∞ Fiber & Fabric Primer ∞
A history of cloth
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a modern love affair for natural fiber
This primer will teach you a bit about natural fibers, and the non-natural too. You’ll get a brief overview of fiber history and why natural fibers are resilient and brilliant partners for modern design.
The weave of our story
The Norns, the Fates, a myriad of goddess weavers in every tradition imaginable, weave giving us life, weave giving us our story, cut threads to give us our deaths.
Where I live, in the blue ridge mountains, the Cherokee people tell the tale of Grandmother spider spinning a web to harness fire, and to rope the sun.
What old tales of the weaver are rumbling around the land you walk?
Weaving cloth is simple, and ancient, and regardless of how industrial we’ve made it, it works the same.
Warp & weft. It does it all - a thousand little strings knotted and tied waiting for the throw of a shuttle across a simple loom.
How Fabric is made
There are really just 3 ways:
Woven
Warp & weft: Woven fabrics are all made on some kind of loom. Does it look like a crosshatch no matter how fine? It’s woven. Wovens can stretch if the fiber they are woven with has spandex content (more on spandex below).
Knit
Loops upon loops - even when industrialized - it’s like a giant knitting grandma contraption that is still creating loops within loops in various patterns.
Jersey fabric is made this way. And jersey has a bit of stretch because of the way the loops fit together. They flex, bend, & give -think t-shirts & knit sweaters. It’s also why they unravel so quickly if you cut any part of them. They exist in a framework of loop after loop holding hands, break any part and it undercuts the entire system.
Crochet is another version of this only it uses one “needle” (aka the hook) instead of 2 needles creating those connected loops.
Spider Magic aka Lace
Have you seen this sorcery? It’s incredible & it’s becoming a lost art-form.
There are, of course, lots of ways lace is made: netting with embroidered bits sewn on top, needle lace, bobbin lace, manufactured kinda-plastic-lace, but historically I do believe it is sheer ancient magic.
The fates tapestry must have been a giant spider web of lace.
For Wikipedia on different lace creation methods click here.
Making “simple” bobbin cotton lace
Making a bit more complicated bobbin lace, & notice how narrow it still is…
Types of Fibers:
an abreviated history & sustainability grade
You’ll find the 4 natural fibers, their history, properties, and my sustainability grade below.
Underneath are the 4 other groups of fiber & how they came to be.
A reminder: we can get lost down the rabbit hole of consumption concerns, and trust me I’ve been there. In this overview of fiber I’ve been careful to research where my information and data have roots.
At the end of each brief fiber function and description, I give it a grade - this is purely based on my decades of study and not from any other official system. I include information and a great article about grading and classifying fibers at the end of my fiber overviews.
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Linen
Our earliest fiber, with evidence of flax fibers from 34,000 years ago, linen is where it’s at.
Long hollow fibers, it allows air to flow easily between fibers as well as wicking moisture away from the skin creating a cooling effect. Linen is stronger in (cold) wet conditions than dry. It’s a miracle fiber in my world. Because of its rigid fibers, it creases. You can tell by the way it rumples and rolls, creating volume, that air flows nicely, hence it’s the coolest choice in summer. Linen is also arguably the most durable of fibers.
In the past, linen's wrinkles and creases drove folks mad and it lost its allure regardless of its incredible qualities. I’m happy to say that linen’s creases & rumpled look have become a part of its obvious fashionable pedigree in recent years. My no-time-for-ironing self appreciates the recent acceptance of the mark of its stiffer fiber. There has even been a return to linen bedding as a prestigious option. My starched and ironing gran would be horrified! I am delighted.
Sustainability: Flax can be grown in poor soil, requiring far less water or pesticides than all other fibers. Flax waste can be composted. Linen is durable and it also biodegrades.
If I’m giving fiber sustainability a Grade: Organic Linen gets an A; Conventional Linen would be a B-
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Wool
About 10,000 years old as a fiber, we’ve been in partnership with sheep, alpacas, goats, etc. for quite a while.
Wool is the natural warmer. It’s a poor conductor of heat and the wool fibers trap air in between them preventing the flow of heat from our body to the cold surroundings. The way the wool scales hook together achieve a brilliant design of warmth and insulation & it is water resistant as well. Wool scales are very small pushing off liquids and dirt when they rub against each other -self-cleaning & resistant to mold & mildew, it’s a bit of a wonder.
