Uses in clothing: shirts, blouses, t-shirts, sweatshirts, joggers, jeans, skirts and dresses.
Uses in household items: towels, kitchen cloths, curtains, cushions, bedlinen and duvet covers, upholstry.
Properties of cotton Desirable:
Strong wet or dry Absorbs moisture Cool, good for summer Easy to wash and dry Can be bleached and dyed Easy to dry clean Does not pill easily Comfortable
Undesirable:
Creases easily Little elasticity Can be damaged by mildew Shrinks unless pre-shrunk Burns easily
Discovery Did You Know?
Producing a single pair of jeans requires around 11,000 litres of water! All this water goes into growing cotton (production process) and then wet processing, i.e. dyeing, treating and washing the fabric.
Learning Find out what denim companies are doing to make their products more sustainable. Feed back to the class.
Did You Know? While cotton is planted in only 2.4% of agricultural land, it accounts for nearly 11% of pesticide sales in the world.
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Strand 3: Textiles and Craft Section 1: Focus on Fabrics