Word “denim” comes from fabric “serge de
Nimes” made in France city of Nimes from where it originates. It has been used
in America since the late 18th century, colored blue with indigo dye to make
blue “jeans”, a type of cotton pants.
Easy care fabric for leisurewear covers a
major preparation of the total production of textiles. Not only classic and
basic denim in twill were in demand but also medium and higher qualities in
twill and chambray in demand. They are used for leisurewear, shirts, blouses,
and jackets. The original dark blue indigo- colors have changed and cover all
shades from super blue to black, light blue, light grey to brown. Now knitting fair
will introduces to you.
History of Denim
As early as 1873 denim was produced by
Bavarian Levi Strauss who emigrated to the USA. He manufactured trousers from
heavy cloth. He soon realized that this type of fabric was ideal clothing for
mine workers, farmers, and cowboys.
The production of denim has developed into a
major part of the world textile industry. Word “denim” comes from fabric “serge
de Nimes” made in France city of Nimes from where it originates. It has been
used in America since the late 18th century, colored blue with indigo dye to
make blue “jeans”, a type of cotton pants.
Jeans come from “Genes” – a name given by
French to Genoa and the people from Genoa where the cotton trousers were made.
In the 1800s, in the time of the Gold Rush, American gold miners needed clothes
that were strong, lasted longer and did not tear easily.
Levi Strauss, a businessman, and Jacob Davis,
a tailor, supplied miners with denim pants that were made from durable material
and reinforced with rivets at the places where pants tended to tear which
prolonged life of pants. This marked the beginning of the legend of jeans and
brand Levi Strauss is still hugely successful today.
Denim was first used for clothes worn by
workers because of its high durability. Then it became widely popular in the
1930s when Hollywood started making cowboy movies in which actors wore jeans.
With the beginning of World War 2, production of the jeans drops but world meet
denim when American soldiers started wearing them when they were on the leave.
When the war ended, other companies that made
denim started appearing like Wrangler and Lee.
Young people started wearing denim in the
1950s a mean of rebellion. This fashion was also inspired by Hollywood with by
Marlon Brando with his 1953 film “The Wild One” as well James Dean’s movie
“Rebel Without a Cause” from 1955. Some public places like schools and theaters
banned jeans because of what they symbolized.
Denim crossed from counterculture to fashion
in the 1960s and 1970s when manufacturers started to make different styles of
jeans. Fewer jeans were made during World War II, but ‘waist overalls’ were
introduced to the world by US soldiers, who sometimes wore them off duty. By
the 1960s, both men’s and women’s jeans had the zipper down the front. Historic
photographs indicate that in the decades before they became a staple of
fashion, jeans generally fit quite loosely, much like a pair of bib overalls
without the bib. Indeed, until 1960, Levi Strauss called its flagship product
“waist overalls” rather than “jeans”.
After James Dean popularized them in the
movie Rebel Without a Cause, wearing jeans became a symbol of youth rebellion
during the 1950s. During the 1960s the wearing of jeans became more acceptable,
and by the 1970s it had become a general fashion in the United States for
casual wear. However, the acceptance of jean to becoming casual wear is still
relatively low in Japan.
Examples of intentional denim distressing
strictly to make them more fashionable can be seen as early as 1935 in Vogue’s
June issue. Michael Belluomo, editor of Sportswear International Magazine,
Oct/Nov 1987, P. 45, wrote that in 1965, Limbo, a boutique in the New York East
Village, was “the first retailer to wash a new pair of jeans to get a used, worn
effect, and the idea became a hit.” He continued, “[Limbo] hired East Village
artists to embellish the jeans with patches, decals, and other touches, and
sold them for $200.”
In the early 1980s, the denim industry
introduced the stone-washing technique developed by GWG also known as “Great
Western Garment Co.” Donald Freeland of Edmonton, Alberta pioneered the method,
which helped to bring denim to a larger and more versatile market. Acceptance
of jeans continued through the 1980s and 1990s. Originally an esoteric fashion
choice, in the 2010s jeans may be seen being worn by men and women of all ages.
Denim is popular for long-term use and is a fashion fabric for casual wear.
General features of the denim fabric are as follows: Cotton or cotton-polyester
blended, durable and heavy-weight twill-weave. Maybe napped or printed, made
with spandex or other stretch yarns, or otherwise modified for fashion. Dec 13,
2018.
Origin of Denim
Denim is a type of cotton twill textile, in
which the weft passes under two or more warp threads. Warp threads of denim
fabric are dyed in indigo while weft threads remain plain white. Denim was
first used for clothes worn by workers because of its high durability.
With the rope dying system, the core of the
yarn usually remains white. This ensures the fading of the colors after
multiple washing. It should slowly become lighter. Denim is a type of cotton
twill textile, in which the weft passes under two or more warp threads. Warp
threads of denim fabric are dyed in indigo while weft threads remain plain
white. That is why denim is blue on the one side and white on the other. When
used for jeans, denim is turned blue on the outside and because of the way it
is made it fades in a characteristic way.