Sustainability: Let’s get real about this -we need to work towards a production plan for wool that takes less toll on our earth & its creatures. I love wool, mohair, cashmere, etc. Nothing can keep you naturally warmer but the way we raise herds from environmental impacts to animal welfare needs to be examined. There is also something to be noted about families of traditional farming that derive their livelihood from raising small herds for wool. For me, this means choosing a slow design method for my woolen fabrics. Personally, I take my time so that when I use wool fabric, I know it’s on pieces that I will wear for 20+ years. I wash all my wool fabric first. I sparingly hand wash most pieces from there on out.
Lastly, as the return to wool usage popularity has risen in the last several years, so have the greenwashing marketing campaigns.
Little research has been done on sustainable wool farming impact, for this reason I give Wool a grade C-
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Cotton
7,000 years old
Cheap to buy, easy to care for, cotton is a staple in most wardrobes. I prefer it blended with linen or silk for my design purposes. It’s pretty durable, but also normally tightly woven, which means its breathability is limited.
While absorbent, it doesn’t dry quickly. Any hikers out there? -You don’t want to get it wet in cotton in hypothermic conditions.Cotton is a workhorse. Cheaper than the other natural fibers, it is the natural fiber that is most common in our lives from sheets, to reuseable groccery bags, to tshirts, formal shirts, & summer dresses, it’s everywhere. I’ve always thought that cotton has a good PR agent - and it does. It also has a sordid past.
Sustainability: Abundant water needs and a high concentration of pest problems means that to grow this plant without chemicals or pesticides requires a lot of effort. Cotton needs are heavy. Organic cotton is best & Good On You has this to say about it: “Organic cotton seeds are cheaper than Bt cotton, helping farmers escape the cycle of debt and poverty. And less pesticides = better for the environment, better for the farmers’ health, and better for you!”
Intense labor needs for organic cotton mean it’s important to take into account that companies processing organic cotton also have stellar labour policies in place.
Organic Cotton grade: B-
Conventional Cottom grade: D
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Silk
6,000 years old
There’s no doubt that silk is luxurious. The secret of how it was made & woven were kept for thousands of years. We have silk to thank for the discovery of germs by frenchman, Pasteur. You can’t make up a enigmatic, seductive and important fiber story like that. Silk is written of in holy books and spoken of by poets and philosophers. While linen is the poem-worthy fiber for me, you can’t deny that silk is magnificent.
Personally, exclusive silk clothing lies almost exclusively in the 5th season for me. (The 5th season is the perfect day -not too hot, not too cold, with just the right amount of breeze, perfect for silk dresses.) Silk’s tiny fine filaments mean that it is almost always tightly woven, so it doesn’t allow for airflow. I find it hot in summer, but do love to line a wool jacket with silk for the shimmy over the skin, and it has lovely insulating properties when paired with other fibers. When it is knitted instead of woven, it has excellent warming qualities, think silk underwear.
Sustainability: Mulberry moth silk worms (responsible for 99% of the world’s silk fabric) have been kept in captivity for so long there are very few left in the wild. Most all silk production kills these little worms before they can cut a hole into the lustrous filaments. Married to a bug-nerd/scientist, I feel a bit icky every time I consider this, but lets return to point A, there are very few left in the wild. Like wool, I try treat my silk pieces with care & plan my pieces for a lifetime of use. In the last few years peace silk, or Ahimsa silk has been created allowing the moths to emerge from cocoons. Read more about it here.
Silk grade B-
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Wood Pulp Fabrics: Rayon, Bamboo, Tencel, Cupro, Etc.
Viscose was the first of the cellulose fabrics produced and it was first made in 1883
I used the mulch picture above because it is much more accurate than the beautiful pictures of trees or forests that cellulose fabric companies like to share of their process. It’s wood pulp processing y’all. It’s not void of positive attributes, but it isn’t like they are combing the leaves to create rayon, or bamboo sourced fabric. If you’ve ever driven by a rayon manufacturing plant, or a paper mill, you’ve got an idea of what this fiber takes to make.
