What non-woven cloth that is produced by matting and pressing fibers is the oldest form of fabric known to humankind?
"were popular. In the early part of the 20th century, cloth felt hats, such as fedoras, trilbies and homburgs, were worn by many men in the western world. Felt is often used in footwear as boot liners, with the Russian valenki being an example. Felt Felt is a textile material that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing fibers together. Felt can be made of natural fibers such as wool or animal fur, or from synthetic fibers such as petroleum-based acrylic or acrylonitrile or wood pulp-based rayon. Blended fibers are also common. Felt from wool is considered to be the"
"or wool. Unlike weaving, knitting does not require a loom or other large equipment, making it a valuable technique for nomadic and non-agrarian peoples. The oldest knitted artifacts are socks from Egypt, dating from the 11th century CE. They are a very fine gauge, done with complex colorwork and some have a short row heel, which necessitates the purl stitch. These complexities suggest that knitting is even older than the archeological record can prove. Earlier pieces having a knitted or crocheted appearance have been shown to be made with other techniques, such as Nålebinding, a technique of making fabric by"
"Textile manufacturing by pre-industrial methods Textile manufacturing is one of the oldest human activities. The oldest known textiles date back to about 5000 B.C. In order to make textiles, the first requirement is a source of fibre from which a yarn can be made, primarily by spinning. The yarn is processed by knitting or weaving to create cloth. The machine used for weaving is the loom. Cloth is finished by what are described as wet processes to become fabric. The fabric may be dyed, printed or decorated by embroidering with coloured yarns. The three main types of fibres are natural"
"composite cloth garments (as for example jackets) was traditionally made of linen, hence the word ""lining"". Textiles in a linen weave texture, even when made of cotton, hemp and other non-flax fibers, are also loosely referred to as ""linen"". Such fabrics generally also have their own specific names, for example fine cotton yarn in a linen-style weave is called Madapolam. Linen textiles appear to be some of the oldest in the world: their history goes back many thousands of years. Fragments of straw, seeds, fibers, yarns, and various types of fabrics dating to about 8000 BC have been found in"
"a wide variety of thread or yarn color. Textile manufacturing by pre-industrial methods Textile manufacturing is one of the oldest human activities. The oldest known textiles date back to about 5000 B.C. In order to make textiles, the first requirement is a source of fibre from which a yarn can be made, primarily by spinning. The yarn is processed by knitting or weaving to create cloth. The machine used for weaving is the loom. Cloth is finished by what are described as wet processes to become fabric. The fabric may be dyed, printed or decorated by embroidering with coloured yarns."
"Sewing Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era. Before the invention of spinning yarn or weaving fabric, archaeologists believe Stone Age people across Europe and Asia sewed fur and skin clothing using bone, antler or ivory needles and ""thread"" made of various animal body parts including sinew, catgut, and veins. For thousands of years, all sewing was done by hand. The invention of the sewing machine in the 19th century and the rise of computerization"
"400 B.C. in India where cotton was first grown. Natural fibers have been used for the past 4000 to 5000 years to make cloth, and plant and animal fibers were the only way that clothing and fabrics could be created up until 1885 when the first synthetic fiber was made. Cotton and flax are two of the most common natural fibers that are used today, but historically natural fibers were made of most parts of the plant, including bark, stem, leaf, fruit, seed hairs, and sap. Flax is believed to be the oldest fiber that was used to create textiles,"
"in Denmark. The oldest known samples of single-needle knitted clothing include the color-patterned sandal socks of the Coptic Christians of Egypt (4th century CE), and hats and shawls from the Paracas and Nazca cultures in Peru, dated between 300 BC and 300 AD. Historically needles were made out of wood, antler or bone. Contemporary selections also include plastic. Nålbinding is believed to predate knitting and crochet. Historical samples have often been misidentified as knitting due to how closely they can appear in the finished products if made using the Coptic stitch. Often a textile historian will need to closely follow"
"quilting layers of textile fabrics together—has been found throughout history. The earliest examples have been located in Egyptian tombs and also in early age of China about 5000 years ago. Further finds have been dated from the early Middle Ages, where layers of quilted fabric were used in the construction of armor—this kept the soldiers warm and protected. Japanese armor was made in a similar fashion. Using this technique, quilts began to appear in households of the 11th to 13th centuries. As the European climate became colder around this time, the incidence of the use of bed quilts rose, and"
