Name: Ahmad Ariq Amer Bin Rozaili

Class: X

JAD Number: 14002

Date: 22/5/2014
Time: 12.00 pm

How Blue Jeans Are Made

Introduction
Blue jeans are casual pants made from denim, noted for their strength and comfort. They have
been worn by sailors and California gold miners as sturdy work pants, by the young as a
statement of their generation, and by the fashionable, who are conscious of the prestige
conveyed by designer names. Blue jeans started becoming popular among young people in the
1950s. In the year 1957, 150 million pairs were sold worldwide. This growing trend continued
until 1981 and jeans manufacturers were virtually guaranteed annual sales increases.
The first two steps in blue jeans manufacture are carding and spinning. In carding, the cotton
is put through a machine with bent wire brushes. The brushes clean, disentangle, straighten,
and gather the cotton threads into sliver. After several slivers are joined together, they are put
on spinning machines that twist and stretch the cotton to form yard.
Raw material
True blue jeans are made out of 100 percent cotton, including the threads. Polyester blends are
available, however, the over-whelming majority of jeans sold are 100 percent cotton. The
most common dye used is synthetic indigo. The belt loops, waistband, back panel, pockets,
and leggings of a pair of blue jeans are all made of indigo-dyed denim. Other features of blue
jeans include the zipper, buttons, rivets, and label. Rivets have been traditionally made of
copper, but the zippers, snaps and buttons are usually steel. Designers' labels are often tags
made out of cloth, leather, or plastic, while others are embroidered on with cotton thread.
Manufacturing Process
Carding
There are several steps between ginned cotton (cotton after it has been picked from fields and
processed) and cotton yarn. The incoming cotton is removed from tightly packed bales and
inspected before undergoing a process known as carding. In this process, the cotton is put
through machines that contain brushes with bent wire teeth. These brushes called cards clean,
disentangle, straighten, and gather together the cotton fibers. At this point, the fibers are called
slivers.
Unlike many other cloths, denim is dyed before it is woven. The dye used is generally a
chemically synthesized indigo. The denim is dipped in the dye vat several times so that the
dye forms many layers. This explains why blue jeans fade after washing.

The yarn is then woven on large shutle-less looms.

The blue threads are woven with white threads, but
because the blue threads are packed closer together
than the white ones, the blue color dominates the
cloth.
Other machines join several slivers together, and
these slivers are then pulled and twisted, which
serves to make the threads stronger. Next, these
ropes are put on spinning machines that further
twist and stretch the fibers to form yarn.
Dyeing the yarn
Some cloths are woven and then dyed, but denim is usually dyed with chemically synthesized
indigo before being woven. Large balls of yarn, called ball warps, are dipped in the indigo
mixture several times so that the dye covers the yarn in layers. Although the exact chemicals
used in such dyeing procedures remain trade secrets, it is known that a small amount of sulfur
is often used to stabilize the top or bottom layers of indigo dye.
The dyed yarn is then slashed; that is, it is coated with sizing to make the threads stronger and
stiffer. Once this operation is complete, the yarn threads are ready to woven with undyed
filling yarn threads.
Weaving the yarn
The yarn is then woven on large mechanical looms.
The denim cloth is cut into pattern pieces
from stacks 100 layers thick. High-speed
cutting machines are used for this process.
Once the pieces are cut, they are sewn into
completed pairs of blue jeans. Sewing is
done in assembly-line fashion using humanoperated sewing machines.

Making the Blue Jeans

Once the desired design is selected, patterns from the design are cut from heavy paper or
cardboard. Up to 80 different sizes are possible from one pattern. The pieces of denim are
then cut with high speed cutting machines from stacks 100 layers thick. Excluding rivets,
buttons, and zippers, a pair of blue jeans contains about ten different pieces, from the pockets
to the leg panels to the waistband and belt loops.

The pieces of denim are ready to be sewn at this point. Sewing is done in an assembly line
fashion, with rows of industrial human-operated sewing machines. Each sewer is assigned a
specific function, such as making only back pockets. First, the various pockets and belt loops
are assembled. Next, one sewer attaches the pockets to the leg seams, another then sews the
leg seams together, and still another attaches the waist-band. Once the waist band is secure,
the belt loops may be stitched on and the buttons attached. If the jeans include a zipper, it is
then sewn into place, and the pants are hemmed. Finally, the rivets are placed in the
appropriate places and the maker's label is sewn on last.
The completed pair of blue jeans is then pressed. They are placed into a large pressing
machine that steam irons the entire garment at once in about a minute. A size tag is punched
into the material and the jeans are folded, stacked, and placed in boxes according to style,
color, and size before being sent to the warehouse for storage. When the jeans are selected to
be sent to a store, they are put in large shipping cartons and sent on freight trains or trucks.
Discussion/Conclusion
The process of cloth making involves treating the fabric with a number of chemicals in order
to produce clothing with such desirable characteristics such as durability, colorfastness, and
comfort. Each step of finishing the cotton fabric (dyeing, sanforizing, etc.) produces
byproducts, most of which are biodegradable.
Byproducts of denim manufacture include organic pollutants, such as starch and dye, which
can be treated through biological methods. These organic wastes may not be dumped into
streams or lakes because of their high biochemical oxygen demand. To decompose, such
waste materials utilize so much oxygen that the lifeforms in the body of water would be
denied the oxygen necessary for survival.
Denim manufacturers process their own wastes in compliance with all relevant government
regulation.
The conlusion is blue jeans are manufactured by 3 process which are carding, dyeing and
weaving. The machines that are involved are dyeing machines, weaving machines, cutting
machines and sewing machines.
Reference
http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Blue-Jeans.html
What do I understand related to the machines?
The machines are opereated by human. Some of the machine like sewing machines need
human power to sew the blue jeans because the jeans is difficult to be sew. The machines are
seperatedly processing the blue jeans. The machines should be handle carefully and safely as
not to injured the worker. All in all, machines help human to manufacture and produce
product easily and faster.