All about fabric Part 1

After getting about halfway through this post, I realized that there's too much information for one post, I'm going to spread this throughout several posts. This one is on Natural Fibers/Plant fibers. The next post will be on Natural fibers/Animal Fibers I think. I'll try to see if I can add some pictures too without taking them from google.


Also: I have absolutely no idea why this post is highlighted in white. If you know how to make that go away, please let me know.

I have a lot of fabric. It was as I was putting it all away the other day that I realized exactly how much I have. It really doesn't look like much when it's all put away, but actually putting it all away took hours. Let me put it this way: when I went to school, I brought four boxes of fabric with me- not even half of my fabric. But I digress.

I went to school for one semester in fashion in which I took textiles (which I took for two semesters), so hopefully I can share some knowledge from that. I also worked at a fabric store for a while before I left for school.

Today I want to talk about fabric in general including fabric types, fabric content, and buying fabric.

If you have any additional knowledge you'd like to share, please feel free to leave a comment. If you've done a post similar to this one or that covers anything I've missed, please leave a link in the description, and I'll be sure to link it through this post.

Fabric is made up of yarns, and yarns are made up of fibers. This means that a fabric that is 100% cotton is made up of yarns that are composed of only cotton fibers. This is important to know when understanding what exactly they're talking about when a fabric is 60% cotton 40% polyester. It's the ratio of the fibers in the yarns.

One quick note about clothing. All fiber content and care must be listed on clothing. If an item is made in the US, it does not have to say where it was made on the tag. This probably only applies to commercially produced goods, but you never know. It's always a good idea to be aware of the fiber contents in the things you make just in case someone wants to know.

Fabric is measured by weight a lot of the time. The weight of a fabric is measured by square yard. In other words, they weigh a 36 inch by 36 inch piece of fabric. With a few exceptions, for the most part, the fabrics are measured in ounces (This is probably only in America though. I'd imagine it's measured in grams or something in the rest of the world.).

A top weight fabric means a lightweight fabric. A top weight fabric would typically weigh anything less than four ounces. An example of this would be a chiffon or possibly a batiste.

A torso weight fabric is a medium weight fabric. A medium weight fabric is between four and six ounces per square yard. An example of this would be muslin.

A bottom weight fabric is a heavy weight fabric. A bottom weight fabric is anything greater than six ounces per square yard (from 7-12 oz). An example of this would be stretch denim.

An extra heavy weight fabric is anything greater than 12 ounces (from 13-20 oz). An example of this would be regular denim.

Another important thing to understand are the differences and benefits between natural and synthetic fibers. The fabric you use, buy, and wear is made up of yarns which is made up of fibers.

Natural fibers occur, are formed, or are grown naturally.

Manufactured fibers are made by machine or man.

We'll start with natural fibers.

Natural fibers come from mainly plants and animals.

1) Plants: fibers can come from the seeds, the stem (bast), or the leaf.

• Seeds: The most used fiber made from plant seeds is cotton. 
• Properties of cotton: comfortable, absorbant, strong when wet, soft, easy to care for, washable, inexpensive, and durable. 
• The cotton plant itself comes in about 25 different shades of brown, green, and cream. #1 cotton country is China, #2 is India, #3 USA(the number one cotton growing state is Texas). 
• Cotton comes in approximately three lengths: Short staple (fibers .375"-.5" long mostly grown in China and India), Upland cotton (1"-1.5" long fibers mostly grown in USA. Organic cotton is also grown in USA. Organic means it was grown without the use of pesticides or herbicides), and long staple cotton -sometimes called PIMA cotton, Egyptian Cotton, or Sea island cotton- (fibers are 1.5"-2.5" long grown in South America, Peru, and Egypt mainly.). 
• Cotton has been in use for at least 7,000 years. It has been shown to maybe have existed in egypt as early as 12000 B.C. 
• Have more questions about cotton? Let me know
• Stem: also known as bast fibers and cellulose. There are several examples of these.
• Flax: Grown in Russia and the USA mainly (N & S Dakota).
• Makes the fabric Linen
• Linen is one of the oldest fibers
• most mummies were wrapped in linen cloth
• Linen is very durable and long lasting
• Hemp:
• Canada grows almost all of it, also Russia, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran.
• Sustainable fiber & organic
• Not prohibited to grow in the USA
• Has many different varieties
• The same plant as marijuana, but a different breed of it.
• Ramie:
• In the 40's and 50's US cotton farmers lobbied to keep other countries from selling cotton to the USA
• Put a quota on imported & exported cotton
• People called it "Ramie Cotton" but it's not actually cotton
• Ramie is a shiny but weak fiber
• It's much harder to care for than cotton.
• Grass fiber 'china grass'
• Hard to launder & manufacture.
• Jute:
• comes primarily from Bangladesh. 
• Usually seen in rope or twine
• Makes burlap- hessian cloth is another name for burlap
• thick and not very strong
• Also used in canal protection, riverbank protection, slope protection, drainage, replanting, weed control, and to prevent erosion. 
• Bamboo:
• Doesn't take to bacteria
• Over 300 different types
• Used for food
• Also used for building, weapons, musical instruments
• Started to become popular in the 70s and 80s
• Only two factories that try to Rett bamboo (getting the fiber out). It is really hard to get the fibers out of bamboo. 
• It is placed under natural fibers because it comes from nature; however, bamboo actually has to be regenerated before it can be used in fabric. The pulp has to be scooped out of the bamboo cane, and then it is mixed with natural byproducts to make it into a gel (viscose). After it becomes a viscose gel, it is run through a spinnerette (imagine a shower head) at a rapid and forceful pace. Because it is forced out so powerfully, it turns into a hardened fiber. 
• It is not a manufactured fiber because it is all natural. 
• It is a regenerated fiber which is a gray area between natural and manufactured.
• Corn Fiber:
• Viscose
• The corn is first harvested then the sugar (glucose) is extracted from the corn. The glucose put into a vat with genetically engineered organisms, water, and some vitamins and minerals this turns the corn glucose into a monomer. The monomer is shipped to a polymer plant where it is polymerized (mixed) with petroleum-based monomer TPA (terephthatlic acid). This turns it into a polymer. The polymer comes out in long strands that are then chopped into pellets. The pellets are shipped to a textile plant to be spun into fibers. The fibers will be used in clothing or carpets.

A great number of these you will never encounter in the fabrics you buy from stores, but it's good to know about them and where they come from. I'll cover the rest of the natural fibers and the manufactured fibers in the next few days, and then I'll start getting into more specific fabrics that you're likely to encounter, their uses, woven vs. knit, and other important things to know. Sorry this post was so long. I hope this becomes a good reference guide for everyone! I'll try to put some pictures in once I get a working scanner of some sorts.