CLASS 6 CHAPTER 3- Fibre to Fabric

Introduction

• The clothes that we wear are made of different materials. Some clothes are soft, some are silky etc.
• The bedsheets, blankets, curtains, tablecloths, towels etc. all are made from different kinds of fabric.
• Also, we wear different types of clothes in different seasons.

History of Clothing material

• In ancient times, people used the bark and big leaves of trees or animal skins and furs to cover themselves.
• When people began to settle, they started tieing vines, animal fleece or hair into clothes.
• The early Indians used fabrics made of cotton grown near the river ganga.
• In those days people simply draped the fabric around their body because stitching was not known.
• Now, we have large variety of clothing items and fabrics.

 

Fibre

• A very thin hair- like strand from which cloth is prepared is known as Fibre.
• A fabric is made of threads of yarns arranged together.

There are two types of fibres:

1. Natural fibre
2. Synthetic fibre

Natural Fibre

• Fibres obtained from natural sources like plants or animals are known as Natural fibre.
• Example: cotton and jute are obtained from plants.
• Wool is obtained from fleece of sheep or goat.
• Silk is obtained from cocoon of silkworms.

 

Synthetic Fibre

• Fibres synthesised by man form chemical substances are known as synthetic fibre.
• Example: Nylon, polyester, Rayon etc.

Cotton

• Cotton is a white coloured soft and fluffy material.
• Cotton is Usually grown at the places having black soil and warm climate.
• It is grown mostly in Punjab, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana etc.
• The fruit of a cotton plant is known as cotton bolls.
• After maturing the bolls burst open and the seeds covered by cotton fibres can been seen.
• Cotton is mostly handpicked from these balls.
• Thereafter, the fibres are separated from the seeds by the process of Ginning.
• Cotton is usually used for making different clothes, curtains, carpets etc.

Jute

• Jute fibre is obtained from the stem of a jute plant.
• Jute is majorly grown in Bihar, West Bengal and Assam.
• It is cultivated during rainy season.
• The jute plant is generally harvested at its flowering stage.
• The stems of harvested plants are immersed in water for a few days.
• The stems rot and the fibre is handpicked.

Jute bags

Fibre to Yarn: Spinning

• The process of making yarn from the fibre is known as Spinning.
• In this process, a large number of fibres of cotton wool are drawn out and twisted, so that these join together to form a yarn.
• Devices used for spinning are takli charkha and modern machines.
• The use of charkha was popularized by Mahatma Gandhi as a part of the Independence movement.
• After spinning, the fabric is made from yarns.

 

       

 

Yarn to Fabric

The yarn is made into fabric either by weaving or by knitting.

Weaving

• The process of arranging two sets of yarns together to make a fabric is called weaving.
• The weaving of yarn is done by using Looms.
• Looms can be hand-operated known as handloom or Machine operated known as power-loom.

 

 

Knitting

• In knitting, a single yarn is used to make a fabric.
• Knitting can be done by hands or by machines.
• It is mostly used to make woollen wear.