Fibres, Yarn and Fabric
o A fabric is any material of cloth that we use. Eg: Cotton, Jute, Wool, Silk, Nylon, Polyster
o A fabric is made up of fine threads called yarns.
o When you untwist a yarn to loosen it, we see that it is made up of multiple thin hair-like strands called Fibres.
o Therefore, we can say that fabric is made of yarn and a yarn is in turn made of fibres.
Types of Fibres
o There are predominantly 2 types of fibres.
· Natural Fibre
· Synthetic Fibre
o Natural Fibre: Fibres which are obtained from plants or animals.
· Cotton and jute is obtained from plants.
· Wool is obtained from fleece of sheep/goat.
· Silk is obtained from cocoon of silkworms
Cotton
o Cotton is grown in the fields in regions which are usually warm and have black soil.
o In India, cotton is grown in Punjab, Haryana, Gujurat, Rajasthan.
o The fruits of the cotton plant, commonly called Cotton bolls. After maturing, these cotton bolls burst open.
o Inside these, there are seeds, which are covered with cotton.
o From these cotton bolls, cotton is handpicked .
o Then, by a process called Ginning of cotton, fibres are separated from the seeds.
o Cotton is usually used to make sarees, shirts, pants, casual wear, bedsheets, curtains etc
Jute
o Jute is obtained from the stem of jute plant.
o In India, jute is grown in West Bengal, Bihar and Assam.
o When the jute plant is at its flowering stage, it is harvested.
o Then, the stem of such harvest plant are immersed in water for a few days so that they rot.
o The fibres are then separated from the stem by hand.
These fibres are converted into yarns by spinning and then used in fabrics
Fibre to Yarn : Spinning
o The process of making yarn from fibres is called Spinning.
o In this process, a large number of fibres from a cotton wool are drawn out and gently twisted such that the fibres gel together to form a yarn.
o Devices used are takli, Charaka and modern day machines.
o Charaka is the wheel which was popularised by Mahatma Gandhi with an intent to promote inhouse hand woven Indian cloth market.
o After spinning, yarns are made into fabrics.
Yarn to Fabric: Weaving and Knitting
o The yarn thus obtained is made into a fabric usually by weaving or knitting.
Weaving
o The process of arranging 2 or more yarns together to make a fabric is called Weaving.
o Weaving is done on looms (as shown in figure)
o Weaving is either hand operated (handloom) or power operated
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