One-of-a-kind fleece-to-fabric mill near Parry Sound sees growing demand
Wave Weir has found her niche in the natural fibre clothing industry with Ontario's first fleece-to-fabric mill near Parry Sound.
Weir says she has been sewing all her life and started a natural fibre clothing business in Nova Scotia that required her to import materials.
After selling her business and moving back to Ontario, Weir started farming and decided to return to her roots of natural fibre clothing.
"So, what we're doing here is we are running a semi-worsted spinning and weaving mill. What that means is that we take raw fibres from farmers and either service their needs to have processing done or we purchase raw fibre from farms and put it into product," the Seguin, Ont. woman explains.
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After a soft launch in April 2022, the Wave Fibre Mill opened to the public months later in July, and according to Weir, there is a high demand for a fibre mill such as hers.
"We are finding that mid-sized farms are coming to us, and we literally have thousands of pounds of fleece. Farmers daily are contacting us. Then we have demand on the other end from designers and consumers," she says, adding they have expanded from sheep's wool to alpaca, purchasing locally, from Quebec and other parts of the province.
"The equipment we bought from a couple that specialized in alpaca," she notes. "Alpaca is different than wool. It's slipperier, finer. So, now we are reintroducing alpaca to the equipment now that our skill set is up."
Her plan now is to continue to expand and establish the product line at the store, including clothing, blankets, toys, and accessories.
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