Fabrics that are obtained from fibre

Our Objective 

To examine how fabrics are made from fibres. 

 

The Theory 

The basic necessities for human beings are food, shelter and clothing. Clothes protect us from external factors like heat, cold, and rain. We usually wear clothes based on climates, occasions, and also according to the present fashion trends. All these clothes are prepared from the fibres. 

Fibres to fabric is the process of converting the extracted fibres, either from plants, or animals, or synthetic into different forms of clothes for human use. Fibres can be defined as tiny, thread-like strands, which are converted into yarn and the twisted yarn is woven and knitted to produce fabrics. 

What are Fibres? 

Fibres are thin, long, flexible and hair or thread-like structures. The fibres are usually obtained from two main sources- Plants and Animals. These fibres called the Natural fibres. Cotton, wool, silk are examples of Natural fibres. 

Apart from the natural fibres, there are Synthetic fibres which are artificially synthesized by humans with the help of machines and technologies in the textile industries. These fibres are also called the manmade fibres. Rayon Nylon and polyesters are examples of Synthetic fibres. 

 

Types of Natural Fibres 

The natural fibres are of two types: 

  • Plant fibres
  • Animal fibres

Plant fibres are obtained from plant sources such as cotton, jute, coconut fibres, etc. 

Animal fibres are obtained from animals for eg., wool from sheep and silk from the silkworm. 

What are Fabrics? 

Fabrics are defined as the clothing material, which is made by weaving or knitting threads and is obtained from the yarn. They are made from tiny thread-like fibres. These fibres are twisted to make a yarn. 

The quality of a fabric depends upon the type of fibres used for the treatment used on it. Rayon, satin, denim, cotton voile are some of the different types of fabrics.  

Processing of a Fibre into Fabric 

The whole procedure through which Fabrics is made from fibres includes: 

Finally, the fabrics are produced. These fabrics are treated with chemicals in the textile industries to make different types of clothing materials like cotton fabrics, woollen fabrics, silk fabrics, polyester fabrics etc. Later these fabrics are processed for bleaching to give a smooth, shiny look, colour dying to add colours to the fabric materials and screen printings to design the fabrics.

 Process of Making Cotton Fabric 

Learning Outcomes 

  • Students understand about the fibre and different types of fibres. 
  • Students understand the process how the fabric is made from fibre.