Wool was probably the first fibre to be made successfully into fabric, during the New Stone Age around 7000 years ago. It gave man his first alternative to wearing animal skins. Flax and cotton fibres were also well known in the ancient world.
In Egypt – where wool was thought to be ‘unclean’ – mummies from 3400 BC have been found wrapped in linen shrouds, made from flax, 1000yds (900m) long. Cotton was used in India in 3000 BC; and cotton fabrics from around 2000 BC have been found in Peru.
Two processes are needed to turn fibres like wool, flax and cotton into cloth. The first is spinning, in which the fibres are twisted together to form a yarn; the second is weaving, in which two sets of yarn are interwoven at right angles to form a fabric.
Spinning was traditionally a woman’s task, hence the term spinster for an unmarried woman. Weaving was done by men. Before the Industrial Revolution, when spinning was all done by hand, it took the combined output of five to eight spinsters to keep one weaver employed. Fabric was expensive, and clothes had to last a long time. In one day, a woman could spin about 550yds (500m) of wool.
The most important of the animal fibres is sheep’s wool. Most wool fibres are from 1in to 8in (25mm to 200mm) long.
Flax is a fibre found in the stem of the flax plant, from which it is extracted by splitting the stalk and soaking the fibres in water for several weeks to separate them from the resinous material that glues them together. The fibres are from 6in to 3ft 3in (150mm to 1m) long.
Cotton fibres grow in the seedpod of the cotton plant. They are much shorter than flax, forming flat, twisted ribbons from 1/8in to 2 ½in (3mm to 65mm) long. The fibres have to be teased out of the seedpod, and disentangled from the seeds, a process done by a cotton gin.
Other plant fibres include jute, used for making sacks, bags and carpet backings; and hemp, which is made from the cannabis plant and is used in sailcloth, canvas and tarpaulins. One of the most unusual plant fibres was made from stinging nettles. Mary, Queen of Scots slept in sheets made from the fine linen they produced.
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