Cotton, Wool, Silk Or Synthetic • Fabrics Are Made up of Yarn And

FABRICS : Cotton, Wool, Silk or Synthetic

• Fabrics are made up of yarn and yarns are further made up of fibers. • The fibers of some fabrics such as cotton, jute, silk and wool are obtained from plants and animals there are called Natural fibers. • Fibers are also made from chemical substances, which are not obtained from plant or animal sources. These are called Synthetic fibers. Some examples of synthetic fibers are polyester, nylon and acrylic.

COTTON :

• Cotton plants are usually grown at places having black soil and warm climate.

• The fruits of the cotton plant are called cotton bolls. After maturing, the bolls burst open and the seeds covered with cotton fibers can be seen.

• From these bolls cotton is usually picked by hand. Fibers are then separated from the seeds by combing this process is called ginning of the cotton.

www.classmateacademy.com Spinning Cotton Yarn

• The process of making yarn from fibers is called spinning.

Weaving

• The process of arranging two sets of yarns together to make a fabric is called weaving. • Weaving of fabric is done on looms.

Knitting

• In knitting, a single yarn is used to make a piece of fabric. JUTE

• Jute fiber is obtained from the stem of the jute plant. It is cultivated during the rainy season. In India, jute is mainly grown in West Bengal, Bihar and Assam.

• The jute plant is normally harvested when it is at flowering stage.

• The stems of the harvested plants are immersed in water for a few days. The stem rot and fibers are separated by hand. • To make fabrics, all these fibers are first converted into yarns. www.classmateacademy.com • Wool and Silk fibers are obtained from animals.

• Wool is obtained from the fleece (HAIR) of sheep or yak.

• Silk fibers come from cocoons of the silk moth.

WOOL :

• Wool comes from sheep, goat, yak and some other animals.

• These wool yielding animals bear hair on their body.

• Hair traps a lot of air. Air is a poor conductor of heat, so, hair keeps these animals warm.

• Yak wool is common in Tibet and Ladakh

• Angora wool is obtained from angora goats, found in hilly regions such as Jammu and Kashmir • Wool is also obtained from goat hair, the under fur Kashmiri goat is soft. It is woven into fine shawls called Pashmina shawls. • The fur on the body of Camels is also used as wool • Llama and Alpaca, found in South America, also yield wool. www.classmateacademy.com SILK : • Silk fibres are also animal fibres. • Silkworms spin the ‘silk fibres’. The rearing of silkworms for obtaining silk is called sericulture.

Life history of silk moth • The female silk moth lays eggs, from which hatch larvae which are called caterpillars or silkworms. • They grow in size and when the caterpillar is ready to enter the next stage of its life history called pupa. It first weaves a net to hold itself. Then it swings its head from side to side during these movements of the head, the caterpillar secretes fibre made of a protein which hardens on exposure to air and becomes silk fibre. • Soon the caterpillar completely covers itself by silk fibres and turns into pupa. • This covering is known as cocoon. • The further development of the pupa into moth continues inside the cocoon. • The soft silk yarn is as strong as a comparable thread of steel. • Tassar silk, Mooga silk, Kosa silk,Eri Silk are obtained from cocoons spun by different types of moths. • The most common silk moth is the mulberry silk moth. The silk fibre from the cocoon of this moth is soft, lustrous and elastic and can be dyed in beautiful colours.