Sustianability: A short overview of how these fibers are made says it best -cellulose material is dissolved in a chemical solution to produce a pulpy viscous substance, spun into fibers that can then be made into threads. Toxic chemicals are used to make these cellulose fabrics happen *including cupro. Cupro fabric has gotten a lot of press because it is made from cotton waste. (Yay!) But it is also dissolved in chemical solutions to be made into fiber.
Yay! using cotton waste, -less yay because those chemicals are toxic and eventually have to be dumped somewhere…The exception to these cellulose models would be tencel fabric - tencel processing does involve chemicals but those chemicals are retrieved and reused to an effective 99% efficacy rate.
Grade D for most cellulose fabrics Grade C for Tencel or lyocell
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Spandex, the Stretching Synthetic
1959 -as a fabric
Spandex is made from a polyester or nylon base. It is made up of a long chain polymer called polyurethane, which is produced by reacting a polyester with a chemical building block. The polymer is converted into a fiber using a dry spinning technique. Read more about how polymers are spun into fibers here. First produced in the early 1950s, spandex was initially developed as a replacement for rubber.
Brands like Lycra, Cordura, Supplex, Tactel, Thermolite, Coolmax on activewear or swimwear, rain coats, denim or underwear -are all derived from spandex.
Note that this fabric is most often used as a smaller percentage of fabric content to impart its miracle stretching properties.
Sustainability: Biodegradeable? Nope Toxic chemicals used to make them? Yep.
Do we all have clothes with spandex in them? I mean, do we have stretchy jeans, sportswear, or any materials that stretch and snap back? Then dollars to donuts it’s got spandex. I will repeat my common refrain: it’s something to consider, not beat ourselves up over. It’s also a reason to wear the stuffings out of our clothing before retiring pieces to goodwill ie the landfill.
Sustainability Grade: D-
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Non Stretching Synthetics Polyester, Nylon, Vegan Leather
Birthdays: Poly: 1941| Nylon: 1935 |Vegan Leather - Presstoff early 1900s, Naugahyde, created by a U.S. Rubber Company in 1920, and so many more…
-the petroleum based fabrics are plastics spun into fiber, thread, or pressed sheets (vegan leather). They are plastic and non biodegradable. I can 100% tell if my spouse’s thrifted shirt is mostly made from them because the armpits of those clothes smell & there is no way to get the stank out. It holds on. And it’ll keep holding on by not biodegrading, and leaching into our water supply from tiny filaments from our washing machines… not saying I don’t own some of this stuff y’all. I am sure my leggings have some poly to them. Like everything here, it’s information and something to consider. These fibers take hundreds of years to break down.
Sustainability Grade: D-
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Recycled
Recycling wool was historically recorded during the Napoleonic wars, around 1810, but we’re a scrappy bunch, we’ve been reusing for a long time as a species.
Recycled fabric exists for almost all of the fibers at this point. Like everything, there are problems and benefits.
Yes, it’s great to recycle plastic water-bottles, but it’s less great when you realize that those fleece pullovers are shedding tiny plastic particles into our water & food sources at a higher rate than the brand new synthetics.
Most other recycled natural fabrics: cotton, wool, linen, hemp etc. have come a long way in the technology and ability to be rewoven. However, the down side is that natural fibers are shortened and damaged during the shredding process. Their quality is reduced, their circularity limited and they generally require being mixed with other fibers so that they are durable. Fibers lose quality and length every time they go through the process. For natural fibers the end results are significantly weaker so recycled fibers are most often mixed with new original fibers at a 1:4 ratio. Natural fibers that are recycled are still offering a better solution than the landfill & relatively positive outcome in industry. I think this industry has room to improve and grow, and I hope it will.
Sustainability Grade: C+
Fiber vs. Weave
aka “the hand”
The fiber content is what a piece of fabric is made from, the weave is what the surface looks like.
The weave often determines the hand of the fabric and/or the weight.
In fabric speak “What is the weave?” or “What is the hand?” is a question about its surface texture.
For example, the bolt of cloth may be cotton but is it a:
sateen, twill, muslin, bastiste? Is it shirting weight, heavy weight, jacquard, or gauze?
Fabrics sometimes have a weave or terms that correspond with just them.
Examples: the weight of silk is measured in mommes (pronounced mummys) and silk can be woven as an organza, charmeuse, habotai, shantung, dupioni, chiffon, on and on and on.
