Pattern family
Natural Fibers
Every cloth begins as fiber, and before the manufactured fibers of the twentieth century there were only the ones grown by nature. They fall into two kinds. Plant or cellulose fibers come from seeds, stems, and leaves: cotton from the boll, and the bast fibers linen, hemp, and ramie from the stalks of their plants. Animal or protein fibers come from coats and cocoons: wool from sheep and silk from the silkworm. These few materials clothed the entire world for thousands of years, and almost every other cloth in this catalogue is one of them woven, knitted, or finished a particular way.
Cotton
No. 126fabric · fibers
Wool
No. 127fabric · fibers
Silk
No. 128fabric · fibers
Hemp
No. 129fabric · fibers
Ramie
No. 130fabric · fibers
Jute
No. 152fabric · fibers
Sisal
No. 153fabric · fibers
Settle the confusions
From the journal
Keeping water out is the oldest problem in cloth. The answers run from greased sailcloth and waxed cotton to the microporous membrane, and each one trades something away.
The Long Chase for Artificial Silk →For three centuries, chemists tried to make silk without the silkworm. The chase gave us rayon, acetate, nylon, and polyester, and the modern wardrobe.