How is Bamboo Fabric Made?

Bamboo is not just about cute pandas eating its shoots. It has become an excellent fabric choice for manufacturers.

The popularity of bamboo material is on its rise: as an eco-friendly alternative to cotton with many benefits, bamboo products get more and more fans. From socks to pillows, bamboo is used to make a wide variety of products.

However, many people still wonder how bamboo grass turns into the soft and breathable fabric. And the question is: How is bamboo fabric made?

Here’s the truth: You are reading this post because of its title, so you must want to know how the bamboo textile is made. In this article, you will find the answer to this question as well as the facts about the bamboo fabric that will explain the popularity of this material. Before you start reading, feel free to watch our quick video on the production process of bamboo fabric.

What is the Bamboo Fabric?

Bamboo fabric, also known as bamboo rayon, is different textiles that are made from the plant. Bamboo fabric is sustainable, breathable, and soft, so it’s used more and more often. Today, there are four basic types of bamboo fabric:

• Rayon: What is rayon from bamboo? Once a natural raw material goes through a chemical process, a cellulose fiber becomes rayon, and this fiber produces the textile fabric.
• Lyocell: Although lyocell is a form of rayon, it contains cellulose fiber made from dissolving pulp using dry jet-wet spinning, so it absorbs moisture faster.
• Blend with cotton: Some manufacturers add cotton to the bamboo fabric to make material slightly stronger.
• Linen fiber: The main benefit of this bamboo fabric type is its sustainability, but at the same time it loses softness and wrinkles easily.

All in all, the bamboo fabric is a natural material that is great for making various products.

Why Organic Bamboo Fabric is So Popular?

From world-known fashion brands like ASOS and Stella McCartney to eco-friendly green brands like Beaumont Organic, Thought, and Shift To Nature, the number of companies that want to bring sustainable clothing is growing.

Not only does the bamboo fabric have many benefits for shoppers who choose it, but it also allows brands to jump on the bandwagon of the eco-friendly trend, and therefore attract even more customers.

Since bamboo is one of the fastest-growing plants on the Earth, it doesn’t take much time to grow it, and therefore it’s easier for manufacturers to make fabric from it.

With so many reasons to choose bamboo fabric, it’s no wonder people find various everyday products made of this fabric: socks, clothing, bedding, pillows, towels, etc.

What makes customers look for bamboo products? Let’s take a look at the list of interesting facts about this material.

3 Interesting Facts about Bamboo Textile

When buying products, customers want to get something that can satisfy their needs and wants. Thus, they want to get products that help them both feel and look good, so the fabric matters. Why do people choose the bamboo textile? The following facts can explain it to you:

1. Products made of bamboo fabric serve you longer: Once you find your favorite item, you want to keep it looking new. If you choose synthetic materials, it’s more likely these clothes will wear out fast, losing the shapes and colors. The good thing about the bamboo fabric? It does not keep shrinking or bag after use. As a result, your clothes look good after washing.
2. Bamboo is the best fabric for people who suffer from allergies: If you have ever had allergic reactions, you know how much trouble they cause. Luckily, people can choose bamboo fabric for products and live a happy life. Why? It has antibacterial properties, so it minimizes the risk of allergies.
3. Sportsmen love the bamboo textile for their activewear: Doing physical activities is nearly impossible if you don’t have the right sportswear. Once you have good activewear, your performance increases and you enjoy the process. Thus, many sportsmen know the benefits of bamboo products - this material is breathable, UV resistance and it absorbs moisture well.

As you can see, bamboo products are taking the world by storm, so it’s the right time to understand how bamboo grass turns into the luxurious fabric.

How is Bamboo Made into Fabric

Although we all put on different clothes daily, just a few of us think how the fabric is created. Have you ever thought about this process? Instead of guessing how bamboo grass turns into fabric, take a look at the step-by-step process of bamboo fabric creation:

1. Plant bamboo in the Spring (March-June): Bamboo is a fast-growing evergreen plant that doesn’t need chemicals to grow. The best time for planting is spring (March-June), but fall (September-October) is also good.
2. Harvest bamboo plants: Once new shoots grow, it’s the right time to harvest bamboo. In most cases, it’s the end of the rainy season - the beginning of the dry season.
3. Cut bamboo into strips and chips: With the help of a wood saw or a metal saw, find the nodes and find the lower ring also known as the sheath ring. Before cutting bamboo, it’s also important to choose an angle of 45 degrees between the nodes. Be careful when cutting bamboo shoots and never throw culms them on hard ground.
4. Smash the plant to make bamboo pulp: Once it’s ready, turn stalks into small piece of raw bamboo. Then, use the pulper to put chips, keep the temperature in the pulper up to 145C, and heat it with steam to get bamboo pulp.
5. Pour the liquid through a filter to create long fibers: With the help of chemicals, manufacturers soak the bamboo chips for 1-3 hours to extract the cellulose from them and then transform this material into sheets.
6. Combine water and amine oxide to soften the fiber: Manufacturers put cellulose in a solution of sodium hydroxide (15-20%) to soak it at a temperature of 20-25C.
7. Spin it into bamboo yarn: After soaking, it’s important to let the material dry so that it will be easier to separate and spin the fiber into threads which are then spun into bamboo fiber yarns. The main thing about bamboo yarns is that they natural elasticity of 20%.
8. Weave into bamboo fabric: With the weaving method of the textile production, manufacturers turn yarns or threads into fabric. There are several methods to choose from, and they affect the characteristics of the cloth, so every manufacturer decides which one suits his needs best.

Now that you know the basics of bamboo fabric creation, you may have another reason to give bamboo products a try.

In Short

At first blush, it seems that the process of fabric creation is not easy, and that’s right. From growing bamboo plants to weaving fabric, it takes much time to create the final product. But even though it takes much time and knowledge to make bamboo fabric, it’s important to carefully take each step of it to ensure that the final cloth is high-quality. A proper bamboo fabric creation allows people to get sustainable clothes that bring positive emotions.

So, have this guide helped you understand more about bamboo? Are you ready to give bamboo fabric clothes a try?