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At some point, people learned to weave plant fibers into textiles. The first clothes, worn at least 70,000 years ago and perhaps much earlier, were probably made of animal skins and helped protect early humans from the elements. The cloth was most likely made by the native Asian people of the northwest Romblon. The Banton Burial Cloth, the oldest existing example of warp ikat in Southeast Asia, is displayed at the National Museum of the Philippines. The precursor of today's textiles includes leaves, barks, fur pelts, and felted cloths. Later the spinning wheel was invented historians are unsure where, some say China and others India. The weight of the whorl improved the thickness and twist of spun thread. The earliest tool for spinning was the spindle to which a whorl was eventually added. Textiles themselves being too fragile to survive across millennia, the tools used for spinning and weaving make up most prehistoric evidence for textile working. Main article: History of clothing and textiles Stemming most recently from the Middle French fabrique, or 'building, thing made', and earlier from the Latin fabrica ('workshop an art, trade a skillful production, structure, fabric'), the noun fabrica stems from the Latin faber, or 'artisan who works in hard materials', which itself is derived from the Proto-Indo-European dhabh-, meaning 'to fit together'. The word 'fabric' also derives from Latin, with roots in the Proto-Indo-European language. : 207 Fabric is synonymous with cloth, material, goods, or piece goods. Fabric has a broader application than cloth. Fabric Ī fabric is defined as any thin, flexible material made from yarn, directly from fibers, polymeric film, foam, or any combination of these techniques.
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Originally applied to woven fabrics, the term "textiles" is now used to encompass a diverse range of materials, including fibers, yarns, and fabrics, as well as other related items. The word 'textile' comes from the Latin adjective textilis, meaning 'woven', which itself stems from textus, the past participle of the verb texere, 'to weave'.
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Yarns are then used to make different kinds of fabric by weaving, knitting, crocheting, knotting, tatting, or braiding. The fibers are twisted or laid out to make a long, continuous strand of yarn. In other cases, yarns are manipulated with different fabric manufacturing systems to produce various fabric constructions. The techniques of felting and bonding directly transform fibers into fabric. The sources of fibers may be natural, synthetic, or both. Fiber has a hair-like appearance and a higher length-to-width ratio. įiber is the smallest component of a fabric fibers are typically spun into yarn, and yarns are used to manufacture fabrics. Components may vary among various textile products as they are selected based on fitness for purpose. Each component of a textile product, including fiber, yarn, fabric, processing, and finishing, affects the final product. Geotextiles, industrial textiles, medical textiles, and many other areas are examples of technical textiles, whereas clothing and furnishings are examples of consumer textiles. In consumer textiles, aesthetics and comfort are the most important factors, but in technical textiles, functional properties are the priority. Textiles are divided into two groups: Domestic purpose and technical textiles. In the contemporary world, textiles satisfy the material needs for versatile applications, from simple daily clothing to bulletproof jackets, spacesuits, and doctor's gowns. Knitting and non-woven are other popular types of fabric manufacturing. However, weaving is not the only manufacturing method, and many other methods were later developed to form textile structures based on their intended use.
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At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. Weaving demonstration on an 1830 handloom in the weaving museum in Leiden
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