"History of quilting Quilting, the stitching together of layers of padding and fabric, may date back as far as ancient Egypt. In Europe quilting appears to have been introduced by Crusaders in the 12th century (Colby 1971), in particular in the form of the aketon or gambeson, a quilted garment worn under armour which later developed into the doublet. One of the earliest existing decorative works is the Tristan quilt, made around 1360. M Sicily, and as one of the earliest surviving quilts in the world, at least two sections survive at the V&A Museum (London) and in Bargello palace"
"only by special environmental conditions. The oldest known textiles in the Americas is some early fiberwork found in Guitarrero Cave, Peru dating back to 10,1000 to 9,080 BCE. The oldest known textiles in North America are twine and plain weave fabrics preserved in a peat pond at the Windover Archaeological Site in Florida, the earliest dating to 6,000 BCE. As previously mentioned, fragments of rope and textiles dating back between 12,100 and 11,080 years ago have been unearthed from Guitarrero Cave in Peru. Because of the extremely dry conditions of the desert sands, twined textiles from the Norte Chico civilization"
"have begun between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago. However, a second group of researchers using similar genetic methods estimate that clothing originated around 540,000 years ago. For now, the date of the origin of clothing remains unresolved. Some human cultures, such as the various peoples of the Arctic Circle, traditionally make their clothing entirely of prepared and decorated furs and skins. Other cultures supplemented or replaced leather and skins with cloth: woven, knitted, or twined from various animal and vegetable fibers including wool, linen, cotton, silk, hemp, and ramie. Although modern consumers may take the production of clothing for granted,"
"is most often spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile. The use of cotton for fabric is known to date to prehistoric times; fragments of cotton fabric dated to the fifth millennium BC have been found in the Indus Valley Civilization. Although cultivated since antiquity, it was the invention of the cotton gin that lowered the cost of production that led to its widespread use, and it is the most widely used natural fiber cloth in clothing today. Current estimates for world production are about 25 million tonnes or 110 million bales annually, accounting"
"sewing machine, or by a specialized longarm quilting system. Quilt stores often sell fabric, thread, patterns and other goods that are used for quilting. They often have group sewing and quilting classes where one can learn how to sew or quilt. The origins of quilting remain unknown but sewing techniques of piecing, appliqué, and quilting have been used for clothing and furnishings in diverse parts of the world for several millennia. The earliest known quilted garment is depicted on the carved ivory figure of a Pharaoh dating from the ancient Egyptian First Dynasty (). In 1924 archaeologists discovered a quilted"
"in Eurasia and Africa since ancient times. The first discoveries of pieces of linen was from Egypt and date from the fourth century. Cloth, used for mummy wrappings, was coated with wax, scratched with a sharp stylus, and dyed with a mixture of blood and ashes. After dyeing the cloth was washed in hot water to remove the wax. In Asia, this technique was practiced in China during the T'ang dynasty (618–907), in India and Japan in the Nara period (645–794). In Africa it was originally practiced by the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria, Soninke and Wolof in Senegal. Resist dyeing"
"artifacts include imprints in clay and burned remnants of cloth. The oldest known textiles found in the Americas are remnants of six finely woven textiles and cordage found in Guitarrero Cave, Peru. The weavings, made from plant fibres, are dated between 10100 and 9080 BCE. The earliest known Neolithic textile production in the Old World is supported by a 2013 find of a piece of cloth woven from hemp, in burial F. 7121 at the Çatalhöyük site suggested to be from around 7000 B.C. Further finds come from the advanced civilisation preserved in the pile dwellings in Switzerland. Another extant"
"to form complex Celtic knots and other patterns that would be difficult to knit. Unknitted yarns may be worked into knitted fabrics for warmth, as is done in tufting and ""weaving"" (also known as ""couching""). The word is derived from ""knot"" and ultimately from the Old English ""cnyttan"", to knot. Nålebinding (Danish: literally ""binding with a needle"" or ""needle-binding"") is a fabric creation technique predating both knitting and crochet. One of the earliest known examples of true knitting was cotton socks with stranded knit color patterns found in Egypt from the end of the first millennium AD. The first commercial"
