SELECTION OF FABRICS

Evening Star, Issue 20256, 17 August 1929, Page 4

SELECTION OF FABRICS

A very interesting talk on the selecting of fabrics was given by .Miss Bowbyes at a meeting of the Homo Economics Association at the University on Tuesday night. The speaker was surrounded by dozens of fabrics of all materials, colours, and designs, the handling of which by those present gave special point to the theme. The high cost of production of silk and of wool has been .an incentive to the substitution of these fibres. So far no accepted substitute for wool has been able to challenge its absorbency, softness, and low conduction ,of dicat._ Linen still holds first place, in spite of its expense, for durability and appearance as.house linen.

As early as 1844 a French chemist, in his efforts to manufacture silk from cotton and wood pulp, was not successful in making silk, but did produce a new fibre,: artificial silk. In its early stages of manufacture tins fibre was very obviously not silk; its sheen was too bal’d and bright, it would not fall in good folds, would not retain its shape, and* crashed badly. Each year tremendous advances in the manipulation of the fibre have produced materials so skilfully combined with a minimum of silk or cotton that it is only tho most careful examination that will reveal the time composition of tho fabrics which are sold under trade names and not as artificial silks.

The cotton-spinning industry »lias been greatly stimulated by the competition of artificial silk, so that there are now on the market cotton materials of wonderfully fine weave and most artistic in colouring and design. In choosing fabrics the selector should know the composition of the material chosen. Cotton being the cheapest fibre, is not likely to bo anything other than cotton, but the expensive fibres, silk and wool, , are very often worked up with artificial- silk or cotton. While great stress is laid on the advantages of artificial silk for underclothing on account of its permeability to ultra violet ray, its deficiencies as regards warmth must be taken into account.