Class 6 Chapter 3 Fibre to the fabric
Introduction:
Have you ever thought how primitive men and women lived in open when they did not have any idea of clothes? They wandered naked in the forests at the mercy of the environment. It must have been a very hard life. Perhaps because of this reason they confined themselves in areas where the climate was rather warm. In those times people used the leaves of trees, the bark of trees and animals skin to cover their body. The early man lived in forests or in caves. After people began to settle, in agricultural communities, they learned to weave twigs and grasses into mats and baskets. They discovered how to twist vines together and later wool and animal hair into strands of fibres. The early Indians and Egyptians wore light fabrics made out of cotton and flax that grew in the valleys of Ganges and Nile respectively.
In those days, stitching was not known. People simply wrapped the fabrics around different parts of their body. Many different ways of draping fabrics were used. With the invention of the sewing needle, people started
stitching fabrics to make clothes. Stitched clothes have gone through many variations of this invention. But still many of the clothes such as saree, dhoti, lungi, turban, etc. are used un-stitched. Clothing has now become a necessity due to following reasons.
• Clothes protect our body from extreme weather conditions like heat, rain and cold etc.
• Clothes maintain body heat and absorb moisture due to sweating.
• Clothes give us a body cover.
What are Fibres
All clothes are made up of threads. Materials used for making clothes are known as fibres. Fibres are very thin, a thread like strands from which fabrics (or cloth) are made. Cotton, nylon, wool etc. are all fibres.
Types of Fibres
There are three types of fibres
• natural fibre
• man-made or Synthetic fibres
• mixed fibres
1. Natural Fibre
The fibres that are obtained from plants and animals are called natural fibre. Cotton, jute and linen fibres are obtained from plants. Wool and silk fibres are obtained from animals. Wool is obtained from the fleece of sheep or goat. It is also obtained from the hair of rabbits, yaks and camels. Silk fibres are drawn from the cocoon of the silkworm.
Cotton fibres Wool fibres Silkworm 2. Man-made or Synthetic Fibre The fibres which are prepared from chemical substances in factories are called synthetic fibres. These fibres are not obtained from plant or animal sources.
Some of the examples of synthetic fibres are nylon, polyester (like terylene) and polyacrylic (like Orion). Synthetic fibres are used for making fabrics (or cloth). These fabrics are then used for making our dresses and for other domestic purposes like curtains, etc. Therefore, they can be made wrinkle-free, flame-resistant, water resistant, and even waterproof according to our needs. But they are not suitable for hot and humid weather as they do not absorb sweat.
Nylon cloth
Fibres coming out from fabric Natural fibres are blended with synthetic fibres to obtain more superior and useful
fibres. These are called mixed fibres. Some well-known mixed fibres are tricot
(terylene + cotton), berry silk (terylene + silk) and try wool (terylene + wool). Terry silk cloth Terrycot cloth
Natural Fibre