"and needles made of bone; the indigenous peoples of the American Plains and Canadian Prairies used sophisticated sewing methods to assemble tipi shelters. Sewing was combined with the weaving of plant leaves in Africa to create baskets, such as those made by Zulu weavers, who used thin strips of palm leaf as ""thread"" to stitch wider strips of palm leaf that had been woven into a coil. The weaving of cloth from natural fibres originated in the Middle East around 4000 BC, and perhaps earlier during the Neolithic Age, and the sewing of cloth accompanied this development. During the Middle"
"'artisan who works in hard materials', from PIE ""dhabh-"", meaning 'to fit together'. The word 'cloth' derives from the Old English ""clað"", meaning a ""cloth, woven or felted material to wrap around one"", from Proto-Germanic ""kalithaz"" (compare O.Frisian 'klath', Middle Dutch 'cleet', Dutch 'kleed', Middle High German 'kleit', and German 'kleid', all meaning ""garment""). The first clothes, worn at least 70,000 years ago and perhaps much earlier, were probably made of animal skins and helped protect early humans from the ice ages. Then at some point people learned to weave plant fibers into textiles. The discovery of dyed flax fibres"
"3D braided fabrics 3D braided fabrics are fabrics in which yarn runs through the braid in all three directions, formed by inter-plaiting three orthogonal sets of yarn. The fiber architecture of three-dimensional braided fabrics provides high strength, stiffness, and structural integrity, making them suitable for a wide array of applications. 3D fabrics can be produced via weaving, knitting, and non-weaving processes. Three-dimensional braiding is among the oldest and most important of textile processes, transforming small natural fibers into more functional forms. Fabrics used in 3D braiding, such as rope, have been used since 4,000 BC. In 1748, patents for the"
"Sprang Sprang is an ancient method of constructing fabric that has a natural elasticity. Its appearance is similar to netting, but unlike netting sprang is constructed entirely from warp threads. Archaeological evidence indicates that sprang predates knitting; the two needlework forms bear a visible resemblance and serve similar functions but require different production techniques. Although examples of sprang have been unearthed from as early as the bronze age, sprang was almost entirely undocumented in written records until the late nineteenth century when archaeological finds generated interest in Europe. Museum examples of sprang had been misidentified as knitting or lace until"
"arts being passed on to young craftspeople. Contemporary art textiles sometimes employ sprang in wall hangings. Sprang Sprang is an ancient method of constructing fabric that has a natural elasticity. Its appearance is similar to netting, but unlike netting sprang is constructed entirely from warp threads. Archaeological evidence indicates that sprang predates knitting; the two needlework forms bear a visible resemblance and serve similar functions but require different production techniques. Although examples of sprang have been unearthed from as early as the bronze age, sprang was almost entirely undocumented in written records until the late nineteenth century when archaeological finds"
"been wearing shirt-like items of clothing since the invention of woven fabric 5,000 years BC. Although styles and methods of manufacturing changed, the underlying form remained the same: a tunic opened to the front with sleeves and collar. The shirt was worn directly next to the skin, it was washable and thereby protected the outer garments from contact with the body. Conversely, it also protected the skin against the rougher and heavier fabrics of jackets and coats by covering the neck and wrists. After the Middle Ages the visible areas of the shirt (neck, chest and wrists) became sites of"
"found in the Bible when Jacob hears of the apparent death of his son Joseph. According to archaeologists and anthropologists, the earliest clothing likely consisted of fur, leather, leaves, or grass that were draped, wrapped, or tied around the body. Knowledge of such clothing remains inferential, since clothing materials deteriorate quickly compared to stone, bone, shell and metal artifacts. Archeologists have identified very early sewing needles of bone and ivory from about 30,000 BC, found near Kostenki, Russia in 1988. Dyed flax fibers that could have been used in clothing have been found in a prehistoric cave in the Republic"
"India was the one of the first places where cotton was cultivated and used as early as 2500 BCE during the Harappan Era (3300–1300 BCE). Recent analysis of Harappan silk fibers in beads have shown that silk was made by the process of reeling, an art known only to China until the early centuries CE. The only evidence found for clothing is from iconography and some unearthed Harappan figurines which are usually unclothed. These little depictions show that usually men wore a long cloth wrapped over their waist and fastened it at the back (just like a close clinging dhoti)."
