Hemp cloth, an eco-friendly way of clothing

Using hemp in cloth is a pretty old tradition. It was in the 5th century B.C that the skillful Scythians and Thracians were able to weave fine cloth from hemp. It was until the late fourteenth century that hemp weavers realized the importance of the hemp.

The stalk of the hemp plant has two parts, the bast and the hurd. The bast (fiber) of the hemp plant can be woven into almost any kind of cloth and it is very durable. Comparing with all the other available fibers, hemp is appropriate for a large number of applications. Hemp is also very eco-friendly crop and it requires no pesticides and needs little water. Clothing made of hemp is light weight and absorbent. It is three times stronger and long lasting than the tensile strength of cotton. It is UV and mold resistant, therefore it is excellent for outdoor wear. It is less expensive to farm, so it costs lesser than the others. It can be blend with other fibers like silk and cotton, for different qualities in the garments.

The cellulose fiber from hemp is used to make many products, including jeans, shirts, dresses, hats, bags, ropes and canvas. Until the 1920’s, 80% of clothing was made from the hemp textiles. Even the first Levi’s jeans were made from the hemp fiber. According to HEMPTECH in Industrial Hemp, 1995, the manufacture of textiles is the third largest industry in the world. In 1938, hemp was used to produce more than 5,000 textile products.