Hello.

Thank you for joining me for today's Design and Technology lesson.

My name's Mrs. Fletcher and I'm here to help and guide you through your learning today.

Today's lesson is called Testing Fabrics and it's part of the 2D Shapes to 3D Products Stationary Storage Unit.

So let's have a look at what we'll be learning about today.

The outcome of today's lesson is I can test and select different fabrics to meet the needs of the user.

So that means in this lesson, we're going to get to look at a range of different fabrics and think about how the qualities or properties of that fabric needs to be considered when we're thinking about the type of products they use to make and how the needs of the user, so that means what the user wants the product to do and what they need the product for, has to be considered when we're choosing which type of fabric to use to make a product.

There are some keywords that we will need to use and that we'll see in today's lesson.

So let's have a look at those together.

So first of all, we've got the word woven.

Can you repeat that to your partner? Woven.

Well done.

And that's used to describe the way the cloth is made by crossing threads over and under each other.

So we'll get to look at that in a little bit more detail in this lesson.

Then we've got the word fabric.

Can you repeat that word? Fabric.

Well done.

And that's used to describe the material that's used to make clothes and blankets and curtains and things like that.

Then we've got the word flexibility.

Can you repeat that? Flexibility.

Well done.

And that describes how easily something bends or stretches.

So something that is very flexible easily bends and stretches and something that is not very flexible, doesn't have a lot of flexibility, is very stiff and hard to bend or change shape.

And then we've got the word waterproof.

Can you repeat that? Waterproof.

Well done.

And that means that something does not let water pass through it at all.

So today's lesson is split into two parts.

First of all, we're going to be investigating fabrics.

So this is where you'll get to get hands on with some different types of fabrics and have a look at the qualities and properties of those fabrics and consider what they are used for.

And then we'll move on to choosing some suitable fabrics for some specific products.

So think about how we know which type of fabric to use for a specific product.

So let's get started with that first part on investigating fabrics.

We use fabric to make a range of products that we use every single day.

So things like clothing, blankets, curtains and bedding, like pillowcases, some examples of what we use fabric to make.

But I bet you can think of some other examples as well.

So I want you to pause the video, have a look around you, have a think.

What other things can you think of that are made from fabric? Okay, welcome back.

What did you think? I had a look around me and I found some bags and some towels that are also made of fabric.

Hopefully you thought of a few more things as well.

Fabrics can be made from woven threads and woven threads are threads that cross over and under each other, like on this basket.

So if you have a look closely at this image of this basket, you can see the strips that are used to make the basket are woven underneath and over each other to lock them into place.

And that same pattern is used on woven fabric.

So if you look carefully here, this is a very magnified image of some fabric.

So we get to see those thin threads and how they are woven together, just like on the basket.

So they're not quite as easy to see all the time.

Sometimes you can see it with your eye, but sometimes you can't because threads are a lot thinner than the strips that were used on the basket.

But you can see exactly that exact same pattern of weaving in and out to make that fabric material.

Woven fabric comes in large rolls.

So when it's ready to be used to make a product, it's put onto a large roll to be sold.

And then that fabric can then be cut down and sewn together to make a range of different products like the cushion covers and the curtains that we talked about earlier.

So there the woven fabric on the roll has been turned into a range of different products there.

There are many different types of fabric and they're often used for different purposes.

Can you think of any fabrics that are used to make clothing? Pause the video, have a think.

How many can you think of? Okay, welcome back.

How many did you think of? So some of the most common fabrics that you find For use to make clothing are cotton, wool, silk, polyester and nylon.

So those are often used to make most of the clothing that we wear.

There are some others as well but those are the most common ones.

Quick check then before we move on.

How are threads turned into fabric? Are they woven, glued or dyed? Pause the video, have a think.

Okay, what did you think? Well done if you said they are woven.

Exactly, those fibres and threads are passed over and under each other to form that fabric material.

So different types of fabrics have different qualities.

So you get some types of fabrics that are lightweight, some types of fabrics are very strong and tough, some types of fabrics are warm and used to keep us warm and some types of fabrics are very decorative so they're used for decorative purposes.

The label inside a fabric product or a clothing product can sometimes tell us which types of fabrics have been used to make it.

So if you look at this example here, this is a label from inside a fabric clothing product and you can see it says it's made from 100% cotton.

So that means the whole of the product, the whole of the piece of clothing is made from cotton.

There's lots of other information on the label but we're interested in the type of fabric in today's lesson.

This label you can see that is made from 100% polyester.

So it's sometimes written in different languages but we're looking for that information about what type of fabric has been used to make the product.

Sometimes more than one type of fabric has been used.