Wool can be woven as a challis (lightweight and even sheer), suit weight (summer weight is light & winter weight is heavier naturally), melton (a coating weight), herringbone, and more.
And just to complicate things cotton, silk, wool, even linen can all be woven as twill, shirting-weight, suit-weight, and other terms as well. The best way to figure out fabric weights and weaves is to go to a store & touch things while reading the lables, or order some samples & put your paws all over them.
When I was a 20 year old I thought velveteen fabric at the discount upholstery store was just as good for wearing (and much more affordable) as expensive silk velvet at a fine fabric store. Oh gratitude for my buddies that graciously wore my duds back then! But look, making teaches us so many things! Upholstery velveteen was a fine starter really…
But what is it?
The burn test to determine what fiber is made of:
In apparel design university courses, there is a section that reminds me of alchemy.
Students sit back with long tweezers, little piles of cloth, & a lighter.
We burn the fabric, see how it reacts, does it bead up like plastic? (a synthetic) Smell like burning hair? (likely wool) so on and so forth. It’s fun, educational, entertaining, and every so often - dangerous (man does nylon need a safety warning....).
I once worked in a fine fabric store and we kept the tweezers & lighter in a little tray. There are times a fabric comes in without its lineage papers and we needed to know content. Folks can be allergic to certain fibers, it’s true.
Here’s a rundown of how fibers burn:
Plant based: linen, cotton, hemp, (most cellulose too):
These fibers ignite and burn quickly, they may flare then leave a glowing ember after the flame has gone out. The smoke is white or light colored and smells like burnt paper or leaves & the ash is pale gray or white and very soft.
Protein: silk, wool, cashmere, alpaca, mohair etc.
Protein fiber burns slowly. It shrinks or curls away from the flame & will not stay lit after the flame source is removed. It creates very little smoke but it smells like burnt hair (wool) or feathers (silk). The leftover ash is either a gritty powder or forms a dark, brittle & easily crushable bead.
Synthetics: nylon, polyester, acrylics, spandex:
Prepare & be cautious:
Synthetics ignite and burn quickly and can continue to burn/or melt after the flame source is removed.
The fibers can shrink from the flame, melt, or can also dangerously drip -leaving a hard plastic-like bead. Burning these fabrics will produce black smoke and some hazardous fumes.
Acrylics smell either strongly either acrid or chemical.
Polyester has a chemical odor but can also smell slightly sweet.
Nylon smells like plastic when burnt but can also can produce a celery-like smell.
That hard plastic bead can burn the dickens out of you! Be careful! Burning synthetic fabric can be quite dangerous.
Calculating Fiber Metrics, and why it’s hard:
Have you started to go down the fiber rabbit hole even if just in your mind? One of the better articles that I’ve read recently about trying to qualify how to “grade” sustainability (aka the higg index and/or things like it) - is here.
I’ve spent over 20 years learning, researching, adjusting, and refiguring what I know about how we grade and understand sustainability. Like all things, it’s a complicated situation. Greenwashing has made it harder to suss out the truth, and the truth is pretty complicated already.
Figuring out how we “do our best” when the metrics and understanding of how we use them are not well developed can be frustrating and disheartening.
Don’t let the complicated, multi-layered, and multi-faceted situation get you down.
My Nº1 sustainability tip is always to design and make clothing that you will wear year after year after year and to try source your fabrics responsibly for that cause. If you can’t find it in an end cut, or organic fiber, don’t beat yourself up for making a shirt or jacket that you will wear for 10 years, get the fabric that works for your project.
Fabric Sources:
Find a list and links to fabric sources on this page.
This page is continuously updated as I learn of more so please do share your favorites that aren’t on this list.
“A good life is like a weaving. Energy is created in the tension. The struggle, the pull and tug are everything.”
Citing Sources: So much updated reading and sleuthing went into this section. I wanted to make sure I had the most current understanding, and then I filtered it through the lens of what I’ve learned/kept up with and have been watching unfold.
Any source that supports brands I take with a grain of salt and deeper research.
Some of my sources: Common Objective, Good On You (they support brands), Science Direct for a scientific look into manmade fiber production, Sustainable Apparel Coalition - authors of the (at times controversial & not super helpful - but hey, they’re trying) Higg index.
