Behind the Scene of Fabrics.

Yes, we at fashion loaded are enthusiastic about fashion. We would be taking you behind the scenes of fabric making from start to the finish.

Do you know that Fabrics worn daily undergo more than 30 processes before it was all stitched and styled?

For fashion to be complete, creative people come together to craft ideas by making use of natural processes and synthetic processes alike. For a fabric that stands out, it passes through different machinery, designers, weavers, etc.

Fabrics are born out of sweat too and creativity hence are assets and values.

These are how clothes are made from the finest finest tapestry to playing a role in a beautiful and grand design.

The steps and methods encompassed in the processing of fibers are amazing to discover. I.e. from a pod of cotton to yarn and then to hundreds of beautiful fabrics.

The fabric making process is a tedious one but quite a creative aspect in daily fashion.

This processes includes: Fiber generation, Cleaning, Spinning, Texturing, Sizing, Weaving Knitting, Dyeing, stitching and seams etc.

Fibers are the building block of a fabric and they are produced by nature e.g. silk from silkworms, cotton from plants, wool from sheep’s, Jute from plants etc. They can also be gotten synthetically e.g polyester, viscose and nylon through special chemiscalized methods.

Taking a critical look at the case of cotton, the cotton seeds are grind from the pods, opened and extracted from cotton bales. The fibre is further cleaned of dirt by passing it through a carding machine and are spuned and twisted into yarns. The volume of twists per inch can influence the quality of the yarn. More the quantity of twists, the more promising the yarn turns out to be.

More so the yarn is textured to be smooth and unchanged and sized with starch to avoid breakouts and wounded for further processes

The yarn is now  made into fabric. The 2 main processes are weaving and knitting.

In weaving two sets of yarns are interlaced to from the fabric. The fabric is produced by interlacing warp and weft yarns at right angles to each other. In knitting, the loops of yarns are interlaced.

Knitting involves forming rows of interlocking loops of yarn and it can be done by hand or special knitting machines.

Then the fabrics are prepared for dyeing and are desized. Desizing process involves removing the sizing (added to the yarn) by washing the fabric with diluted acid or by enzyme treatment.

After this they are scoured and mercerized. Scouring is the removal of  the in the fabric by washing the fabric with various chemicals. Mercerizing is done to increase the strength and luster of fabric. It is a process done with concentrated caustic alkali.

Dyeing is one of the finish up processes and can be done at any stage of the production of the fabric -it is usually done at an early stage on yarns or after the fabric is made so the fabric color quality would be maintained. When a fabric is not dyed as it comes out of a mill it is called a grey cloth. It is then piece-dyed. Any method of fabric finishing is then applied.

Fabric finish refers to the techniques used on finished fabric to give it some special characteristics like wrinkle-free finish or stain-free finish or waterproof finish. It may also be added to enhance its characteristics like strength, beauty, etc. Compaction, Brushing, Cropping, and Sueding Mercerizing is different types of finishes done on fabric.

Stitching which is the joining of two pieces of fabrics together to achieve a style comes at this stage by the designers. They help style it into lovable clothes with beautiful embroidery.

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Curled from; SEWGUIDE

Photo credit: GOOGLE