Curious Tots: How wool is made into fabric - from farm to shearing shed to mill | Educational videos

Join cheeky monkey Po as she goes from the farm to the mill to learn about how wool from sheep is made into fabric for clothes. Po watches sheep shearing at Australian sheep yards, then follows the bales of wool to a mill to be woven into fabric.

Australia is famous for producing high quality merino wool. The farms and sheep yards featured are in the beautiful Australian country: Murrulebale NSW, Nagambie VIC, Carrathool NSW and Barmedman NSW. The mill featured is the historic Waverley Mills in Launceston, TAS.

Once or twice a year when the sheep's wool grows thick, the sheep are mustered into yards for shearing. Shearers drag sheep onto the board and position them between their legs, then use clippers to shear off the thick layer of wool. It takes a lot of skill and hard work. Once the sheep are shorn, they are sent down a chute and given a lice treatment before being sent back to the paddocks. The wool that falls away from the sheep is called a fleece. Roustabouts check and skirt the fleece on the wool table. The wool is then sorted based on quality, strength and colour, and compressed in a woolpress. The bales of wool are sent to the mill, where they are carded, or turned into long strands called rovings. The rovings go through a spinning machine to produce yarn. The yarn may be dyed and then warped in preparation for weaving on a loom. During weaving, the shuttle moves back and forth across the warp and interlaces the weft. Then the reed pushes the newly woven bit towards the cloth.

Curious Tots is a fun, educational program that teaches 2-5 year old kids how things work and how they're made. Curious Tots combines documentary footage with playful animation and age-appropriate explanations to engage and enrich curious little minds.

Subscribe for videos every fortnight!
   / curioustots  

Follow us on Facebook!
  / curioustots  

Visit our website for episode-specific activities and play ideas:
www.curioustots.com.au

Directed, produced and written by Elaine Shanahan; animation by Rudolf Montemayor; narrated by Sasha Mason. Credit to Waverley Mills (waverleymills.com) and Meat and Livestock Australia (mla.com.au) for footage. 

Special thanks to Proway Livestock Equipment for their support and contribution - sponsoring the episode, providing the amazing footage of the sheep yard and educating us on the sheep shearing process! Visit them at: https://www.proway.com.au and    / @prowaylivestockequip