What You Can Do With Textiles

Textiles are flexible materials that are made up of natural or artificial fibres. Producing a textile might involve spinning, weaving, knitting, crocheting, knotting or pressing fibres together.

Textiles have many uses including:

1. Clothing:

Clothing is probably the most common use of textiles. Having started as a means to an end- the ability to cover ourselves and keep warm- clothing has become the principle item of one of the world's biggest industries- fashion. Some textiles are made from rare materials or involve much more detail and time to produce. As a result they are more expensive. An example of this is silk.

2. Fabric shades:

Textiles are used to make a variety of things around the house, from carpets, to upholstered furniture, to window shades. Textiles used for these purposes are generally much thicker. Thicker materials can withstand the wear and tear of people sitting on a couch over years and years and better filter out light.

3. Transportation devices:

No I'm not talking about magic carpet rides. Textiles are used to the balloon of a hot air balloon, the sails of sail boats, kites and parachutes. Their flexibility and resistance makes them able to respond to the direction of the wind, which makes them suitable as flying devices.

Then there are of course many kinds of textiles including:

1. Animal textiles:

Wool comes from the hair of a goat or sheep, cashmere comes from the hair of an Indian cashmere goat, and mohair is the hair of the North African angora goat. Angora come from the hair of the angora rabbit and is known for its length and softness. Silk is made from the fibres of the cocoon of the Chinese silkworm.

2. Plant textiles:

Textiles made from plants include rope, made from grass, hemp, rush and sisal; paper, made from pulpwood trees, cotton, rice, hemp and nettle; clothing is made of cotton, flax, jute, hemp, modal and bamboo; and hats are made from straw and bamboo.

3. Synthetic textiles:

These include everything from polyester to nylon to spandex and acrylic. Polyester is used for making all kinds of clothing, nylon is used to imitate silk, spandex to make tight-fitting activewear, and acrylic often used to replace animal textiles such as wool and cashmere.

Generally speaking, the rarer the resource the more expensive the textile, which is why most mass clothing distributors more polyester and acrylic than they do cashmere and silk.

Who would have ever thought there was so much to do with textiles.


------

Fabric Architecture Ltd has been specialising in the design, engineering, manufacture and installation of tensile fabric structures since 1984. Learn more about fabric shades at http://www.fabricarchitecture.com/shade-structures