Cotton Fabric

Cotton Farming * Cotton is grown all over the world but the biggest cotton-growing nations are China, India, the United States, Brazil and Pakistan. After the flowers of the cotton plant have blossomed they fall off and a round green seed pod called a cotton boll remains. The cotton boll ripens in the sun and its cellulose fibers expand until they ripen and burst out of the boll. At this point the cotton plant is ready to be harvested.
Cotton Harvesting * Although cotton used to be picked by hand, it is now almost entirely harvested mechanically. The cotton is harvested either with a cotton-picking machine that twists the cotton boll from the plant or a cotton-stripping machine that strips the entire boll from the plant. The harvested cotton bolls are packaged into large bales for transportation to a cotton mill.
Cotton Ginning * Cotton bolls are processed in a cotton gin that removes the seeds and pods from the cotton fibers. The gin cleans and dries the raw cotton and removes any debris by passing the cotton over a series of fine combs. The combs also brush the fibers straight and aligns them to make clean lint. The lint is pressed into large bales, which are categorized by professional cotton assessors according to the staple length, color and cleanliness of the cotton, all of which affect its value. The lint is usually sold and then sent to a textile mill to be turned into cloth.
Cotton Spinning * When bales of lint reach the textile mill they are further cleaned by a machine that blows the fibers. The lint is sorted by fiber length as only the longer cotton fibers are suitable for spinning into thread. The shorter fibers are separated and sent elsewhere for production of paper and other products. The longer fibers are processed by a carding machine that combs and aligns the fibers into a long, soft rope called a sliver. The sliver is taken to a spinning frame to be spun into thread. The machine draws out individual cotton fibers from the