Cotton: Where Clothes Come From (Part 1)

Where do your clothes come from?

Most people buy their clothes from stores.

Some people sew clothes for themselves.

Clothes are made out of fabric. Fabric is made from plants, animals, insects, or recycled things like plastic bottles.





Plants 


Many of the clothes we wear are made out of cotton. 

Cotton grows on a plant and looks like a bunch of fluffy white clouds. 


Do you see the Cotton on the Cotton Plants in this picture?





When it's ready, the Cotton gets picked off the plants by fancy machines and stacked in big piles. Then it gets washed by a special machine till it's all clean.



Next the Cotton goes through a bunch of different machines that squish, pull, twist and knit it till it becomes fabric that can be made into clothes.

This short video shows the cotton going through this process.



Want more detail?

Cotton to Thred  & Thred to Fabric (less than 5 min each)




Cotton isn't the only type of plant used to make clothes.

A plant called flax is used to make Linen.

Rayon

Sisal - used to make rugs - from a mexican plant


Books you can read:

wool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtP63IOhg1Y



eating weaving timelapse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtHjDRVRM_Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWEQtUYn38Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWEQtUYn38Q


cotton to jeans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HF7CsMRqEA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYa4zneKbeY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJOteam-zWw

Additional Reading Resources:

• Cotton Comes From Plants (National Geographic) By Norman Yu