NATURAL AND MANUFACTURED FIBERS DESTINY DAVID

TYPES OF NATURAL FIBERS  Silk  Cotton  Wool  Mohair  Cashmere

SILK  Originated in china  Around for 500 years  Was only available as an oriental import and only very wealthy people could afford it  For a long time, Italy remained the leading silk country in Europe  France expanded it’s silk weaving in the middle of the 17th century and surpassed Italy

SILK  Produced by silk worms  Eggs are hatched  Worms eats chopped mulberry leaves during which time they shed their skin four times  Rotates it’s body in a figure-8 movement about 300,000 times  Constructing a cocoon and producing about a kilometer of silk filament  Silk is then unbound from the cocoon by softening the sericin (protects fiber during process)  Once sericin is washed out (in soap and boiling water), the fabric is left soft, lustrous, and up to 30% lighter  The amount of usable silk in each cocoon is small, and about 2500 silkworms are required to produce a pound of raw silk.

SILK  Lingerie  Furniture  Home Furnishings  Knitting  Scarves  Ribbons  Ties

SILK Advantages  Mixes well with other animal and vegetable fibers  Washes easily  Warm and cozy in winter  Highly absorbent  Dries quickly Disadvantages  Cannot be bleached or soaked in prewash products  Delicate  Stains easily  Requires dry cleaning  Expensive

COTTON  In the Indus River Valley in Pakistan, cotton was being grown, spun and woven into cloth 3,000 years BC.  Natives of Egypt’s Nile valley were making and wearing cotton clothing  When Columbus discovered America in 1492, he found cotton growing in the Bahama Islands  By 1500, cotton was known generally throughout the world  Cotton was first spun by machinery in England in 1730  The industrial revolution in England and the invention of the cotton gin in the U.S. paved the way for the important place cotton holds in the world today

COTTON  The seeds are planted in spring and cotton plants grow into green, bushy shrubs about a metre in height  The plants briefly grow pink and cream colored flowers that once pollinated  dropped off and are replaced with “fruit”, better known as cotton bolls  Inside each cotton boll is the fluffy white lint that we’re all familiar with, as well as a number of cotton seeds  The cotton is picked with large mechanical harvesters and sent off to the cotton “gin” for processing  During the ginning process, the lint is separated from the seeds and is then pressed into bales  Shipped overseas to be spun, dyed, knitted and woven into fabrics like clothes and home furnishings

COTTON  Socks  Underwear  Towels  Sheets  Q-Tips  Fabric Threads

COTTON Advantages  Absorbent  Breathable  Resists static  Soft  Inexpensive  Doesn’t stain easily Disadvantages  Not wrinkle-resistant  Fades in sunlight  Dries slowly  Shrinks easily

 Machine wash  Tumble dry at moderate temperatures  Press with warm to hot iron  Wash cotton whites with bleach on a hot water setting

WOOL  Humans in the Neolithic Age wore animal pelts as clothing  The English had become proficient in the raising of sheep, while the Flemish had developed the skills for processing  The British began to sell their wool to the Flemish, who processed the raw material and then sold it back to the English  When the American colonies began to compete with the motherland, the English passed a series of laws in an attempt to protect their "golden fleece.“  One law even threatened the amputation of the hand of any colonist caught trying to improve the blood line of American sheep

WOOL - PROCESS  They grow a wool coat and once a year this wool coat is sheared off the animal  The fleece must be cleaned before it can be processed into wool yarn  All the edges of the wool coat are removed; fine from coarse and short from long  Submerge the wool in an acid bath which dissolves all the vegetable matter as well as the grease  The wool is put through a picker which opens the locks and blows the fluffy wool into a room  Combed many times by transfering it back and forth from one drum to the other as it is passed down the series of drums  Spools of pencil roving will be placed on the spinning frame to make yarn  To make two or more ply yarn the strands are twisted together on the plyer, from several cones onto fewer spools  When the wooden bobbins are full of yarn, they are placed on a cone winder and the yarn is transferred to paper cones for use in weaving and knitting machines

WOOL  Sweaters  Coats  Suits  Blankets  Rugs + Carpets  Use a brush to remove surface soil and dirt  Hang wool garments in a steamy bathroom after wearing or unpacking  Try to treat stains immediately to prevent them from setting into the fabric  Clean wool fabric using a mild detergent in lukewarm water  Set iron to WOOL setting  Add water to the iron. Always use steam heat when pressing

WOOL Advantages  Holds moisture without feeling wet  Resilient  Fire, Dirt, and Static resistant  Great for warmth Disadvantages  Can be scratchy to wear  Pills easily  Felts easily by moisture, heat and agitation

MOHAIR  Sweaters  Suits  Beanies  Socks  Home Furnishings  Scarves

MOHAIR - HISTORY  One of the oldest textile fibers in use  Comes from Angora Goats  Originates from the mountains of Tibet  In about 1820, raw mohair was first exported from Turkey to England  Until 1849, the Turkish province of Ankara was the sole producer of Angora goats  In 1849, Angora goats made their way to America as a gift from Turkey  South Africa is the largest mohair producer in the world, with the majority of South African mohair being produced in the Eastern Cape

MOHAIR - PROCESS  Shearing: Mohair is shorn from Angora goats twice a year, usually in Spring so they can grow long coats in the winter  Scouring: Fleeces are washed to remove dirt and natural oils (called lanolin, which also has important market value)  Carding: Wire brushes are used to comb themohair and wool to align fibers in parallel. The fiber is then loosely twisted together into long, loose, multiple fiber strands, called roving.  Spinning: twists the roving more tightly, interlocking and binding fibers together to become strong threads or yarn  Knitting/Weaving: can be knitted to make, sweaters, and knitted shirts or woven (criss-crossed threads) for blankets, rugs, and fabrics that are cut and sewn together for fine garments such as suits, shirts and dresses