FIBRES, YARNS AND FABRICS

DEFINITIONSFIBRE: Hair-like substance that is the

basis of all yarns and fabric

FABRIC: Material made by joining yarns through weaving, knitting or felting

YARN: Fibres that are twisted together

LET’S START WITH FIBRES!

• There are 2 categories:a) Natural

- 2 plant sources- 2 animal sources

b) Synthetic (or Man-Made)- Hundreds

• When we mix the two categories together, we get something called a BLEND – best of both worlds!

NATURAL FIBRES• We get natural fibres from

– 2 plant sources: cotton and flax; and– 2 animal sources: sheep and silkworms

COTTON• Looks like BC’s flower, the dogwood. It grows

in really hot climates.• When the flower goes to seed, it forms a pod.

This pod ends up popping into a fibre, a cotton boll.

COTTON cont’d

• The plant has very sharp thorns – like a rose• The fibre from the cotton plant is mostly used

to spin into yarn or thread to make a soft, breathable textile

• Most widely used natural-fibre cloth in clothes today

• What are your clothes made of?

FLAX

• grown both for its seeds and fibres

• various parts of the plant have been used to make fabric, dye, paper, medicine, fishing nets, hair gels, and soap

FLAX cont’d

• One of the oldest fibre crops in the world. • Used to make linen since at least ancient

Egyptian times!

SHEEP

• The wool of sheep is shaved off

• The most widely used animal fibre!

SILK WORMS

• Silk is a protein fibre like wool. It comes from the cocoon of the silk worm and requires a great deal of handling and processing, which makes it one of the most expensive fibers.

SYNTHETIC/MAN-MADE

• created by forcing fibre-forming materials through holes (called spinnerets) forming a thread. (Nylon, Polyester)

WHAT ELSE?

• We now know where we get fibre from, but how do the fibres becomes a yarn and then fabric?!

MAKING YARN

• the basic timeline goes like so:

FIBRE YARN FABRIC

• We turn fibre into yarn by pulling and twisting

SPINNING

• Fibres are twisted together to form yarn

• Can be spun by hand using a spindle or distaff

• Can also be spun using a device called a spinning wheel

WEAVING

• Done on a machine called a loom

• Two distinct sets of yarns or threads, Lengthwise and Crosswise, are interlaced with each other to form fabric.

Crosswise

Lengthwise

KNITTING

• consists of loops called stitches pulled through each other. The active stitches are held on a needle until another loop can be passed through them.

• Yarns are interlooped

FELTING

• Felt is a non-woven cloth that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing fibres. (That’s how we make paper!)

WOVEN CLOTH• Has special edge called the SELVAGE• Selvage is the finished edge that will not come

apart (fray), and is where the crosswise threads turn to start a new row

selvage

GRAIN

• affects the way fabric will hang and drape.

• three types of fabric grain:• Lengthwise grain – parallel to selvage• Crosswise grain – selvage to selvage• Bias grain – does not follow threads of

fabric; has stretch

PICTURE OF BIAS

True BiasThe diagonal edge formed when the fabric is

folded so that lengthwise and crosswise threads are parallel.It is exactly 45 degrees

FABRIC

Fabric

• Bolt of fabric usually right sides together, folded

• Two special edges on Crosswise called Selvage• Can you get it to fray?• Some selvage to selvage has a little bit of give

FABRIC cont’d• Crosswise has some stretch; goes around

your body• Lengthwise has no stretch; goes up and

down your body• Off Grain is when fabric is not lined up

straight• On Grain is when fabric is straight; selvage

to selvage are matching

Now let’s look at your information sheet (Pg. 14)

• Let’s check have we talked about all the terms that are listed on the front

EXPERIMENTL

BB

CC

Observations #1:There is no stretch on the lengthwise and there is some stretch on the crosswise grain. There is a lot of stretch on the bias.

Observations #2:Lengthwise yarns are stronger than the crosswise yarns because it is twisted more.

Draw this diagram on your fabric: Tape it to your sheet

On the back of page 14

• We are going to do two experiments!

Woven Fabric…

• Fill in the Blanks

UNSCRAMBLING TERMS

saib: Biasamfesshini: Seam Finishgrewdea: Raw Edgessroceaedswithr: Crosswise Threads greelvs: Selvageaedsselenthgwirth: Lengthwise Threadsseuriatb: True Biasllowaancemess: Seam Allowancegnairfof: Off Grainognrain: On Grain

Diagram

1. Selvage2. Lengthwise3. Crosswise4. Raw edge5. True bias

Video: Understanding Fabrics

• 23 minutes long• Follow along with questions on other side of

Terms worksheet