Category Archives: Science

I’ve been sitting on this bit of textile news for a while, primarily because I was waiting to see if more uses for this fabric might be released. I know the military is looking at using this technology.

As for the modern family, well, this just won’t wash up well, but it might help in tracking a person lost in the woods or detect a small child’s skinned knee at the playground. I’m certainly hoping that detection of a bullet wound will not be the main use for adding it to our stashes. But then, reality bites.

And then there is the consideration of wearing an electromagnetic field on one’s body.

Please read more about this chain mail fabric here. I don’t feel qualified to paraphrase the article.

New Smart Fabric Detects Vital Signs, Bullet Wounds, Motion, Strain, Pressure, and Produce(s) Power

Over at the Stitcher’s Guild sewing message board there has been a discussion on sourcing cotton fabrics to which I posted this roundup of recent global news items. Since it involved quite a bit of writing time I’ll reproduce it here.

It seems that in light of the world’s subsidies and trade agreements concerning all things textile related that the US cotton farmer had best be represented and repre’d well in the world’s economy.

I’ve been researching textile mfg info and read last week (sorry, didn’t save the link) that China is making a far lower profit on the textiles it exports (about 3%) than on any other exports (about 15%).

While textiles are a large, rapid growth export item for China, I’m also reading that China is gearing up to export even more textiles in the coming year. However valuation of the yuan is going to create problems for China’s export endeavors

The government of South Africa will be supporting Textiles and Clothing in it’s budgetary incentives according to the budget comments from Deloite and Touche.

India is also trying to become a major player in the textile export community by developing it’s mostly small mills and applying for exemptions from VAT taxes as are textile processors in Pakistan. The US based textile company, West Point Home, is establishing a new textile plant in Pakistan as well.

There are movements toward reviving the Egyptian textile through franchising which infuses capital (from OxfordBusinessGroup.com])

The granting of licenses to Egyptian factories to produce foreign branded clothing also has benefits. Nike currently has some of its cotton wear produced in Egypt. Industry analysts say the business model they provide and the demand from domestic and foreign market has the potential to rejuvenate the Egyptian textile industry, which has been in decline in recent years due to a lack of investment.

Dubai, a part of the United Arab Emerits, is creating Dubai Textile City for duty free exports.

On the cotton front: drought in Australia is making cotton less accessable to mills. The sourcing of cotton is shifting around and new areas will most likely seize the opportunity to enter the cotton market. New York, India and Pakistan are the major sources for it but prices are increasing. India’s domestic cotton prices paid by it’s own textile processors have risen to match the prices of international sources.

Drought has effected the US cotton growers as well and herbicide resistent strains of pigweed are threatening the southeastern cotton growers.

But the most enlightening (and a must read article) can be found here. The World Trade Organization is the locus for debates on US subsidies for cotton. The US was forced to terminate a program whereby processors and mills were subsidized in buying US cotton when it was at a higher price than the rest of the world supplies. At this moment there are thousands of cotton bales sitting in a warehouse in Memphis waiting to be sold to China when it runs out of its own cotton stash, the size of which is completely unknown to US.

So, it seems to me that there are many changes afoot in the textile market and cotton will most assuredly be increasing in price.

It is hoped that the US government’s own push towards converting farmlands from cotton to corn through ethanol based biofuel subsidies will not effect our stash of fabrics!!! This could in itself be devasting to our cotton production. Fortunately there have been grave reservations raised about the ability of corn-based ethanol to reduce US dependency on foreign oil.

The Bush administration is directing much of its efforts toward developing ethanol from cellulosic sources.

The only mention of hemp as a biofuel source that I’ve found in current news research was in this editorial from the Wausau Daily Herald.

I’d love to hear more about hemp being considered by the biofuel advocates with power…it is, after all, quite the weed.

Ahhhh, “sunshine” scented sheets?  What a pleasant thought!!!  But I had more questions than answers when I read the following news brief:

Coming up, scented textiles
Argentina Star
Tuesday 6th February, 2007
IANS

Scientists are looking at ways to permanently infuse fabrics with a fragrance that can survive washings.

John Pierce, an associate professor of psychology at the Philadelphia University, and other researchers are trying to find ways to scent up textiles that could lead to perfumed blankets and sheets or hide the stink of used gym clothes, reported ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) science online.

Conventional methods rely on tiny scent-filled capsules added on top of the yarn after it is woven into a fabric. The capsules release their fragrance when they crack open during normal wear and use, the report quoted Discovery News.

The problem, said Pierce, is that the capsules frequently break before the garments are on the shelves, and then break some more before the customer can get the product home.

Pierce and his team, who are in the second year of a three-year project to assess such fabrics, have developed an alternative method that infuses scent and colour into a yarn at the time it is made.

This yarn essentially contains strands of scent and colour sheathed in an outer layer, all produced in one step.

The researchers said their fabric should retain the fragrance for up to 10-15 washes, about the same as those with microcapsules. But, they added, that theirs would be cheaper to manufacture as there are no microcapsules or microcapsule-applying machinery to buy.

For the fragrance to survive washings, the textile has to withstand the manufacturing process, the researchers said.

In spite of the opening statement about making the fragrance permanent, the scientist’s target goal is to have the scent last for 10 – 15 washings. From what I remember of a discussion had a few years ago with some folks in the RTW biz, the target for RTW durability is also 10 – 15 washings, depending on the “Durability” being tested. For shrinkage it was 3 washings.  For fabric finish longevity and seam construction the target was 10-15 washes.   I could be wrong in regurgitation of the standards but I remember it was dismally short.

What about possible issue of further polluntants being introduced into the ground water through laundry wastes?  What about unknown and/or new allergic reactions?  God-speed to the scientific development team and may they keep in mind the end-user and Mother Earth!

 And who’s nose will be used to determine what a pleasant scent is?  I hope it’s not the current “nose” at Febreze.  I have yet to find a reason to smile like the people in the Febreze opening page when I’ve used the Febreze products: I react badly both aesthetically and physically, to everything Febreze I’ve tried so far.

And what about us online fabric purchasers?  In a few years will we have “surprises” when we purchase over the internet?  Will we be saying, “I don’t know why but every time I go near that new shirt I cut out I start to feel sick!  Is it just a  mental reaction to the FBA I know I should have done?”

ETA: for the curious, I found a site which gives information about the chemical that makes Febreze effective in scent removal here but it doesn’t give me a clue about the fragrance choices for the products.  Somehow when things get this complicated I get suspicious.