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Cotton Description
My choice for comfort.
Cotton fiber has been in use for long time,
it dates back to 3000 B.C. Composed of a natural vegetable fiber
that grows attached to the seed of the cotton plant. Cotton fiber
comes in various grades based upon color, purity, and length.
Shorter staple fibers, such as American Upland are coarser, while
Egyptian (from Egypt) and Pima (from California) are longer fibers
resulting in a softer and finer finished cloth. Short staple
cottons tend to pill or produce lint from the finished fabric.
Cotton, cotton blends and cotton yarns start with a
process called carding. Carding the cotton fiber is a method of
cleaning and detangling the fibers. After the fibers are carded,
they are gathered into a rope like form called a silver. The
silver is twisted into threads and then woven or knitted into a fabric.
Finer finished fabrics have one step after carding, called combing.
Combing straightens, removes short staple fibers and extra cleans the
cotton before being knitted or woven. Combed cotton have a far
superior feeling (hand) compared to a carded only cotton.
Cotton can be finished with a soft hand or firm chintz
hand with a shinny surface. Cotton absorbs dye for brilliant
colors and prints out beautifully.
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