A Thread In A Fabric By: Martha Brummitt
Most days, everything I wear is either knitted or woven, and so is the bedding I sleep on. With the exception of synthetic materials such as a “fleece jacket” (not to be confused with a “sheep’s fleece”), knitted and woven materials dominate fabric construction. Knitted fabrics, which includes most cotton shirts, socks, nylons, sweatshirts, pillow cases and bed sheets are made up of one continuous thread that starts with a loop pulled through a loop, pulled through a loop, and so on. If you pull the tail of the last loop, the knitted fabric effortlessly unravels*. Woven fabrics, i.e. most duvet covers, rugs, jeans, and plaid shirts, are made up of many threads over-‐ and under-‐lapping each other at 90-‐degree angles. Fold your hands with your elbows out like wings. Keeping your fingers interlaced and your elbow wings out, slowly straighten your elbows and your fingers will weave. Why does this all matter? Because clothing is the second most consumed human good (after food)1, and today it is the cheapest in price and quality of the garment in history. The textile industry – producers and consumers in the U.S. and abroad – treats clothing as a disposable good. Clothing manufacturers use cheap, international labor in order to produce and sell massive volumes of clothes. In 1990, 50% of the clothes bought in the U.S. were manufactured in the U.S., but now only 2% of what we wear is made in our country2. Cheap production costs drive retail prices down, allowing consumers to readily buy clothing and keep up with society’s fast-‐changing fashion trends. Clothing is so inexpensive that instead of mending or repurposing what we have, the new norm is to throw out the old and buy new. The average American owns over * If knitted fabrics unravel so easily then why does it not happen more often? First, the knitted fabric, say the cotton T-‐shirt, is sewn along the perimeter of the fabric securing the end of the thread. Second, when a hole appears it means a loop has fallen out of another loop. The loop at the site of the hole and each loop beneath it – like a ladder – will de-‐loop when stretched, which is why nylons “run” up and down. 1 Cox, Stan. “Dress for Excess: The Cost of Our Clothing Addiction,” November 30, 2007, www.alternet.org.environment/69256. 2 Cline, Elizabeth L. Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion. New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2012. 5. Print.