All About Looks

Today we visited All About Looks, which is a family owned fabric business that has been open about 10 years. This store was opened by two sisiters and a mom when they realized their dream job was needed in Lubbock Texas. Starting off at making baby clothes when they began to have children, to making curtains, bedding, upholstering, and etc they began this small business and it has become big very quickly. It was very interesting all the things they had done to put into the store and the encounters they had not only opening but learning asthey went. The amount of fabric adn quality of fabric was very neat to me. I really liked how they stated several times about standing behind their product because they know the outcome you will have with each situation and each fabric. It was inspiring to see the time and effort into something talented people started.

 

This picture is of the interiors of the store from the back room. This is showing all the fabrics that they have and the variety a client is able to have.

 This is the front of the sotre when you walk in with tables of products and selections from books, samples, and the front desk for one of the lovely ladies to work from on the floor. The displays throughout the store was very neat and an easy illistration to a client.

 

This machine is the electric sewing machine. It is very expeonsive but gets the job done right. This is the stores life saver when tings need to be sewn together. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the field trip and found it interesting howeasy it is to build a dream and making something into a reality. Very well planned and a great reasourse for Lubbock to have for many interior designers and future clients coming in. 

Fiber and Biopolymer Research Institute

My favorite part of this field trip was actually seeing the process of how our fibers get from one condition and place to our homes and everyday lives. The tour guides were very infomative about each piece of machinery and showed how much time and money goes into each machine and fiber. It was really interesting and neat seeing everything from its origional state.

This Machine is the Martindale abrasion tester. The Number of rubs is then programmed into the machine and will stop upon completion of that specific number of rubs. 

This machine is called the Quick wash

The tearing strength emendorf
This machine determines the tearing force of a fabric and also gives the person an idea of how the fabric would react to numerous life situations fabrics encounter on a daily basis.



The random tumbler tester. The next few images determine the amounf of force in order to break the fabric. This will eventually determine the effective strength of the fabric.

                                                                   The cotton scope

                                                              The elongation machine

                                         This big mahine counts the size, measures, break, and weighs yarn.
                                                          The stregth is the ultimate result.

 

Each machine was used for its own discovery and was needed throughout the process. It was very interesting to see each machines overall and indivual process that delievers to get the final result.

Cotton: From Field to Fashion

From Field to Fashion

Emily Bickford

ID: 3311 Texas Tech University

    Have you ever stopped to think what happens before you get a finished product such as a drapery panel for a window or an upholstered chair for your living room? From the field to the runway to your home, cotton is a wonderfully versatile and worldly important fiber used for many products, making it widely traded. In almost everything we touch, sleep on, see, or feel is inspired or made in some form of cotton. Cotton is a fluffy, white, naturally occurring fiber plant that is used in many areas of our lives. Cotton holds an important impact on America’s Past, Present, and Future, known as the most popular fabric in our lives.

Characteristics

Cotton is generally treated as an annual plant from a short shrub averaging from 2-6 feet tall. Cottons absorbance, year-round comfort, softness, performance, and durability are only selected qualities that make cotton the most popular fiber used on an everyday basis.  Due to the fibers structure that can hold up to 27 times its own water weight, cottons absorbance is the most liked quality after years of use. Cotton not only blends well in any aspect it’s used, but is also resistant to abrasion, sunlight and soil. The fiber has become the best selling fabric in the world and because of the commercial value; cotton signifies a substantial factor of foreign exchange earnings all over the globe.

History           

Unfortunately no one knows how old cotton is, but researchers have found pieces of cotton in the caves of Mexico dating back to 7,000 years ago. They also discovered that cotton was much like that grown in America today. In Pakistan, dating about 3,000 BC, cotton was being grown, spun and woven into cloth in the Indus River Valley. Around this time, the natives of Egypt were wearing and making the cotton clothing. It is known that upon Columbus’ arrival cultivated two types of cotton. Around 800 AD the Arab merchants brought cotton cloth to Europe, and when Columbus found America in, he found cotton first growing in the Bahama Islands. It is unknown how cotton traveled from the Old World to the New World, but one idea proposes that from the origins in Africa and Asia Minor trade routes were extant from the east coast of Africa and western coast of India. By 1500, cotton was known throughout the world. Cotton being very labor intensive crop to harvest and prepare for spinning, before Eli Whitney’s cotton gin this was all very hard and slow, but since the discovery of the gin the yield has increased greatly.  Cotton was first spun made by machinery and later made in a cotton gin. The cotton gin made new opportunities and possibilities of supplying large quantities to the vastly growing industry. Within 10 full years, the value of the U.S. cotton crop rose to millions. Today cotton is produced on 17 states across the southern United States and Texas being the leading producer of upland cotton.

Coming from a family that has grown cotton for many years, I have found firsthand how cotton has impacted and been used in my life. This Fiber has impacted my life, the fashion of my home and my clothing on an everyday basis. Cotton has given America and the rest of the world many opportunities and possibilities of growth and advancement.  Cotton has the natural qualities that people prefer, such as comfort, durability, versatility, that has maintain the position and reputation of the fabric of our lives for years in the past and years to come.