So you can see here it says the shell which is the outside of the clothing product is made from 80% polyester, 18% viscose and 2% elastin.

So those three numbers need to add up to 100% we encountered for the whole of the clothing product.

Then we can see that the lining, that's the inside of the product, is made from a different type of fabric again.

So the lining is made from 100% polyester so the whole of the lining is made from one type of fabric.

And then on this last one here you can see again it's split up into different types of fabric so it's 64% viscose and 36% polyester.

So again those two numbers add up to make 100% which means the whole of that clothing product.

So some products are made from more than one type of fabric.

So let's have a look at the different types of fabric that we might be using to make fabric products.

So if you're thinking about natural fabrics, those are things like cotton and wool, things that come from natural sources, plants and animals.

Some fabrics are classed as synthetic fabrics and those are ones that are man-made so they're made using chemicals by people.

Then we've got types of fabrics that add stretch so things that are added to other fabrics to make them stretchy and those are things like Lycra or elastane.

So if you see those on a label that usually means the product is designed to be stretchy.

Then we've got some products that are made to be waterproof so either the material, the fabric itself is waterproof or they have a coating on them, a covering that makes them waterproof and those can be things like PVC or rubber so plastic type materials.

Then we've got fabrics that are made to be lightweight so things like silk is very soft and floaty and then we've got fabrics that are made to be strong and durable so to be tough and hard wearing so things like denim and leather are used for products that need to be strong and hard wearing.

Some fabrics are waterproof and that means that they don't let any water soak into them, they don't let any water pass through them and those are used for products like umbrellas and raincoats where we do not want the water to get through them, we want them to keep the water out.

Some products are suitable for use in water, so we use them in water like swimming costumes and wetsuits but they're not actually waterproof so they're chosen for other reasons so they might be chosen for their flexibility because they're nice and stretchy and easy to move around in or for their strength so they're hard wearing and they won't rip or tear easily and even though they're used in water they do get wet, they do hold water, they do let water get through them, so they're not waterproof even though they're used in and around water.

There is a way to test whether a fabric is waterproof by adding a few or dripping a few small drops of water onto the fabric.

By doing that you can see if the water soaks into the fabric, gets sucked up inside the fabric material then it's not waterproof.

But if the water sticks on top, it stays in little blobs on top and does not soak into the fabric, then that means it is waterproof.

So it will not let water get through it.

Quick check then, which of these products needs to be waterproof? Do we need a bag to be waterproof, do we need a towel to be waterproof or do we need a raincoat to be waterproof? Pause the video, have a think.

Welcome back.

What did you think? Well done if you said raincoat.

So the raincoat is the only one out of those three that has to stop the water from getting through.

We might want a bag to be waterproof, but it doesn't need to be.

And a towel, we do not want to be waterproof because we want it to soak up water to get us dry.

So a raincoat is the only one that actually needs to be waterproof out of those three products.

Time for a task now.

So we're going to have a look carefully and investigate some clothing products and we're going to try and find out what type of fabric has been used to make them.

So remember the labels on the products can help you with this by telling you what fabrics were used to make that product.

Once you've done that, I want you to have a look and think about how flexible that fabric is.

Is it stretchy or is it very stiff and hard to stretch? Then I want you to do the waterproof test on it and find out whether the water soaks in, which means it's not waterproof, or whether it sits on top, which means it is a waterproof product.

And I want you to record what you find in the table on the worksheet, or you can make a note of it on a piece of paper to show what you found.

So I had a go at this.

I started with a pair of jeans.

So that was my product.

I found the label and that told me that this product was made from cotton.

Denim is a type of cotton.

So denim jeans are made from cotton.

I then had a go at stretching and pulling them to see how stiff, how flexible they were.

And I found that they were quite stiff.

They're not very stretchy, not very flexible at all.

And then I did the waterproof test and I found that the water soaked into this product.

So that means this is not a waterproof product.

So I recorded all those findings in the table that you can see there.

So I want you to do the same with some of the other items of clothing that are in front of you and see what you find out.

Pause the video and come back when you've had a go.

Welcome back.

So what did you find out? So if you were looking at some T-shirt products, you may have found that they were made from a cotton fabric, something similar to that.

They're usually quite flexible.

T-shirts are made to be quite flexible.

But you probably found that they were not waterproof, that they soaked up that water quite easily.

If you were looking at something like PE shorts, then you might have found they were made from a more man-made fabric like nylon, polyester, but they might have had a stretchy fabric in there as well, like an elastane.

And that's to make them comfortable and easy to move around in when you're doing something like PE.

You probably found they were quite stretchy, again, to make them comfortable.

They were quite flexible.

