NCERT CBSE CHAPTER 3

CLASS: VII FIBRE TO FABRIC SCIENCE

STUDY NOTES

Clothes are our basic needs. We need clothes to protect us from heat, cold, rain, dust, etc.
Clothes are woven from fibres like cotton, wool, silk and other such fibres.

Fibre: A fibre is a thin thread or filament of a natural or artificial substance that can be used
to make a cloth or rope.

Yarn: Yarn is a strand of threads used for sewing, knitting or weaving.

Fabric: Fabric is cloth or other material produced by weaving fibres together.

Fibre to Yarn to Fabric: Fabric consists of thin strands called yarn, which in turn consists
of thinner strands called fibres.

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Types of Fibres:

Fibres are classified into two type’s namely natural fibres and synthetic fibres. Natural fibres
are further classified as plant fibres and animal fibres. Jute, cotton, etc. are some plant fibres
whereas wool, silk, etc. are some animal fibres.

WOOL:

• The protein present in wool is Keratin.

• Wool is the most commonly used animal fibre.
• Wool is soft, wavy hair, which covers the body of a sheep.
• As wool is bulky and wavy it traps lot of air in them. And air is an insulator will not
allow heat from the body to escape in surrounding and thus keeps us warm.
• Naphthalene balls are used to protect woollen clothes from pest.

Properties of Wool:

• Wool is biodegradable.
• It is fire resistant.
• It is soft and bulky.
• It keeps us warm.

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 • It is elastic.
• It is durable.
Animals that yield Wool:

• The wool-yielding animals are sheep, goat, yak, camel and some other animals.
• Wool is obtained from from the fleece (hair) of wool-yielding animals.
• Wool is used to make various wool fabrics like woollen clothes, carpets, woollen
sweaters, carpets, etc.
• These animals bear hair on their body. Hairs of wool yielding animals trap lot of air.
Air is a poor conductor of heat, which does not allow body heat to go outside. So hair
keeps these animals warm by shielding their body from cold during winter.
• Due to this reason hair of these animals are removed only once in a year at the
beginning of summer season. They can survive in the hot weather without hair. And
by the time winter comes, the hair grows again on the body of these animals.
• Below table shows some Indian breeds of sheep.

Rearing and Breeding of Sheep for Wool

Rearing of sheep: Rearing of sheep means to look after the sheep by providing them with
food, shelter and health care for commercial purpose.

Sheep are herbivores and prefer grass and leaves. Apart from grazing sheep, rearers also
feed them on a mixture of pulses, corn, jowar, oil cakes (material left after taking out oil
from seeds) and minerals. In winter, sheep are kept indoors and fed on leaves, grain and dry
fodder.

Selective breeding: The process of selecting parents for obtaining special characters in their
offspring, such as soft under hair in sheep is called selective breeding.

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Processing fibres into wool:
The wool, which is used for knitting sweaters or weaving shawls is the finished product of a
long process, which involves following steps:

Step 1: - Shearing
The process of removal of fleece of the sheep along with a thin layer of skin is called
shearing. It can be done manually with large razor or with a shearing machine. Shearing does
not hurt sheep because uppermost layer of the skin of sheep is dead.

Step 2: - Scouring
The sheared skin with hair is thoroughly washed in tanks to remove dust, dirt and grease.
This process is called scouring. It is then passed through series of rollers and dryers.

Step 3: - Sorting
Clean hairs are then sent to factory where hairs of different textures are separated or sorted.
This process is called sorting.

Step 4: - Removing burr

Burrs are soft fluffy fibres in the wool. These burrs are picked out from the hair.

Step 5: - Dyeing
The natural fleece of sheep is white, brown or black. These fibres are dyed in different
colours.

Step 6: - Making Yarn

In this step the wool is straightened, combed and spun into yarn. After spinning the wool is
either woven or knitted. Longer fibres are made into wool for sweaters.

Occupational Hazard:
Occupational Hazard is the risk faced by people working in any industry due to the nature
of their work.

Wool industry gives employment to many people in our country. But sorter’s job is risky as
they sometimes get infected by Bacillus anthracis, which causes fatal blood disease
called sorter’s disease.