Original denim was dyed with dye from plant
Indigofera tinctoria. Modern denim is dyed with synthetic indigo. Denim is
often dyed with indigo and dried many times over to get a stronger color that
will not fade quickly. After the denim is made into clothing it as most often
washed to make it softer and to reduce or eliminate shrinkage. Denim that is
not washed is called dry or raw denim.
Denim fades in time and gets a worn outlook
which is often desired as a fashion detail. Some denim is artificially
distressed so a worn-out look can be got even before wearing. Denim that is not
made of pure cotton but also has an elastic component (most often elastane) is
stretch denim. Beside indigo dyeing, denim can be colored with sulfur dyeing
which is used for dyeing of denim in colors other than indigo.
Source:
Ashok Hakoo
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Knitting Fair introduced the history and
origin of Blue Denim Jeans in the last article. Now let’s learn what is denim
fabric made of.
What is denim fabric made of?
Cotton
Denim is a material made from 100% cotton.
This is a cotton thread that is used to make a particular weave. It has warped
threads in which a weft thread is placed under. This forms the traditional
diagonal ribbing on the surface of the material.
What is bull denim?
Cotton Bull Denim is perfect for slipcovers,
upholstery, draperies, pillow covers, headboards and much more. Bull Denim
fabric is often referred to as “tough as nails” due to the strong 3×1 twill
construction. Although the fabric is extremely durable it is also amazingly
soft!
Why are jeans blue?
Blue was the chosen color for denim because
of the chemical properties of blue dye. Most dyes will permeate fabric in hot
temperatures, making the color stick. The natural indigo dye used in the first
jeans, on the other hand, would stick only to the outside of the threads,
according to Slate.
Definition of Denim fabrics
A coarse, twilled cotton fabric, often blue,
traditionally used for overalls and work clothes and now used for jeans and
casual wear.
Denim Pants or another garment made of this
fabric.
A similar but finer fabric used in draperies
and upholstery.
Denim Characteristics
Cotton Thread and Twill Weave
Denim is made from cotton, which is spun and
free of any debris
Blue Color
A distinguishing feature of denim is its blue
color
Durability: Denim is very strong and does not
snag or tear easily. It is also breathable, can be ironed at a high temperature
and creases easily. Suitable for long wear, it is quite stiff when new, but
softens with repeated washings.
Raw materials used for blue denim fabrics: To
produce good quality denim, the conditions have to be optimal regarding the
quality of all the raw materials and yarn used. For raw cotton and the carded
OE (rotor) or ring-spun yarns made from it, the quality criteria are as
follows:
Minimum staple length: 2.7 cm.
The proportion of short fibers (less than 12
mm long): under 40%.
Micronaire value: 4.0 to 4.5.
The Uster values for strength and elongation,
for the evenness CV and imperfections, must conform at least to the 25% plot.
The usual count range of denim warp yarns is
50 to 90 tex and weft yarns is 75 to 120 tex; finer yarns as fine as 25 tex in
twill or plain weave are often used in denim shirts.
Twist factor: 4.5 to 5.0 for warp yarns, 4.2
for weft yarns.
Low yarn hairiness.
Yarn strength and uniformity.
True blue denim Fabrics are made out of 100
percent cotton warp and weft yarns. Fabrics are also made of Elastic core-spun
yarns which are used as a weft yarn for textile fabrics and has gained great importance
in the last decade due to the fact that stretch and recovery, comfort fits and
flexibility properties.
The dual core-spun yarns are composed of
cotton/ filament that contributes durability and polyurethane-based elastane
that provides stretchability to the fabrics. Hereby, both filament and elastane
characteristics have a great influence on denim performance at the same time.
The main purpose of using this type of yarns is to achieve the effect of
filament fineness and elastane draft on denim fabric performance such as
braking force, breaking elongation, tear force, vertical elastic recovery,
moisture management that is wicking rate and water absorption properties.
Meanwhile, filament core-spun yarns with
different filament fineness and 100% cotton yarn are also used as the weft of
the denim. It is found that that filament fineness and elastane draft had a
statistically significant effect on all inspected performances of denim fabrics
except water absorption.
Polyester blends are also manufactured and
are available, however, the overwhelming majority of jeans sold are 100 percent
cotton. The most common dye used is synthetic indigo.
What dye is used for denim?
Indigo
The primary use for indigo is as a dye for
cotton yarn, which is mainly for the production of denim cloth for blue jeans.
Why do jeans fade?
As an example, blue jeans fade where the
fabric is physically rubbed. Most other natural dyes fade equally in sunlight,
and minimally when rubbed. Indigo does not form a chemical bond with the fabric,
like other dyes. The reduced state is also necessary because indigo cannot
dissolve in water, it is insoluble.