"developed in ancient China. The earliest example of silk has been found in tombs at the neolithic site Jiahu in Henan, and dates back 8,500 years. Silk fabric from 3630 BC was used as wrapping for the body of a child from a Yangshao culture site in Qingtaicun at Xingyang, Henan. Legend gives credit for developing silk to a Chinese empress, Leizu (Hsi-Ling-Shih, Lei-Tzu). Silks were originally reserved for the Emperors of China for their own use and gifts to others, but spread gradually through Chinese culture and trade both geographically and socially, and then to many regions of Asia."
"English in the Encyclopædia Britannica of 1880, in which it is spelled ""battik"". It is attested in the Indonesian Archipelago during the Dutch colonial period in various forms: ""mbatek"", ""mbatik"", ""batek"" and ""batik"". Wax resist dyeing of fabric is an ancient art form. It already existed in Egypt in the 4th century BC, where it was used to wrap mummies; linen was soaked in wax, and scratched using a stylus. In Asia, the technique was practised in China during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), and in India and Japan during the Nara Period (645-794 AD). In Africa it was originally"
"dyeing textiles (usually silk) using wood blocks invented in the 5th-6th centuries in China. An upper and a lower block is made, with carved out compartments opening to the back, fitted with plugs. The cloth, usually folded a number of times, is inserted and clamped between the two blocks. By unplugging the different compartments and filling them with dyes of different colours, a multi-coloured pattern can be printed over quite a large area of folded cloth. The method is not strictly printing however, as the pattern is not caused by pressure against the block. The earliest woodblock printing known is"
"oldest textile fibers in use. The Angora goat is thought to originate from the mountains of Tibet, reaching Turkey in the 16th century. However, fabric made of mohair was known in England as early as the 8th century. The word ""mohair"" was adopted into English sometime before 1570 from the Arabic: ""mukhayyar"", a type of haircloth, literally 'choice', from ""khayyara"", 'he chose'. In about 1820, raw mohair was first exported from Turkey to England, which then became the leading manufacturer of mohair products. The Yorkshire mills spun yarn that was exported to Russia, Germany, Austria, etc., as well as woven"
"from 3 to 9. The first form of sewing was probably tying together animal skins using thorns and sharpened rocks as needles, with animal sinew or plant material as thread. The early limitation was the ability to produce a small enough hole in a needle matrix, such as a bone sliver, not to damage the material. Traces of this survive in the use of bodkins to make eyelet holes in fabric by separating rather than cutting the threads. A point that might be from a bone needle dates to 61,000 years ago and was discovered in Sibudu Cave, South Africa."
"on a niddy-noddy. Putting the wool back on the niddy-noddy makes for a nicer looking finished skein. Before taking a skein and washing it, the skein must be tied up loosely in about six places. If the skein is not tied up, it will be very hard to unravel when done washing. Silk fabric was first developed in ancient China, with some of the earliest examples found as early as 3500 BC. Cultivation Silk moths lay eggs on specially prepared paper. The eggs hatch and the caterpillars (silkworms) are fed on fresh mulberry leaves. After about 35 days and 4"
"from the head louse some 170,000 years ago, which supports evidence that humans began wearing clothing at around this time. These estimates predate the first known human exodus from Africa, although other hominid species who may have worn clothes – and shared these louse infestations – appear to have migrated earlier. Sewing needles have been dated to at least 50,000 years ago (Denisova Cave, Siberia) – and uniquely associated with a human species other than modern humans, i.e. H. Denisova/H. Altai. The oldest possible example is 60,000 years ago, a needle point (missing stem and eye) found in Sibudu Cave,"
"African textiles African textiles were often made of animal hair and woven. Some of the oldest surviving African textiles were discovered at the archaeological site of Kissi in northern Burkina Faso. They are made of wool or fine animal hair in a weft-faced plain weave pattern. Some fragments have also survived from the thirteenth century Benin City in Nigeria. Some examples of African textiles are the following: Weaving is of great importance in many African cultures. The Dogon, for example, believe that spinning and weaving thread can be likened to human reproduction and the notion of rebirth. The color of"