Viscose?

[VioGemini]

Hello,
I understood that natural fabrics are ok,
but is fabric cotton-viscose blend safe? I have a lot of fabrics, I intended to make children's t-shirts, but now I don-t know. The all are different and just 3 yards long, it will cost me a fortune to have them all tested :-(

[LaurieRyan]

what is viscose???????

[SixAcreMeadow]

cotton/viscose blend fabrics are very popular in clothing stores - especially for t-shirts.

[VioGemini]

Viscose is a viscous organic liquid[1] used to make rayon and cellophane. Cellulose from wood or cotton fibres is treated with sodium hydroxide, then mixed with carbon disulfide to form cellulose xanthate, which is dissolved in more sodium hydroxide. The resulting viscose is extruded into an acid bath either through a slit to make cellophane, or through a spinneret to make rayon. The acid converts the viscose back into cellulose.

[VioGemini]

The fabrics may also contain elastane, known as Lycra (TM).

[LaurieRyan]

OH not sure if its allowed or not. there are small tests kits you can use I saw that on the news last night

[VioGemini]

Using viscose procedure it is possible to obtain fibers out of any organic raw material, for example bamboo fabric is viscoze made out of bamboo fibers, it is not spinned bamboo fibers!. There is also a very popular fabric named modal, which is softer and lighter than cotton viscose. They even make fabrics from milk (kazeine) and crab shells.

[VioGemini]

it is quite difficult to find a fabric that doesn't contain viscose, it makes the fabric drape and flow nicely, softer touch than pure cotton.

[LaurieRyan]

well if its from natural fibers then it should be right?

[kinchi]

Viscose's just fine, it's made of cellulosis, same origin as cotton, wood or paper like you just said, so I guess you can consider it 'natural'. There are no lead or phtalates in it, unless they're added in the printing or dying process.

[VioGemini]

There are different types of fibers,

* natural coming from plants-cotton, linen, raphia and animals - wool, alpaga, mohair, silk; fibers are spinned together

* mineral - metal, glass, amiante

* artificial - rayon, viscose (modal, bamboo etc.), acetate, they all are made from organic raw materials and acid

*synthetic - polyamide, polyester, polypropylene, polyuretane, chlorofibres and acryliques (made out of petrol)

So, Viscoze, originally is organic but treated with acid. It is no longer a natural fiber, though has the same carachteristics.

[kinchi]

There won't be any acid in the fabric when it's finished which will come off or anything, it's just needed to make coherent fibres out of the organic raw material. Viscose has the same characteristics as cotton, like you said, I wouldn't worry about it. The cpsia is all about lead and phtalates now, but you can always ask the CPSA;-)

[VioGemini]

ok kinchi, thank you :-)