Unique Structure of Indigo dye
Indigo, or wood indigo, is a unique dye. The
extraction process reflects the different molecular characteristics of indigo,
as compared to other natural dyes. As an example, blue jeans fade where the
fabric is physically rubbed. Most other natural dyes fade equally in sunlight,
and minimally when rubbed.
Indigo does not form a chemical bond with the
fabric, like other dyes. Instead, it forms a physical bond, bonding molecularly
to the fabric when reduced. The reduced state is also necessary because indigo
cannot dissolve in water, it is insoluble.
When the indigo molecules bond to the fabric and it is re-vetted, the
indigo forms layers – like bricks. This makes indigo very impervious to
sunlight, but indigo will fade with rubbing.
Source:
Ashok Hakoo
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The process of an undercover agent avoiding the enemy during a secret mission can be written as an exciting spy novel. However, the next interesting event about cryptography and craftsmanship is a true story. During World War II, an agent who appeared to be an innocent grandma, while watching the outside quietly, was dancing her knitting needles.
Granny's rigid, feminine appearance hides coded espionage information woven from fabric. The Belgian Resistance Army recruited her to look down at the railway and record the type and time of the train passing through the kitchen window.
The grandma is a learned craftsman. She has extraordinary technology, which can transform the patterns of letters and patterns into intelligence data and collect them. The eyes of ordinary people cannot see them. Only those who know how to decrypt can decipher this steganography Secret data is a technology that is hidden in ordinary, non-secret files or messages).
The review office at the time banned the sending of knitwear and crochet patterns abroad, suspecting that they held encrypted confidential communications. However, the code hidden on the knitted garment was never discovered by the inspectors.
British spy and skilled weaver Phyllis Latour Doyle airborne to Normandy, codenamed Paulette. Paulette is not an ordinary programmer. She has handicraft skills inherited from several generations of family knitters, which makes her a brave craftsman who can code in dangerous environments. As she rode her bicycle across enemy territory, she woven coded messages into scarves and caps. Seventy years later, the 93-year-old heroine received the Legion of Honor in recognition of her courage to assist the Allies. In contrast, James Bond (007) can only be considered an amateur detective. Maybe he should master the weaving technique ...
Charles Dickens, based on the inspiration of weaving codes, created the characters in the novel, that is, Mrs. Tas DeFage in The Twin Cities. As a knitting hand, Mrs. Defacci encoded the name of the beheaded person who was executed publicly at the guillotine during the French Revolution during the weaving. This is a bloody story presented by the hands of a craftsman.
Although the term "craftsmanship" was coined by sociologist Betsy Grier in 2003, brave women have been craftsmen for centuries. The earliest braids were made using a technique called "nalebinding", which was discovered at the Dura-Europo archeological site and dates back to 265 AD.
Computer code is a descendant of knitting and crochet code. It is produced by the code of wool fiber and the code of Internet fiber. Similar to the 0 state and 1 state of the binary computer, knitting has two kinds of stitches: lower stitch and upper stitch. Index variables with increasing and decreasing operations correspond to knitting rows with increasing and decreasing stitch counts. Knitting and crochet patterns are like computer programs: input a yarn and output a sweater.
Morse code knitting machines use a single upper stitch to indicate "drops" and three consecutive upper stitches to indicate "clicks" to create short and long encoded signals. The coder is a craftsman. In the physics lab at Georgia Tech, Dr. Elisabetta Matsumoto is officially researching weaving techniques as cryptography. Her research used yarn as a programmable material with more complicated stitching patterns than binary ones and zeros.
The secret weaving method of the spy is a lively mathematical topological structure, which makes this grandma a qualified instructor of Knit-to-Code, an organization that uses knitting as a computer simulation teaching simulation material. The logic used by both media is the same: learning to weave helps to learn to code. So, contrary to popular belief, grandma is actually on par with her granddaughter's millennial generation of computer experts.
Today, the protection of traditional craftsmanship continues. Susan Hewes is a top craftsman with two Guinness World Records: the first is to knit the longest scarf, the second is to crochet the longest chain ... both of which were completed during the marathon! This is an incredible feat in a multitasking coding project, and this weave also raises funds for Alzheimer's research.
Another meaning of coding is to allow handicrafts to carry narratives that reflect personal and collective thoughts and emotions. Feminists who fight for women's right to vote use embroidery patterns in various colors-purple for dignity, white for purity, and green for hope. From pink Pussyhats handmade to raise awareness about women's issues in the United States, to protest banners made to stop Soweto's gender violence Story Scarves, handicraft artwork contains coding clues, in Globally, inspiring thoughtful dialogue in the social fabric of our lives.
Some of these stories are submerged and inundated, waiting to be decoded. The importance of coding textiles lies in their potential significance. Humans are inherently capable of deciphering these meaningful codes. Craftsmanship is indelibly affected by the code, so that the yarn can also become our narrator, and the yarn show is a stage for the narrator.
Source: China Digital Science and Technology Museum
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