When a Class 6 student starts to study Class 6 Science Chapter 3 Fibre to fabric, many questions may arise in his mind. What is fibre? How is the fabric made from fibre? and the difference between fabric and fibre. In this article, students can easily understand the basics of Class 6 Science Chapter 3 – fibre to fabric.
Subsequently, students will get class 6 science chapter 3 pdf to download and study when offline. In our next article, you can find class 6 science chapter 3 question answers and Ncert solutions for this chapter to practice and memorize the key points of the chapter fibre to fabric.
Table of Contents
What is fabric?
Let’s understand this by taking examples. Your School Uniform, school bag, bed sheets & blankets you use during sleeping, towels, etc. There are a lot of clothing materials we use in our day-to-day life. These all are made of some kind of fabric.
Fabric is made up of yarns and yarns are made up of fibre. In the subsequent paragraph, we will see what yarn is.
Various kinds of fabric:
Humans like to use different clothes at different seasons and places. In winter we like to wear sweaters made of woolen fabrics. In summer everyone prefers cotton clothes.
Wool, cotton, silk, leather, nylon, linen, velvet, and synthetic are some kinds of fabric.
What is Yarn?
When we look at any fabric, it looks like a continuous piece. But actually, these fabrics are made up of yarns that are arranged in a pattern.
Yarn is a group of thin strands of fibre. Fibres are first converted into yarns by spinning. Then, yarns are turned into fabrics by weaving or knitting.
What is fibre?
Fibre is the building block of fabric. It is the basic ingredient of fabric.
Have you seen thread rolls of different colors? The thread is made up of thinner strands. The individual strands are called fibre.
Types of fibre
We can classify fibre into two categories depending upon the source of it.
- Natural fibres
- Synthetic fibres
Natural fibres are made from natural sources like plants and animals. Cotton, jute, silk, and wool are some examples of natural fibres. Fabrics made of natural fibres are comfortable to use and health-friendly.
Synthetic fibre is man-made fibre. This is an artificial fibre created in laboratories by chemical processes. Nylon, polyester, rayon, acrylic are some examples of synthetic fibre. Fabrics made of synthetic fibre are not so comfortable to wear compared to natural fibre. These are not health-friendly. So we should avoid wearing synthetic fabrics.
However, these are durable and sustainable in nature. Ropes, fishnets, umbrellas, raincoats, caps are made of synthetic fibres.
Natural Fibres
Natural fibres are obtained from either plants or animals. So natural fibre is categorized into two types.
- Plant Fibre
- Animal Fibre
Jute, cotton, coir, flax are obtained from plants. These are called Plant fibre.
Whereas wool and silk are produced from animals. These are called Animal fibre.
Wool is made from sheep’s and goat’s fleece. Wool is also made from the hair of yak, camels, and rabbits.
Silk is made from the cocoon of the silkworm. The silkworm secretes proteins from its glands present in its head. These semiliquid proteins become solid on exposure to air and turn into cocoons. The silk fibre is obtained from that cocoon.
Let’s study some Plant fibres.
Cotton
Cotton is a natural fibre cultivated in the field. Cotton plants are grown well in a warm climate and fields with black soil. Maharashtra, Gujrat, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are some states of our country where cotton is mostly cultivated.
This fibre is collected from the fruit of the cotton plant. The fruit of the cotton plant is called Cotton Bolls. The size of the cotton boll is like lemon, but its color is green at the initial stage. Cotton Bolls need 50-60 days to enlarge fully and mature. After maturing, the bolls burst open. Then the cotton wool can be seen all over the cotton field. This time the cotton field looks like a field covered with snow.
Cotton is collected from the matured cotton bolls usually by hand.
The cotton wool contains the seeds when cotton bolls mature and burst open. So, after picking those cotton wools, seeds need to be separated from the cotton fibre. The process of separation of cotton fibres from the seeds is called Ginning of the cotton.
Earlier ginning of cotton was done by combing manually. Nowadays cotton gin machines are also used for cleaning cotton fibres of its seeds.
Use of Cotton
- Used for making cotton thread and cotton roll
- Sarees, dhotis, gamchha and different clothes are also made from Cotton fibre
- It is used for making sterilized cotton
- Face masks are also made of cotton
- For making Earbuds, cotton is used too
- Bed sheets, curtains, etc made of cotton are widely used
- For filling mattresses, quilts and pillows
- Used for making cotton wicks for oil lamps and on Diwali, we decorate our home with oil lamps.
Jute
Jute is a soft and shiny fibre with a good market value. It is also called Golden fibre. India is the largest producing country of jute in the world. It is mainly grown in West Bengal, Bihar, Assam and Odisha.
A warm and wet climate is suitable for growing jute plants. Alluvial soil near the river is the best soil for jute plants to grow. In India, it is mainly cultivated in the rainy season.
The raw jute is extracted from the rotten stem of the jute plant. The process of extracting the jute fibre from the stem is called Retting.
After sowing, the Jute plant takes around 4 months to flower. At the flowering stage only, the jute plant is reaped. After cutting, the plants are left for 4-5 days in the field for drying and leaves shedding. Then the jute stems are bundled together and immersed in stagnant water like a pond.
After 20-30 days, the stems rot and the skin of the stems becomes fibre. This is the time to separate jute fibres from the stems. Jute fibre is separated from stems by hand.
