NCERT Class 6 Science Fibre to Fabric

Fibre to Fabric

Paheli and Boojho won the first prize in a Science Quiz competition held at their school. They were very excited and decided to use the prize money to buy clothes for their parents. When they saw a large variety of cloth material, they got confused (Fig. 3.1). The shopkeeper explained that some clothes or fabrics were cotton and some were synthetic. He also had woollen mufflers and shawls. There were many silk sarees as well. Paheli and Boojho felt very excited. They touched and felt these different fabrics. Finally, they bought a woollen muffler and a cotton saree. After their visit to the cloth shop, Paheli and Boojho began to notice various fabrics in their surroundings. They found that bed sheets, blankets, curtains, tablecloths, towels and dusters were made from different kinds of fabrics. Even their school bags and the gunny bags were made from some kind of fabric. They tried to identify these fabrics as cotton, wool, silk or synthetic. Can you also identify some fabrics?

3.1 VARIETY IN FABRICS

Activity 1

Visit a nearby tailoring shop. Collect cuttings of fabrics leftover after stitching. Feel and touch each piece of fabric. Now, try to label some of the fabrics as cotton, silk, wool or synthetic after asking for help from the tailor. Do you wonder what these different fabrics are made of? When you look at any fabric, it seems a continuous piece. Now, look at it closely. What do you notice (Fig. 3.2)?

Activity 2

Select a piece of cotton fabric you labelled in Activity 1. Now, try to find a loose thread or yarn at one of the edges and pull it out (Fig. 3.3). If no loose You might have observed something similar when you try to thread a needle. Many a time, the end of the thread is separated into a few thin strands. This makes it difficult to pass the thread through the eye of the needle. The thin strands of thread that we see, are made up of still thinner strands called fibres.

Fabrics are made up of yarns and yarns are further made up of fibres. Where do these fibres come from? The fibres of some fabrics such as cotton, jute, silk and wool are obtained from plants and animals. These are called natural fibres. Cotton and jute are examples of fibres obtained from plants. Wool and silk fibres are obtained from animals. Wool is obtained from the fleece of sheep or goat. It is also obtained from the hair of rabbits, yak and camels. Silk fibre is drawn from the cocoon of silkworm. For thousands of years natural fibres were the only ones available for making fabrics. In the last hundred years or so, fibres are also made from chemical

Activity 3 

Take out a yarn from a piece of cotton fabric. Place this piece of yarn on the table. Now, press one end of the yarn with your thumb. Scratch the other end of the yarn along its length with your nail as shown in Fig. 3.4. Do you find that at this end, the yarn splits up into thin strands (Fig. 3.5)?

Exercises 

1. Classify the following fibres as natural or synthetic: nylon, wool, cotton, silk, polyester, jute

2. State whether the following statements are true or false:

a) Yarn is made from fibres.

b) Spinning is a process of making fibres.

c) Jute is the outer covering of coconut.

d) The process of removing seed from cotton is called ginning.

e) Weaving of yarn makes a piece of fabric.

f) Silk fibre is obtained from the stem of a plant.

g) Polyester is a natural fibre.

3. Fill in the blanks:

a) Plant fibres are obtained from_________ and ________ .

b) Animals fibres are __________ and ___________ .

4. From which parts of the plant cotton and jute are obtained?

5. Name two items that are made from coconut fibre.

6. Explain the process of making yarn from fibre.

Please refer to attached file for NCERT Class 6 Science Food Fibre to Fabric