Khadi is a fabric that uses no external power of machinery through any of the stages of manufacturing. This process initiates from harvest, manual procedures include separating the fibres to spinning, dyeing, and weaving.
The term ‘Khadi’ is not just confined to cotton fabrics, any fabric which holds up the characteristics is considered as Khadi.
The fabric produced in India can vastly be classified as hand woven, created with a mechanized process, and created using a semi-mechanized process. For a trained eye, these three varieties are easy to identify but it isn’t an easy task for a regular buyer.
The commercial viability of machine-made fabric is more than that of the one manufactured with hand-woven processes, the popularity of the former increases day by day.
Let’s look into the interesting facts about hand-woven textiles,
Consider the case of brown cotton, it is characterized by short staples, which is the length of fibre. This makes it exceptionally difficult to put brown cotton into any mechanical processes, it majorly works well for hand weaving. Also, the coloured fabric tends to become brittle at times, and its life may be lower compared to the raw material which is not processed as much before use.
Do you know, at times, the colour of cotton may be used for defining its type. This shows that different types of fibres fit for different types of processing.
Hint: The inconsistency in the yarn, uneven texture, and imperfection, yet feels soothing on your skin, that is what khadi is.