Pattern family
Manufactured Fibers
Manufactured fibers are made by people rather than grown on a plant or an animal. They divide in two. Regenerated fibers like rayon and acetate are spun from natural cellulose (wood pulp or cotton linters) chemically reformed into thread, the first of them reaching the market around 1900 as artificial silk. True synthetics like nylon, polyester, acrylic, and spandex are built from petrochemicals, beginning with nylon in 1938. Together they remade the twentieth-century wardrobe, and polyester is now the most-used fiber on earth.
Rayon
No. 119fabric · manufactured
Acetate
No. 120fabric · manufactured
Nylon
No. 121fabric · manufactured
Polyester
No. 122fabric · manufactured
Acrylic
No. 123fabric · manufactured
Spandex
No. 124fabric · manufactured
Fleece
No. 125fabric · manufactured
Gore-Tex
No. 141fabric · manufactured
Neoprene
No. 142fabric · manufactured
Microfiber
No. 143fabric · manufactured
Cordura
No. 144fabric · manufactured
Lyocell
No. 150fabric · manufactured
Modal
No. 151fabric · manufactured
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.