Introduction to textiles
A textile is any material made of interlacing fibres, including carpeting . A fabric is a material made
through weaving, knitting, spreading, crocheting, or bonding that may be used in production of further
goods ,garments, etc.
The word "textiles" comes from the Latin term textere, "woven".
Where as "yarns" are produced by twisting or spinning of the textile fibres and in turn a fabric is a planar
structure produced by interlacing or interloping of yarns.
A "fibre" is defined as any product capable of being woven or otherwise made into a fabric. It may be
thought of as the smallest visible unit of textile production 'or' a fibre can be defined as a pliable hair
like strand that is very small in diameter in relation to its length.
How does fashion and textile design work?
Textile designers are artists who dream up and design the look and feel of textiles, including patterns
printed on or woven into their surfaces. ... Fashion designers develop the clothing we wear. Fashion
textile designers create the textiles that are used to make those clothes.
Classification of textile fibre
Food, clothing and shelter are the three basic needs of human beings. Textile fibres are hair-like
substances with a high degree of fineness, outstanding flexibility, reasonable strength, a minimum level
of length and cohesiveness (ability to hold to one another, when placed side by side). They may be short
with a length at least 500 times (but commonly 1000 to 3000 times) their diameter or thickness or may
be very long with the length to diameter ratio being almost infinity.
The short fibres are called staple fibres while those with very long length are called filaments.
Classification of Fibres Based on their origin, the fibres may be classified as belonging to one of the
following two categories: Natural and Man-made
Natural fibres can be further classified according to their origin into the following three groups:
i) Vegetable Fibres: Most of these are cellulose fibres and include cotton, linen, jute, flax, ramie, coir,
sisal and hemp. Besides their use as textiles, cellulose fibres are also used in the manufacture of paper
and other useful products like ropes, cords, coir mats, industrial fabrics, etc.
ii) Animal Fibres: They are mostly protein fibres and include wool and silk.
iii) Mineral Fibres: Asbestos is the only naturally occurring mineral fibre that was used extensively for
making industrial products .
Fibres in the second category, as the name implies, are made by man and are therefore sometimes
called artificial fibres or manufactured fibres. Like natural fibres they may also be divided into the
following three categories:
i) Derived from natural feedstock: Most of the fibres in this category are derived from
cellulose which is obtained from bamboo, wood or cotton linters. The most important fibre
in this category is viscose rayon.
ii) Derived from manufactured feedstock: The petrochemical industry is the main source of
fibres in this category with coal and natural gas also contributing a bit. Low molecular
weight chemicals are first produced and these are converted into fibre forming polymers
through polymerization.
