Pattern family

Natural Fibers

Every cloth begins as fiber, and before the manufactured fibers of the twentieth century there were only the ones grown by nature. They fall into two kinds. Plant or cellulose fibers come from seeds, stems, and leaves: cotton from the boll, and the bast fibers linen, hemp, and ramie from the stalks of their plants. Animal or protein fibers come from coats and cocoons: wool from sheep and silk from the silkworm. These few materials clothed the entire world for thousands of years, and almost every other cloth in this catalogue is one of them woven, knitted, or finished a particular way.