But you probably found that they were also not waterproof.

And that's because that product doesn't need to be waterproof.

If you tested something like a coat, then you might have found that it was made from a man-made fibre like polyester and that it was quite stiff, so quite hard-wearing material.

A coat is designed to get a lot of use and to be hard-wearing.

But you probably found that it was waterproof.

The fabric used was waterproof because coats are a product that we want to be waterproof.

Not all coats are waterproof, so you might have found a one that was not waterproof, but some coats are specifically designed to be made from a fabric that is waterproof to protect us from the weather.

So hopefully you managed to record lots of different types of products and you found out some information about the fabrics used for them.

The next part of the lesson is where we get to look at choosing suitable fabrics for some specific products and some specific needs.

So when choosing fabrics, we need to consider the product and the needs of the user.

So that means we need to think about what the product is, what it's going to do, and what the user will need the product to do and how it would need to perform.

So if we're thinking about something like this, this is a towel product, a cotton towel.

We need to think about what it will be used for.

So a towel is used for drying, drying yourself, drying a person, often after washing or going swimming, something like that.

So the qualities we need, the fabric that's used to make a towel, is it needs to be thick, it needs to be soft so that it's easy and nice to use, and we need it to be absorbent.

So that's a word that's used to describe fabrics that soak up water, those ones that are not waterproof, absorbent, they soak up water.

And the towel needs to do that because we want it to soak up the water to dry us.

So that's the things we need to think about when we're choosing the material, the fabric that's used to make that product.

If we were thinking about a pair of gloves, for example, a woollen pair of winter gloves, we have to think about what they will be used for.

So they'll be used for keeping your hands warm, protecting your hands from the cold weather.

So we use that information to think about what type of fabric will do that job.

So in this case, we need a fabric that's soft and flexible and warm.

So in this case, a wool was chosen and a wool is a type of very flexible, soft, warm fabric, and that will do the job that we want it to do.

Now gloves are an example of a type of product that can have different uses.

So we've just seen there a pair of gloves that are used for winter to keep us warm.

But here is another type of glove, and this product is a pair of leather gardening gloves.

So these have a different use, a different purpose.

These are used for protecting the hands when we're doing gardening, so protecting it from the weather, from sharp objects, from water or from things rubbing on our hands.

And so they have a very different use to the winter gloves that we've just seen.

So that means we need the product, the fabric that we use for this product to have different qualities.

We need a fabric that's stiff, waterproof and strong.

So that doesn't apply to wool.

So we wouldn't choose the same fabric for these type of gloves.

So in this case, a different fabric is chosen for these gloves than the winter gloves.

A leather fabric was chosen because leather is a fabric that is a stiffer product, it's more waterproof and it's stronger than wool.

Now Laura is having a go at thinking about what type of fabric she could use to make a new bag to carry her library books.

So she's been thinking about the use of the bag that she wants to make and the use is to carry her library books.

Now she's thinking that it needs to be strong because the books are very heavy.

She's thinking that it needs to be stiff so that it doesn't stretch out of shape when she puts those heavy books inside it.

But she's also thinking that it doesn't really need to be waterproof because she usually goes to the library in the car.

So there's no need for the bag to be waterproof.

It's not going to be used near water.

Can you help Laura? Have you got any ideas about what type of fabric might be suitable to use to make a bag for carrying her library books? Pause the video, have a think, have a chat with your partner.

What type of fabric do you think she should use? Welcome back.

What did you think? So you may have thought that she should use a fabric like a thick heavy cotton, something like a denim that we saw used on jeans earlier on.

And the good thing about that is that she could recycle an old pair of jeans to make this bag because recycling is a good way of reusing old fabrics to make new products.

And if she uses denim, then it will definitely be strong.

It won't stretch out of place.

And it's not waterproof, but she said it doesn't need to be.

So she's thought about all those elements and you may have agreed with that as well.

Quick check then, which fabric would be good for warmth? Which one would we use to make a clothing product to keep us warm? Would it be a thin smooth silk, a strong stiff denim or a thick soft wool? Which one would be best for warmth? Pause the video, have a think.

Okay, what did you think? Well done if you said a thick soft wool.

So just like those winter gloves that we saw earlier, a thick soft wool is a good type of fabric to use for products that we want to use to keep us warm.

Some fabrics are chosen for the way they look.

So things like wedding clothes, wedding dresses, novelty products like little outfits for festive occasions, costumes that you might dress up in or party clothes are often chose to look nice rather than to be hard wearing or long lasting.

So some things like wedding dresses are made to be worn once rather than lots and lots of times.

So something like a coat that's designed to be wear every day needs to be quite tough and hard wearing, have other qualities about it.

