POINTS TO REMEMBER

Fibres

The basic necessities for human beings are food, shelter and
clothing.
Depending on the climate of the place people, wear different
clothes. Clothes are made of different types of materials.
For example: Cotton sari is mad
made e of cotton, Leather jacket is
made of leather, Sweater is made of wool, etc.
Fibre and fabric
Fabrics are made up of strands called yarns, which are made
from even thinner strands, called fibres.
Fibres can be classified as natural fibres and synthetic
fibres.

Natural fibres are obtained from natural sources, i.e. plants

and animals.
Example: Cotton, jute, silk, wool, etc.
Synthetic fibres are man-made fibres and are not obtained
from any plant and animal sources. Example: Nylon, Polyester
and Acrylic.

Plant fibres: Fibres obtained from plant sources are called

plant fibres.
Example: Cotton, Jute, coir, and linen.

Animal fibres: Fibres obtained from animal sources are

called animal fibres.
Example: Wool and Silk.
Some Plant Fibres
1. Cotton Fibres: Cotton fibre is obtained from cotton plants
that grow in black soil in a warm climate. In India, cotton
is grown in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab,
Haryana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Orissa and
Madhya Pradesh.
A field of cotton

Where does cotton wool come from?

 Cotton plants are grown in fields usually at places having a
warm climate and black soil.
  Some cotton producing Indian states are Punjab, Gujarat,
Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra etc.
 Cotton plants bear fruits the size of a lemon called Cotton
Balls which burst open upon maturing and the seeds
wrapped up in cotton fibre become visible. Cotton is
generally picked by hand from these balls.

Ginning: Ginning of cotton can be defined as the process of

separating cotton fibres from cotton seeds. Traditionally,
ginning used to be done by hand but these days machines
called double roller cotton ginning machines are widely in use.
In the above figure, we see a boy ginning by hand.

2. Jute Fibre:
A jute plant

Jute fibre comes from jute plants, which are mainly grown in
places that have high temperatures and plenty of rainfall.
Jute is cultivated during the rainy season. In India, jute is
cultivated in West Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar
Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh and Tripura.

The jute plant is generally harvested when it is in

the flowering stage. The stems of jute plants are soaked in
water for a few days until they start rotting. Then
thefibres are separated by hand from the rotting stems.
Once the fibres have been obtained, they are made into yarn
by twisting the strands together. This process of making yarn
from fibre is called spinning.
 Not just jute, even cotton, silk and other fibres are spun to
convert them into yarn. Machines are used for spinning yarn
on a large scale. Fabrics like khadi are made by spinning
yarn on hand-operated devices like charkhas and taklis.
Natural Fibre Synthetic Fibre
These fibres are
Natural fibrers are man made or
fibers that are found simply prepared
1.
in nature. Ex: Woo, in lab. Ex:
Silk and Cotton etc. Nylon, Teflon
etc.
They are good They do not
2. absorbents and so have such pores
able to absorb heat, as they are
 temperature, cold, made up of
sweat etc. depending chemical and so
on conditions and do not act as
nature of fibres. good
absorbents.
Melting, wet or
No spinning process dry spinning
3. is required for processes are
filament production. used for filament
production.
Not as
4. Comfortable in use. comfortable as
natural fibres.
Their length is Their lengths can
5.
naturally obtained be controlled by
 and it is not possible man and the
to change the fibre fibres can easily
structure. be changed to
different
structures.

Yarn: Yarn is the spun thread that is made from fibres in

order to produce a fabric.

Spinning Cotton Yarn

Spinning: Spinning is the process of constructing yarn from
fibres in which fibres from a huge heap of cotton wool are
taken out and twisted which brings them together to form a
yarn.
There are two major devices called Takli which is a hand
spindle and Charkha which is also a hand-operated
operated device,
are used for spinning.
The spinning of yarn on a bigger scale is done using spinning
machines following which tthese
hese yarns are used to weave
fabric.
Khadi was the term used to denote clothes which were made
from homespun yarn.

On the left we can see a charkha and on the right we can see
a simple takli.
Conversion of Yarn to Fabric
For the conversion of yarn to fabric two main processes are
used. They are weaving and knitting.

Weaving
Weaving is the process of arranging two sets of yarns together
perpendicular to each other to make a fabric. Fabrics are
woven on looms. These looms may be operated by power or
by hand.
The above figure represents the process of weaving.

Knitting
Knitting is a process that makes use of a single yarn to make
a piece of fabric. While knitting, a single yarn is used to make
a piece of fabric. That is why, if you pull a single yarn from a
torn woolen garment, it keeps unraveling.
Knitting can be done by hand or o on machines.

Other useful plant fibres

Coir
Coconut fibre can be woven into fabric called coir. Coir is too
rough to be made into garments. It is mostly used to make
doormats, carpets and other flooring material.

Silk cotton
Silk cotton is obtained from kapok tree.. The fruits of this tree
contain fibres. These fibres are light and fluffy.
Silk cotton is used commonly use
used d as stuffing in pillows,
sleeping bags and life jackets.

Hemp
Another important plant fibre is hemp. Hemp fibre is obtained
from the stems of hemp plant. It is mostly used to make
ropes, carpets, clothes and papers and nets.