High quality natural ramie fabric.

Description

High quality natural ramie fabric. Beautifully printed material for dresses, shirts and other garments.

100% Ramie

Width: about 135-138cm  (53 in – 54 in)

Price: 1pcs = ( 50cm x 135cm).  2 pcs= (100cm x 135cm)

ABOUT RAMIE FIBER

Common names of the ramie plant include: Ramie, Chinese Grass, and Chinese Silk Plant.  Botanical name: Boehmeria nivea.
Ramie plants grow in rocky places, up to an altitude of 1200 meters.  It’s a very common plant in China, growing in thickets, roadsides, edges of forests in mountains at elevations of 200 – 1700 meters. Its natural range is through East Asia, from China to the Himalayas of Bhutan, Sikkim and Nepal.
Ramie is an erect, herbaceous, perennial, flowering plant up to 1 -3 m tall with thick storage roots. The leaves are heart-shaped with white, hairy underside. It is popularly cultivated for its high quality fiber or as an ornamental plant.
Traditionally, people obtain fiber from the inner bark of the stem. Of excellent quality, it is highly water-resistant and has a greater tensile strength than cotton. It is used for textiles, linen etc. and is said to be moth-proof.
Ramie is best harvested as the female flowers open. The outer bark is removed and then the fibrous inner bark is taken off and boiled before being woven into thread. The fibers are the longest known in the plant realm.  The tensile strength is 7 times that of silk and 8 times that of cotton. This strength is improved when you wet the fiber.

The fiber is also used for making paper. The leaves are removed from the stems, the stems are steamed and the fibers stripped off. The fibers are cooked for 2 hours with lye, (fresh material might require longer cooking), and they are then beaten in a Hollander beater before being made into paper. [Source: Plants for a Future]