Use of Jute
- For making Ropes and twines
- Used for making jute furniture
- Jute sacks and bags are widely used to store vegetables and grains
- Used for making curtains and canvas
- Table cloth, carpets, upholstery are also made of jute
The fibres are first converted into yarns, then yarns are converted into fabrics. The process of making yarn from the fibre is called Spinning.
Coir or Coconut Fibre
Another most common natural fibre is coconut fibre or coir. The coir is found between the internal shell and outer coat of a coconut. The fibre is extracted from the coconut husk by hand or machine. The coconut husk is the outer covering of the coconut shell.
The process of extracting coir from coconut husks is called Retting of coir. The coconut husks are separated from the coconut shells and then immersed in brackish water for some days. This allows the husk to soften and the husk’s pulp to decompose. Then coir is collected and washed by hand. The fibres are left in sunlight for some days to dry.
Use of Coir
- For making coir ropes
- Floor mat, doormat, and brushes
- For filling mattresses
- Coir ship fenders, coir ply articles, and needled felt are manufactured
- For making Gymnasia mats and Rope Mats etc
Flax
Like Jute, flax fibre is soft and shiny. It is also obtained from the stem of the flax plant. The flax fibre is also extracted from the stem through the process of retting.
Use of flax fibre
- For making linen fabrics
- Fishnet, twine are made of flax
- For making tent canvas, fire hoses
- For making fine and high-quality papers
- For making sewing thread
Spinning Cotton Yarn – Process of making Yarn from Fibre
The manufacturing process of yarn from fibres is known as Spinning. The spinning cotton yarn includes the process of pulling out the cotton fibres while continuously twisting them. In this process, some strands of fibres are twisted together to make yarn.
You can try to make yarn from cotton by holding some cotton wool between the thumb and forefinger of both hands and spinning it.
Takli and Charkha are two traditional hand-operated devices used for spinning cotton yarn. Nowadays Spinning machines are used for spinning yarn in large quantities.
Mahatma Gandhi Ji was promoting the use of Charkha as part of the freedom fighting movement. The clothes made of Charkha spun yarns were known as Khadi. He was encouraging people to adopt Khadi and stay away from British imported clothes.
Yarn to Fabric – Process of making Fabric from Yarn
Fabrics are made from yarns in many ways.
- Weaving
- Knitting
- Braiding
- Netting
- Felting
- Bonding
- Laminating
The two most popular processes of making Fabrics from yarns are Weaving and Knitting.
Weaving
- The process of making fabric by interlacing two sets of yarns are known as weaving.
- Two sets of yarns (Warp and Weft) are woven together to make fabrics.
- The lengthwise yarns are the warp and the widthwise yarns are the weft.
- The tools used for weaving fabrics are called looms.
- Traditional Looms are hand-operated and called Handlooms.
- Modern looms are power-driven and called Powerlooms.
- Khadi, Gabardine, Kashmir silk, Denim, Tissue are some examples of woven fabrics.
Knitting
- The process of making fabric by interlocking loops of a single set of yarn is known as knitting.
- Knitting is done by hands with multiple needles. Knitting is also done on machines with numerous needles.
- A simple knitted fabric can be made by hand using two needles. Sweaters, mufflers are knitted with two needles.
- Knitting forms stitches in fabrics. Hand knitting with two needles creates one stitch at a time. Machine knitting with numerous needles can create a lot of stitches at a time.
- Rows of loops are created in knitting and they are intermeshed with each other. There are many rows of loops throughout a knitted fabric. So a knitted piece of fabric can stretch in all directions.
- Knitted fabrics are more flexible, stretchable, and elastic than woven fabrics.
- If a knitted fabric is cut somewhere and the yarn is pulled continuously, then the loops of yarn get undone. This is called the unraveling of knitted fabric.
- Flat knit fabric, Purl knit fabric, Warp knitted fabric, Rib stitch knit are some examples of knitted fabrics.
History of Clothing
In ancient times, human beings didn’t have any idea about clothing. They didn’t feel any necessity of wearing anything. Because human beings had heavy hairs over the body which was protecting them from harsh weather conditions. They were usually staying naked.
As human beings evolved, the amount of hair on the body reduced. As a result, people needed something to cover their bodies to protect them from abnormal weather conditions. Gradually people start learning to cover their bodies with peels and leaves of trees, animal skins and furs.
In those days, people didn’t know how to stitch and how to weave. They were just draping the clothing material over the parts of the body. As people started agriculture, they gradually learned to weave grass and twigs of plants into mats and baskets. They also started weaving using the fleece or hair of the animals.
Then people started cultivating cotton and flax on land areas around rivers. As the thought process of man evolved, sewing needles were invented. Fabrics were then stitched and also knitted.
Today humans are able to make different fabrics and clothes using different methods. Manufacturing of a large number of fabrics is nowadays possible by advanced power looms and machine knitters in a short time.
Presently different clothes are being made for different seasons and regions. People of different ages are wearing different kinds of clothes. Mankind has progressed a lot in textile technology.
Class 6 Science Chapter 3 Pdf
In this article, I hope you learned about natural fibres and their sources. It is also helpful in learning how natural fibres are converted to fabrics. Finally, you can download the Class 6 Science Chapter 3 Pdf, read and revision the chapter without the internet. Please share this pdf with your friends, if you like this article. So, they can also understand the fundamentals of fibre to fabric.