Index

• Natural fibres for rope, string, sacking, industrial uses, delicate fabrics and yarn  HERE
• Synthetic fibres  Read more HERE
• Regenerated Fibres Read more HERE

Yarns

• String for tying – find natural string here
• Thread for sewing
• Yarn for weaving into fabrics. 
• Yarn for knitting. Read more here

Fabrics

• All about fabrics HERE
• Which fabric – why I prefer natural fabrics over synthetics here.

Clothing
See all textile & wardrobe related posts HERE.

Stats on fibre production

Definitions

• Fibres are short fine hairs.
• Fibres can be can be natural, synthetic or chemically produced hybrid called regenerated fibres.
• Fibres can be twisted or spun into longer thread or yarn.
• Threads can be woven or knitted into fabric.

 

Natural Fibres

These are plant or animal derived and they biodegrade.

Coarse Fibres Are used for rope, string, sacking and industrial uses. They include

• Abaca for rope,
• coir from coconuts has a wide range of applications,
• jute is used for sack cloth and
• sisal for string.

Fibres used for finer fabrics and yarn include

• Cotton used to make cotton
• Flax is used to make linen. It is one of the strongest vegetable fibres. Other vegetable fibres include hemp and nettles.
• Wool and other animal hair 
• Silk strong and light weight.
• Read more  HERE

Synthetic fibres

• These are man-made from chemicals many of which are petroleum derived.
  Most do not biodegrade.
• Acrylic, nylon and polyester  are the most common. They are made from oil and coal.
• Read more HERE

Regenerated Fibres

• The base material is cellulose that can be obtained from a range of sources including wood, paper, cotton fibre, or  bamboo. It is then converted through a chemical process into a fibre.

  Some it is claimed are biodegradable. Some are not.

  They usually go under the trade names such as 

  • Rayon
  • Bamboo Rayon
  • Viscose,
  • Modal
  • Tencel (lyocell)
  • Read more HERE

Mixed Fibre

Where different fibres are mixed together like a wool/ silk mix  popular for suits or natural and synthetic eg polycotton. 

Then there are other more specialist mixes  where natural fibres are mixed with elasticine added to make fabric stretchy.

 

Yarns, Threads and Ropes

Yarns and threads usually take the name from the fibre in which they are spun. They range from thin threads for sewing to thick ropes. 

Here are the ones we use.

• String for tying – find natural string here
• Thread for sewing
• Yarn for weaving into fabrics. 
• Yarn for knitting. Read more here

 

Fabrics

Threads can be woven or knitted into fabric.

They may be named after then yarn type. So cotton can be the fibre the yarn or the fabric. They may be named after the trade name like Modal.

But fabrics can also be subdivided into a huge number of additional categories. For example cotton fabric can be described as denim, lawn or muslin.

Fabric may also be described by the technique used to make it. So jersey is a knitted fabric that could be made from cotton, silk or polyester.

• Read more HERE

Clothing

Clothes can now be made out of woven/knitted fabrics or knitted yarn.

See all textile & wardrobe related posts HERE.

Fibre Production

2013 figures

Natural Fibres
Cotton 25 million tons
wool production is around 2.1 million tonnes.
Silk 150 000 tonnes in 2006
Linen 147 000 tonnes of flax fibre 2007,
Alpaca 6 500 tonnes
Cashmere” after scouring and dehairing 6 500 tonnes
Mohair is estimated at around 5 000 tonnes a year, down from a high of 25 000 tonnes in the 1990s,
Angora is estimated at 2 500 to 3 000 tonnes
2009 figures  only – google let me down!

Carbon footprint

A study done by the Stockholm Environment Institute on behalf of the BioRegional Development Group  concludes that the energy used (and therefore the CO2 emitted) to create 1 ton of spun fiber is much higher for synthetics than for hemp or cotton:
KG of CO2 emissions per ton of spun fiber:

KG of CO2 emissions per ton of spun fiber:
	crop cultivation	fiber production	TOTAL
polyester USA	0.00	9.52	9.52
cotton, conventional, USA	4.20	1.70	5.90
hemp, conventional	1.90	2.15	4.05
cotton, organic, India	2.00	1.80	3.80
cotton, organic, USA	0.90	1.45	2.35

Lots more great info on the carbon footprint of fabrics can be found here on this great blog.

More Information

Lots of outrageous statistics HERE

Read all our fabrics, apparel and yarn related posts HERE.