Textiles, Clothing and Fabric Care
The Textiles, Clothing and Fabric Care section asks you to classify fibres, describe how yarn becomes fabric, and choose the right washing and ironing treatment. Stain-removal and fibre-identification questions are almost always applied to a described situation.
Fibres
- Vegetable (cellulose): cotton, jute, linen.
- Animal (protein): wool, silk.
- Regenerated: rayon, made from wood pulp.
- Synthetic: nylon, polyester, acrylic.
Cotton is absorbent and stronger when wet; linen creases easily; wool is warm, shrinks and felts, and is weak when wet; silk is lustrous and needs mild soap; polyester dries fast but melts under a hot iron.
Cloth construction
Fibre → yarn by spinning; yarn → fabric by weaving or knitting. In weaving the lengthwise threads are the warp and the crosswise threads the weft. Basic weaves are plain, twill (diagonal lines) and satin (lustrous face).
Laundry routine
Mend before washing, sort by colour and fibre, remove stains first, use soap for cottons and mild detergent for wool and silk, rinse thoroughly, dry in shade turned inside out, and iron at the fibre's temperature - cotton hot, silk and nylon low.
Worked example
A blood stain on a white cotton shirt. Reasoning: blood contains protein and hot water sets protein, so soak in cold water, rub gently with soap and rinse; if a faint mark remains, use a dilute oxygen bleach - never chlorine on coloured cloth.
Traps that cost marks
Using hot water on blood, milk or egg stains; ironing polyester at cotton heat; rubbing silk; forgetting that wool shrinks with hot water and agitation.