TextileUpdate is an educational podcast about textiles with a special emphasis on textile science. What began as a podcast for university students taken from lecture recordings has expanded to special content about current issues in textiles. With a focus on sustainability, we cover technology, his…
I start a new season of the podcast with each new session of my Textiles course.
Water, stains, we can repel them all! Radiation, Fire, no problem!
Changing the properties of textiles is the goal of functional finishing.
Besides Luster and Hand, we can change the Design or Texture of fabrics.
Aesthetic finishes are used to change the look or feel of fabric by changing the luster or the hand.
Routine finishes include bleaching, ironing and tentering.
Printing and dyeing can have some quality issues that it is helpful to understand.
Direct printing also includes screen printing and inkjet printing while indirect printing solves a problem we have since the invention of synthetic polymers.
We can dye at different stages during the production process. We can use dyes to make designs in a process called “resist printing”.
We don't need to use fibers to make nonyarn fabrics, we can just use polymers in solution or look to […]
Weft and warp knits don't have warp or weft yarns, but they do go in different directions. The warp knits […]
Knits are far newer than wovens and borrow vocabulary from wovens.
Double cloths can use 3, 4 or 5 yarns instead of the usual two. Textured weaves, on the other hand, […]
Pile weaves can be made in so many ways and produce so many fabrics, including velvet, velveteen and corduroy. Plus, […]
The Jacquard Weave is pretty fancy, while the Leno weave is pretty dull looking.
The Dobby weave was very popular for several hundred years and remains a great choice for interiors.
The basket weave, twill weave and satin weave are three other types of basic weaves, although the basket weave is […]
The Basic Weaves start with plain weaves but this is the most diverse category of weaves, despite the plain wrapper.
What sort of properties are built into fabric during weaving and how can we identify them to help us differentiate […]
We make fabrics using several methods, but we will focus on weaving for now. How do looms work?
What is up with the Venus de Milo? She isn't Venus! But we love Goddesses of Spinning and Weaving, like […]
The Olefin polymer family goes by many other names, but Acrylic is famous for just being itself, and for being […]
The first synthetic fiber was nylon followed by polyester, both inveted by scientists at Dupont.
The late 10th century brought an eco-friendly player to the regenerated fiber scene, the generic name for this innovated fiber […]
The regenerated fibers are “manually” made. Manufacturing fibers from naturally concurring polymers, such as cellulose, is a major accomplishment of […]
We can modify manufactured fibers by adding compounds to the “dope”, we can change their size and cross section, we […]
Manufacturing fibers involved either using naturally occurring polymers or synthesizing polymers in the laboratory.
The minor cellulosic fibers include Hemp, Kenaf, Coir and Abaca. Isn't this fun?
What are the good and bad properties of fibers made from cellulose?
Silk is another important protein fiber that has a totally different history and set of properties, despite also being made […]
The specialty hair fibers include mohair, cashmere and camel, just to name a few.
This double length episode of the podcast focuses completely on wool, my favorite fiber.
This double length episode of the podcast introduces our first natural fiber, protein fibers, and explains some of the great […]
We wrap up our discussion of the internal morphology of fibers, focusing on polymer properties, by considering what the arrangement […]
While the surface morphology of fibers is an important influence on properties like luster and hand, it is the internal, […]
Fiber crimp deserves its own podcast because it is so cool! This 3D physical property influences lots of things like […]
Performance properties such as comfort as actually a dimension of performance made up of several properties, including absorbency.
We can categorize fibers using various features, including physical structures (morphology) that we can easily see under a microscope.
Our first podcast focuses on the properties of fibers that make the textiles we make out of these fibers behave […]
Last but not least, the twill and satin weaves are important examples of basic weaves.
The plain weaves include unbalanced plain weaves that have a distinctive ribbed surface.