How is cotton fabric made?

Cotton is made from the fibres of the cotton plant and its use dates back to around 6000 BC in Peru. The cotton plant is a wild perennial shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world. It was first domesticated around 3400 and 2300 BC in Mexico.

The cotton plant needs about seven months of frost-free period, a lot of sunshine and moderate rainfall. The successful cultivation of cotton very much relys on irrigation and the use of pecticides and herbicides.

About three months after planting, the cotton plant blossoms open. Their petals change colour from creamy white to yellow to pink to dark red. Green sphere-shaped cotton bolls are left after the blossoms wither and fall. Cotton seeds start to form inside the bolls. The cotton fibres grow around the seeds and finally they split the bolls apart, which have turned into brown colour.

Interesting fact! Naturally coloured cotton plants have been bred, which fibres are of red, green, or brown colour. Fabrics made from these fibres do not need to be dyed and the cotton's natural colour does not fade. However, these fibres are short and weak and cannot be machine spun.

The quality of cotton depends on the length of its fibre - the longer the fibre, the higher the quality. The cotton fibre length varies from 1-6 cm (0.5-2.5 inches) and depends on the species of the cotton plant and the cultivation time. The highest quality cotton with an extra-long staple is grown in USA and trademarked as Supima cotton.

The cotton can either be picked by hand (which is still done in the developing countries) or harvested by machines, which store the cotton in modules. The cotton is then transported into a cotton gin, a revolutionary machine invented in 1793. The gin cleans the cotton and removes the seeds. The ginned cotton fibres are pressed together into dense bales.

The cotton bales are then inserted into machines, which will further clean, then comb and straighten the cotton into a rope. Next, spinning devices spin the cotton rope into yarn. And finally, the yarn is either woven or knit into fabrics by special machines.

Another interesting fact! The 7th of October is the World Cotton Day since 2019.