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SILK:

• The protein present in silk is fibroin.

• The discovery of silk was made in China. China leads the world in silk production.
• There are varieties of silk moths which yield different types of silk yarn such as
tassar silk, mooga silk, kosa silk, mulberry silk etc.
• The most common silk moth is the mulberry silk moth.
• Scientific name of mulberry silk moth is Bombyx mori.
• Silk moth feeds on mulberry leaves.
• Scientific name of mulberry tree is Morus alba.

Sericulture: The rearing of silkworms for obtaining silk is called sericulture.

Properties of silk:

• It is soft, lustrous and elastic.

• It is biodegradable.
• It keeps warm during winter and cool during summer.
• It drapes easily.
• It is strong and durable.

Life cycle of a silk moth:

There are four stages in the

development of silk moth.

1. Egg

2. Larva

3. Pupa

4. Adult silk moth

Life cycle of a silk moth

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Stage 1: -
In the beginning female silk moth lays eggs on mulberry leaves.

Stage 2: -
The eggs are hatched into very small larvae within a week. These larvae then feed on
mulberry leaves. The larvae looks like a worm and are also called caterpillars or
silkworms.

Stage 3: -
They then grow in size (over three inches) and then the caterpillar is ready to enter the next
stage of its life called pupa. An adult silkworm first weaves a net to hold itself. Then it
swings its head from side to side in the form of figure 8. During these movements the head
of the caterpillar secrets fibre made of a protein, which hardens on exposure to air and
becomes silk fibre. Soon the caterpillar covers itself completely by silk fibre. This covering
is known a cocoon. The cocoon is made by caterpillar to protect its development as pupa.
The silkworm continues to develop inside the cocoon to form silk moth.

Stage 4: -
In this stage pupa, which is encased in the cocoon, develops fully to form an adult silk moth.
After the complete development the cocoon splits up and beautiful silk moth comes out of it.
This completes the life history of a silk moth.
In order to produce silk, the silkworm developing inside the cocoon (pupa) is not allowed to
mature into a silk moth. This is because breaking of cocoon causes damage to silk threads
and this lowers the quality of silk. So to obtain good quality silk thread, as soon as cocoon is
formed developing silk worm (or pupa) gets killed. Some silk worms are allowed to live and
mature into silk moths so that they can lay eggs to produce more silk worms.

Production of silk:

To obtain silk, silk moths are reared and their cocoons are collected to get silk threads or
fabric. We will now learn more about the process. For this mulberry trees are grown.

(1) Rearing of silkworms to obtain cocoon: -

A female silk moth lays hundreds of eggs at a time. These eggs are stored carefully on paper
or cloth strips and are sold to silkworm farmers. The farmers keep eggs under hygienic
condition and under suitable conditions of temperature and humidity.
The eggs are then warmed to suitable temperature for hatching. When eggs hatch silkworms
or caterpillar comes out. Silkworms are then fed on mulberry leaves day and night. They
then increase enormously in size.

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The larvae are kept in clean bamboo trays along with young and freshly chopped mulberry
leaves. After 25 to 30 days, silkworm stops eating and start spinning the cocoon.
Small racks or twigs may be provided in the trays to which cocoons get attached. The
caterpillar or silkworm spins the cocoon inside which develops the silk moth.

(2) Processing cocoons to obtain silk fibre: -

The cocoons are collected and kept under the sun or boiled in water or exposed to steam to
kill the pupa inside them. Hot water makes the silk fibres of cocoon to separate out.
The process of taking out silk fibre from cocoons for use as silk is called reeling of silk.
Reeling is done in special machines, which unwind the fibres of silk form cocoons.

(3) Converting silk fibre into silk cloth: -

Silk fibres obtained from cocoons are spun to form silk yarn, which is then woven in looms
by weavers to make silk cloth.

EXTRA NOTES:

Q How will you distinguish between natural silk and artificial silk?
A With the help of burning test we can distinguish between natural and artificial silk.
The natural silk on burning gives the smell of burning hair. While the artificial silk on
burning gives the smell of burning paper.
As natural silk is made of protein, while artificial silk is made of wood pulp (cellulose).