How will changes in water availability impact the sustainability of cotton? With climate change, we see some changes in how much and what quality of water is available in different regions of the globe. Places that used to depend on rain to grow their crops might see less in the future while other places will deal with increased flooding or sea level changes. Cotton competes with food for water, so we need to keep this in mind when thinking about the future of fashion.

Cotton is a popular fiber and this makes it a popular topic for research and development for sustainability. In this episode, I discuss the difference between conventional and organic agriculture in the United States and how this might impact the sustainability of cotton. My goal is to introduce concepts related to agriculture to my fashion students and explain how genetic modification is used in producing cotton that uses less pesticides. This is the first of a set of two episodes on this topic. 

I haven’t started a new season of this podcast, which is a companion to my Textiles course at Texas State University because the course is complete.  However, I know that some people are looking for a recent episode to decide if the podcast is worth the listen. I will also be uploading two episodes from a lecture I am giving at a University in Tokyo in December. So, if you new to TextileUpdate, please go back to Season 2 and set your setting to see the oldest episodes first. Start with the episode titled Fiber Properties 1A and then go in order through season 2 to get my full college course. 

I start a new season of the podcast with each new session of my Textiles course. Rather than make students go back in time, I duplicate episodes from previous seasons, and put them in the proper order. Season 3 will start on January 20th, but I am going to release the first episode, on Fiber Properties, a bit early to whet your appetite. If you have been listening to Season 2, you can continue to enjoy the same content there, or you can start over with a new year and a new season. i will insert a bit more new content and the spring goes along.

Water, stains, we can repel them all! Radiation, Fire, no problem!

Changing the properties of textiles is the goal of functional finishing.

Besides Luster and Hand, we can change the Design or Texture of fabrics.

Aesthetic finishes are used to change the look or feel of fabric by changing the luster or the hand.

Routine finishes include bleaching, ironing and tentering.

Printing and dyeing can have some quality issues that it is helpful to understand.

Direct printing also includes screen printing and inkjet printing while indirect printing solves a problem we have since the invention of synthetic polymers.

The methods used for printing have developed over time.

We can dye at different stages during the production process. We can use dyes to make designs in a process called “resist printing”.

How do we improve the affinity of dyes for fibers?

We give color to textiles using dyes and pigments.

We don’t need to use fibers to make nonyarn fabrics, we can just use polymers in solution or look to nature.

The nonyarn fabrics usually have fairly descriptive names.

We can make fabrics without using yarns.

Weft and warp knits don’t have warp or weft yarns, but they do go in different directions. The warp knits include tricot and raschel knits.

The weft knits include jersey, rib and purl knits.