Testing fabrics and choosing clothing – natural, man-made and blended fibers
Design & TechnologyFood & TextilesAges 11–12
Use it with your class: students open it from a link or a QR code, with no account needed.
Next in Food & Textiles
A fabric-testing lab with four familiar tests: drop water to check absorbency, crease the fabric to check wrinkling, burn a fiber to check the ash, and test heat retention. Choose a fabric (cotton, silk, wool, viscose, polyester or a blend), click a button to run each test and see the result shown on screen alongside a chart of five properties. The simulation then scores how well the outfit suits the chosen weather and activity, with advice on choosing and caring for the fabric.
Lesson: Clothing in everyday life; common fabrics used in garment making and how to choose suitable clothing
What it shows
How a fabric feels and performs depends on its fibers. Natural fibers such as cotton, silk and wool absorb moisture and let air through; cotton and silk crease easily, while wool resists creasing and traps air, which makes it warm. Polyester, a synthetic fiber made from petroleum, is strong, dries fast and resists creasing but absorbs little water. Viscose is a man-made fiber regenerated from wood cellulose: it absorbs well and feels cool but creases easily. A cotton–polyester blend combines properties of both fibers. A burn test separates the fiber types: cellulose fibers (cotton, viscose) burn quickly with a burnt-paper smell and leave soft grey ash; protein fibers (wool, silk) burn slowly, curl away from the flame, often go out on their own, smell of burnt hair and leave a black bead that crushes easily; synthetic fibers shrink, melt and leave a hard bead. A cotton–polyester blend gives a mixed result: it burns and partly melts, leaving crumbly ash with hard beads and a mixed smell.
How to use
Choose a Fabric type, or click the fabric swatch to change it, then run the Drop water, Crease, Burn fiber and Heat retention tests and record each result with the five-property chart. Repeat for a natural, a synthetic and a blended fabric. Finally set Weather and Activity, for example hot and humid weather while playing sports, and compare the suitability scores of different fabrics to justify a clothing choice.
Parameters you can change
- Fabric type Cotton fabric – natural fiber, Silk fabric – natural fiber, Wool fabric – natural fiber, Viscose fabric – man-made fiber, Polyester fabric – synthetic fiber, Cotton–polyester blend, 65% + 35%
- Fabric test Water drop – absorbency, Crease test – wrinkling, Burn test – observe the ash, Heat retention test
- Weather Hot and humid (summer), Cold (winter), Rainy, damp, Cool
- Activity Going to school, Playing sports, Working, gardening, Attending a party or festival
Questions to explore
- Which fabric scores best for hot, humid weather, and which of its properties explain the score?
- How do the flame, the smell and the ash differ when you burn cotton, wool and polyester fibers?
- Why does the cotton–polyester blend wrinkle less than cotton yet absorb more water than polyester?
