Making fabric from fiber is really a typical job. A few of us have the knowledge on this full process. Many of us actually do not want to know about this, probably that's why textile sector having being so innovative and modern is seen with eyes of negligence whereas fashion world is well known for its glamour, which comes from fibers those are spun and converted into fabric in the so called dirty and dusty atmosphere of a textile mill. If you read the full process parameters of making a fashion garment starting from simple fibers, you must be astonished that how a garment of XL size or that we say plus-size is still available today as low cost as $15. However, I am trying to share my knowledge in a simple or lay-man's process.

Fibers, the main raw material for making fabric, may be of natural types or may be of man made (synthetic) type. Among the natural fibers Cotton, Wool, Silk, Jute, Kevlar are a few to name. We are much more familior with synthetic fibers like polyester (Terylene), polyamides (Nylons), polyacrylonitrile (Acrylic) etc.

Fibers in raw form are taken to the spinning section where seeds are separated from Cotton, a process called Ginning, in case of other fibers Ginning is not required, but a complete cleaning of fibers from dirts and dusts is a must which is done in a machine called the Blow-room and passing the fiber tufts through different beaters.
Then fiber stearms are parallelized and made gradually of thinner cross-section by passing them through machines called Carding machine and several Drafting rollers. To get more parallel fiber and to make finer quality yarn in case of Cotton or Wool, a machine called Comber is introduced and the yarn produced is called combed yarn.

However, then the fiber streams are twisted in two gradual spinning machines, called Ring Frame followed by Roving Frame. The main twisting unit is Ring Frame. In modern systems, Rotor spinning (a modern high speed system of twisting the fibers) has substituted a large percentage of Ring Frames, due to high productivity of Rotor Frames, thus have considerably minimized the cost of yarn produced.

Now the yarns produced in spinning section come to warping section where series of yarns are wound on beams to feed them onto the looms for weaving. To avoid breakage of yarns in the high speed looms, a thin removable coating is given on the surface of the yarns, called Sizing.

Some fibers are continuous in nature, like Rayon or Silk, which are used directly to weaving, the spinning section is not needed for those fibers. In weaving section, mutually perpendicular yarns are interlaced in different fashions (according to design like plain, twill, satin etc.) to form the fabric. The series of yarns coming out from the back of the looms are interlaced by side-wise insertion of yarns. This side-wise insertion may be carried out by shuttle (old system), projectile (Sulzer Ltd), Rapier (two hands like device) or jet (Air or Water). The most modern and high speed loom is Air-jet loom. This air-jet loom is a turning point to reduce the cost of fabric due to its 5 times higher productivity than the old (shuttle) system.

Though the process of knitting is a bit different from loom weaving, but the major part of making fabric remains the same. The knitting machine is a totally different machine which performs the knitting action with the help of needles.

Dyeing or coloration of fabric can take place in different segments of the process sequence as per requirements. Dyeing may be done in fiber stage, yarn stage or in fabric stage. There are different types of dyes are available, most common are reactive, acid, basic, vat, azo etc. The color tone combination and the use of particular dye for particular fiber is a matter of scientific knowledge. Printing is another aspect of coloration where dyes are used along with water-insoluble adhesives to stick on the surface of the fabric. The designs of printing are migrated through grooved surfaces.

So, after this long process sequence, the fabric comes to the garment house where the fabrics are cut and stitched to give particular shape according to the requirements or we can say according to the fashion trends.
Is not it amazing that today when we see the banner of a quality brand garment in any website with captions like "50% off" or "only $15" or "free shipping", probably a few of us think about its long procedure of making which had started from some fibers.