Making
Spinning
Growing cotton
Ginning
Knitting
Fabric Finishing
Spinning
Raddis Cotton had the lint fiber for the project T-shirt spun into yarn at Chenniappa Yarn Spinning in Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu, India. The Raddis Cotton team traveled with the bales by truck from Andhra Pradesh to Tiruppur, to ensure that the precise number loaded by the ginner arrived at the spinning unit.
The bales of lint fiber are transported over 1200 km by truck from Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu. Photo: Sanne van den Dungen.
Once there, the bales were opened, and the cotton was cleaned and processed into slivers. These slivers can be carded, combed or compacted, and spun into either ringspun or open-end yarn. Open-ended spinning is particularly useful for yarn which includes recycled fibers, allowing the spinner to mix recycled cotton with new Raddis Cotton yarn in a 70:30 ratio, ensuring no fiber goes to waste.
In Tamil Nadu, the bales of lint are stored in the spinner’s warehouse, or godown. Photo: Rachel Lee.
Inside one of the many spinning factories in Tamil Nadu. Photo: Erik de Maaker.
In Tamil Nadu’s factories, spinning is a highly automated process. Video: Rachel Lee.
For the project T-shirt, we used 30s Ne-thickness ringspun combed hosiery yarn, which is fine and suitable for knitting. The spinning waste of our T-shirt was made into open-end yarn, which was also turned into a garment. Chenniappa Yarn Spinning utilizes up to 90% renewable energy from solar panels and wind power, and is constantly working to make its production even more sustainable. In addition to spinning, the company also handled the knitting for the fabric used in the project T-shirt.
Varun Subramaniam, director of a spinning and knitting mill in Tamil Nadu talks about the need to make the garment industry more sustainable. Video: Raddis Cotton.