Chapter 8 — Clothes — How Things are Made

Chapter 8 of the Class 5 The World Around Us NCERT textbook (Our Wondrous World), "Clothes — How Things are Made", explains how fibres become threads and threads become cloth through spinning and weaving — download the PDF and read a summary covering natural fibres, handloom traditions, embroidery, and the life cycle of the silkworm.

• Weaving: From Threads to Fabric — Weaving involves placing one set of threads vertically and another horizontally, then crossing them over and under to form a unified fabric. This same technique — used by the male baya weaverbird to build hanging pouched nests — creates cloth, mats, and baskets from materials like cotton, jute, bamboo, and silk.
• Spinning: Making Thread from Fibre — Thread is made by twisting fine hair-like strands called fibres together — a process called spinning. A charkha (spinning wheel) does this at scale; Gandhiji used hand-spinning of cotton into khadi as a symbol of self-sufficiency and the freedom struggle.
• Natural and Synthetic Fibres — Natural fibres come from plants and animals — cotton, linen, jute, wool, silk, and bamboo. Silk is extracted from the cocoon of the silk moth by placing cocoons in hot water and pulling out the thread. Synthetic fibres such as nylon, polyester, terylene, and rayon are made by humans from artificial materials.
• India's Handloom Traditions and Embroidery — India has woven cloth for over 4,000 years using hand-operated looms. Regional traditions include Kanjeevaram (Tamil Nadu), Pashmina (Kashmir), and Ikat (Odisha and Gujarat). Decorative stitching traditions — Chikankari (Lucknow), Phulkari (Punjab), Kantha (West Bengal), Banjara (Rajasthan), and Kashmiri embroidery, among others — use stitches not only to join cloth but to tell stories of place and culture.
• Recycling Cloth and Sustainable Practices — The chapter highlights that people in India traditionally pass clothes to younger siblings or repurpose old fabric into quilts rather than discarding it. Handloom weaving uses no electricity, making it eco-friendly; Kala cotton from Gujarat grows without chemicals or extra water.

1. 01The male baya weaverbird weaves grass strands over and under to build a strong, pouch-shaped hanging nest — the same over-under technique humans use to weave cloth.
2. 02India has been weaving cloth for over 4,000 years, and the Indian handloom sector employs over 45 lakh people, especially women and rural artisans.
3. 03Spinning is the process of twisting cotton fibres together to make thread or yarn; a charkha (spinning wheel) is the tool used for this.
4. 04Silk comes from the cocoon of the silk moth: cocoons are placed in hot water, the thread is pulled out, and it is made into silk fabric.
5. 05Natural fibres include cotton, wool, silk, linen, jute, and bamboo; synthetic fibres include nylon, polyester, terylene, and rayon.
6. 06Indian muslin was so fine it was called 'woven air' — an entire saree could pass through a ring; the Patola saree from Patan, Gujarat, takes 6 months to 1 year to weave.
7. 07The tailorbird stitches a nest by poking holes along the edge of a leaf and pulling plant fibres or spider silk through — just as a tailor sews cloth with a needle and thread.