The Khadi fabric used by Satara was an icon of Mahatma Gandhi’s liberation movement in the 1920’s. The term khadi (or khaddar) means cotton in Hindi, and is Indian hand-spun and hand-woven cloth. Khadi is mainly woven in cotton, but it can also be woven in silk or wool or can be blended with any mix of fibres to give it a more diverse look. It is a versatile fabric, cool in the summer and warm in the winter, and has become widely accepted in fashion circles. It is the most eco-friendly fabric as it is produced using only manpower, unlike synthetic fabrics, and is particularly important in providing economic support to rural women, who are able to work independently to earn their living.
The production process is basically as follows. First, cotton balls are hand picked and the fibres are separated from the cotton seeds by hand using a sharp comb-like object. Then, through a carding process, the final traces of trash from fibres are removed completely and the carded material collected as 'slivers'. These slivers are spun into yarn on a spinning wheel where they are thinned out and at the same time twisted to strengthen the yarn. The spun yarn is wound into reels and then hand-woven into fabric.
