Steps Involved In Making Cotton Clothes

Cotton fabric doesn t just spring from the ground fully formed a lot of work is involved before you ever see a bolt of it at the craft store.

Steps involved in making cotton clothes.

The manufacture of cotton cloth is a complex process involving many highly skilled workers each performing a particular critical step in the overall process. In america this process was a tedious labor intensive activity done by hand until the 19th century. From raw cotton to cotton fabrics the fabric usually used in the clothes we wear is produced through two processes. Samples are taken from the bales to determine the quality of the cotton.

This lint is then collected and compressed to make bales which weigh about 500 pounds each. The harvesting of the cotton boll can be done by hand or by mechanical means. The process leading up to the finished fabric we all know so well involves growing the cotton from seeds processing the raw fibers and eventually processing the fibers into cloth. What was once a back breaking low paying job is done today entirely by machines but the process is still highly complex and involved.

The spinning process where raw cotton is turned into thread and the weaving process where the thread is woven into fabric. Here we will explain each process in detail using some illustrations. Also cotton was grown spun and. Today most of it is still handpicked.

Eli whitney s invention of the cotton gin started the mechanization of the cotton growing and manufacturing process. The next step is the separation of the cotton fibers from the seeds and the pods in a cotton gin. From field to fabric the process of making cotton transforms the raw fibers into threads yarn and fabric in three steps. Preparation spinning and weaving.

Cotton was used for clothing in present day peru and mexico perhaps as long as 5 000 years ago.