These days it’s hard to imagine that fabrics were ever made out of anything other than cotton or synthetic fibers, yet it wasn’t too long ago that hemp and flax-based fabrics — linen — were the rule ...

Ginning, blowing, carding, drawing, roving, spinning, weaving, dyeing, cutting, sewing, ironing, shipping and trucking — all the steps it took to turn some cotton bolls into your T-shirt. Those ...

Products derived from the cotton plant show up in many items that people use daily, including blue jeans, bedsheets, paper, candles and peanut butter. In the United States cotton is a US$7 billion ...