abigail seems to see them everywhere, including in her own yard — and sometimes at less-than-desirable times.
“Last year, she did soccer, and I looked over and she wasn’t playing,” Laura recalled. “She was busy finding four-leaf clovers. During the game, she found two.”
Once Abigail brings her lucky charms home, she presses them, then encases the dried clovers in resin before turning them into earrings, suncatchers and other trinkets, sometimes adding beads or other flourishes.
“I looked up ways to preserve them and figured it out through trial and error,” she said, noting that many of her specimens change color as they dry out, and also vary in size drastically.
Abigail also has a book at home — The Book, really — dedicated to pressing her found clovers, making them not just lucky, but perhaps also a little holy.
“I have a bible specifically for pressing the clovers, and that reminds me to read a little, and do my devotion,” she said.
Abigail works at Ember Coffee Co. in Big Lake, a shop owned by her aunt and uncle, where her whimsical Four Leaf Treasures are also sold.
Mom Laura said she’s blown away by her daughter’s talents.
“What she does takes real patience and skill,” she said. “And I’m so impressed.”
Threads of Eden
Laura’s own brand, Threads of Eden, launched last year with a few thoughtfully made hemp pieces. It’s now expanded into a full clothing collection, including limited-edition designs made from deadstock fabric, which is the fashion industry’s forgotten inventory.
“Deadstock is made from leftover fabrics,” she explained. “It’s saving fabric from the landfill.”
Each garment is sustainably crafted using zero-waste methods, combining practical wearability with intentional artistry, according to the Monticello mom of five, who makes everything from undies to dresses, skirts, tops and pajama pants, focusing mainly on basics.
In this family business, whatever material can’t be used for clothing still gets used.
Laura’s 9-year-old son, Frank, makes pillows using the scraps.
“My mom helps me sew them up and I fill them with other scraps of fabric,” he said.
Laura has turned her Monticello Township home into a microfactory of sorts, where her budding business has actually taken over her former bedroom, with the 38-year-old and her husband moving their bed into an oversized walk-in closet.
Her startup comes in response to fast-fashion, in which cheap, trendy clothing is mass-produced, leading to significant waste, pollution, unethical labor practices, worker exploitation and other harms to both the environment and the people who wear and produce the garments.
“The clothing industry is the second-most toxic industry in the world, after petroleum,” Laura said, noting most clothing is synthetic, often filled with plastics, highly toxic and poor quality, to boot.
To combat this throw-away clothing culture — “Now, if it’s missing a button, we just toss it out,” she said — her motto is “Buy Less, Buy Better.”
By better, she hopes consumers will embrace natural-fiber fashion like the duds she makes for Threads of Eden, which are crafted mainly using high-quality hemp.
“Hemp is a wonderful product,” she said. “It’s good for paper, furniture, medicine, it has all the essential amino acids. It really hits all of the boxes. No parts go to waste; it all gets used.”
Even the tags on her clothes are made of hemp, and she’s proud of both the products that she makes, and how they are made.
“This is not a cancer-causing garment, it’s good for my health, and it feels good,” she said, noting it also lends an antimicrobial quality to the clothes. “Hemp is a really good plant, it cleans the air and the soil, it requires very little water, no pesticides, no chemicals.”
Sister Anne Dallman of Monticello has become one of Threads of Eden’s best customers, and picked up another pair of underwear at the farmers market last week.
“Out of all of her customers, I’m pretty sure I buy the most products from her,” Dallman said. “Not only because she’s my sister and I want to support her, but it’s comfortable. It’s not itchy, it’s good for the environment and it keeps money in the community. It’s also fashionable.”
With hemp-based tank tops at $40, brief-style underwear at $25 and jogger-style pajama pants at $90, some may balk at the prices, but Laura says her stock is priced accordingly, and believes her products are well worth it.
“Most garments are made overseas using slave labor,” she said. “I pay a woman a living wage to do about half the work and I do the rest.
“People will pay for what’s important to them,” she continued, noting that deadstock items are priced less than the hemp clothing, due to material costs.
Threads of Eden carries sizes small through XL, but can also do special orders in sizes beyond that, including plus-size.
“If someone wants something, I will totally make it in their size,” she said, noting one of her regular customers is a size 3X. “I make custom stuff all of the time.”
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