But things like these wedding clothes and party clothes often get less used so they are just made for the way they look.

Some products are made to give the user a choice.

So if you think about something like a coat, a coat is usually made in one of very few ways.

It's made to protect you from the weather, from the cold.

It might have a hood on it as well.

It might fasten up, might have pockets, but you get to choose something like the colour.

So, they might be different colours you can choose from when you go to buy that product.

And it's the same with things like socks.

Socks are made very similarly.

All socks are quite similar.

But you get to choose the pattern or the colour or the design that's on the socks when you go to buy them.

So, some of the elements of the fabric are just for the user to make that choice as well.

Quick check.

What did that word flexibility mean? So, we've seen it a few times in the lesson.

Can you remember what it means? Does it mean the pattern on something? Does it mean how something looks? Or does it mean how easily something bends? Pause the video and have a think.

Welcome back.

What did you think? Well done if you said it was how easily something bends.

So, flexibility means how easy it is to stretch or change the shape of a fabric product.

Time for a task now.

So, we've been looking closely at some fabrics and some clothing products to find out why certain fabrics are used.

But Andeep needs our help now.

So, Andeep is trying to choose between two pairs of gloves to buy to use to help his grandma with her gardening.

So, the first pair of gloves that he could buy is this pair A.

And they're made from 90% wool and 10% Lycra.

Or he could choose pair B which is made from 70% cotton, 25% rubber and 5% elastin.

So, he's got to think about what he wants to use those gloves for and what material, what fabric they're made from and whether that's suitable for what he wants to use them for.

And I want you to help him with that.

Can you decide which pair you think Andeep should choose and explain on the worksheet or on a separate piece of paper by talking about the product, what it will be used for and the fabric that those two choices are made from and how that would make it suitable for use by Andeep for that purpose? Pause the video and come back when you've had a go.

Welcome back.

So, hopefully you had a good think about which pair Andeep should choose and you might have answered something like this.

I think Andeep should choose pair B because they will be strong and he needs a strong pair of gloves to protect his hands from the weather and sharp thorns or branches when he is gardening.

This pair, which is pair B, is made from cotton, which is a strong natural fabric, but it has rubber as well, which will make them waterproof.

So, well done if you said something similar to that.

I definitely think pair B would be the better choice for a pair of gardening gloves because pair A was more designed to keep hands warm and be soft and flexible, but Andeep needed something that was strong and stiff and could protect his hands.

So, well done if you answered something like that.

The second part of the task is to help Alex.

So, Alex wants to make a pencil case to keep his stationery items safe.

Those stationery items are pens and pencils and rubbers and things like that.

And we need to fill in the table to consider what type of fabric he might use to make this pencil case.

So, we'll start by thinking about the product itself, what it is, the uses it has.

So, that's what Alex is going to use that product for, the qualities we need that product to have.

So, what does his pencil case need to do? What does the fabric that was used is used to make the pencil case need to do? And then what type of fabric would meet those needs? What type of fabric could we use or could Alex use to make a pencil case that fits all of those needs that you've made a note of? So, you can fill it in on the worksheet or make a note on a piece of paper yourself.

Think about what he can use to make his pencil case.

Pause the video and come back when you've done that task.

Welcome back.

So, what did you think? So, you should have made a note that the product is a pencil case.

The uses of a pencil case is to store pencils, pens, rulers, rubbers and protect those items as well.

The qualities needed of a fabric used to make a pencil case, it needs to be strong, it needs to be stiff.

So, we don't want something very stretchy and flexible for a pencil case.

So, the type of fabric you might choose could be a thick cotton like a denim, a hessian which is a very strongly woven fabric or a felt which is a very tightly woven fabric which is very stiff.

There's more than one option of fabric that Alex could use to make his pencil case.

So, well done if you managed to think of one of those types of fabrics that would be suitable for this product.

So, we're at the end of the lesson now.

So, I've had fun investigating different types of fabrics and finding out why different products are made from different fabrics.

So, we've learned that fabrics need to be carefully chosen for the product.

We've learned that some fabrics can be waterproof and that some products need to be waterproof.

So, a waterproof fabric would have to be chosen for those products.

We've learned that fabrics can have different strengths.

So, some are very soft and flexible, whereas some are very stiff and hard wearing.

And then we've learned that fabrics can be woven, flexible or stiff.

So, those words that we've used to describe the way a product moves is used when we're considering what type of fabric we would use to make a product.

Thank you for joining me for today's lesson.

Hopefully, you've learned a little bit about fabrics and why they are chosen to make products.

And I look forward to seeing you in a future lesson.

Goodbye for now.