NCERT Solutions for Class 5 The World Around Us Chapter 8 Clothes How Things Are Made (PDF) – 2027

I see a small yellow bird (a baya weaverbird) and two nests hanging among green leaves. The nests are made of thin strands of grass woven over and under each other.

Yes. The hidden artist is the male baya weaverbird. He weaves strands of grass over and under each other to build a strong, pouch-shaped nest that hangs from the branch of a tree.

Yes. Mats (chatai), baskets, the charpai (cot), hand fans, the soop (winnowing tray), doormats, jute bags and our cotton clothes are woven from natural material.

They are made from palm leaves, grass, bamboo, cane, coconut fibre (coir), jute, cotton, silk and wool.

We get a flat mat with a blue-and-yellow checked pattern. Each yellow strip goes over one blue strip and under the next, and each new strip starts the opposite way. The strips are not glued, yet the mat holds together.

Yes. A basket is a woven mat whose sides are folded up and woven in the same way — over, under, over, under. Weave a mat with long strip ends, fold the ends up around a box, and weave more strips round and round to make the walls.

Strings, ropes, ribbons and reeds can all be woven in the same over-under way. Only the mat changes: rope gives a rough, strong doormat, wool or string a soft coaster, ribbon a shiny bookmark, and reeds a chatai or a basket.

Woven things in our classroom: our uniforms, the straps of the school bag, the durrie or chatai we sit on, the duster, the curtains, a jute bag and the cane seat of a chair. When we weave threads instead of paper strips, we get cloth.

Yes. Through the magnifying glass we see threads going one way and other threads going across them, passing over and under each other — a tiny criss-cross pattern, like the paper mat of Activity 1.

The pulled-out cotton strand is weak and breaks easily. When we twist it, it becomes thinner, tighter and much stronger — it becomes thread. Twisting fibres together to make thread or yarn is called spinning. The pencil does the job of a charkha.

— tick the correct column for each thing (your own things will be different):

We made a round leaf plate (pattal) and a leaf spoon. For the plate, we overlapped broad leaves in a circle and pinned them together with small twigs. For the spoon, we folded one leaf and pinned the fold with a twig. No glue or thread was needed.

Yes, with a needle and thread we can fix a small tear and sew on a button. To sew a button, bring the needle up from the back, pass it through the holes of the button five or six times, and knot it at the back. To fix a tear, join the torn edges with small running stitches.

Yes. My grandmother sews buttons back on our shirts and patches torn clothes at home. The tailor near our bus stop stitches shirts, blouses and school uniforms on a sewing machine.

Yes. On a shirt, the pieces are stitched together along the sides, at the shoulders and armholes, inside the sleeves, round the collar, along the hem and around the pocket. On a school bag, the stitching is at the straps, round the zip, and along the corners and edges.

Each line of stitching that joins two pieces is called a seam.

We get a neat dotted line of stitches — a short stitch of thread on top, then a gap, then another stitch. On the back of the cloth, the thread shows where the gaps are. The thread runs up and down through the cloth, so this is called a running stitch.

The two pieces of cloth become one bigger piece. We overlapped them by about 2 cm and made a straight line of small running stitches through both layers. When we lift one corner, the whole piece comes up together.

We joined more pieces, edge to edge, with running stitches to make something bigger. For example, 1–2 squares make a coaster, 4 a cleaning cloth, 6–9 a table mat, and 25 or more a table cloth. Folding and stitching the outer edge (a hem) stops it from fraying.

We use running stitches to mend a tear, to hem trousers or a skirt, to join pieces into a quilt, to make the channel for a pyjama drawstring (nada), to hold cloth in place before machine stitching, and in Kantha embroidery.

The stitches near the break come loose one by one, and the join opens there. All the stitches are made from one single thread, so if it is not knotted, the whole line of stitching can come undone.

We displayed our paper mats, cotton thread wound on pencils, leaf plates and spoons, and stitched cloth pieces in one corner of the classroom. Each thing had a name tag (what it is, who made it, what it is made of) and a short note on how it was made. We invited other classes and our parents.

Sample name tag and note:

Yes. My mother’s old cotton saree was stitched into a soft quilt (godhadi) for my little sister, and its border became a cloth bag for the market. My old school shirts, which had become too small, were cut into cleaning cloths.

If one thread breaks, the threads or stitches next to it become loose and the cloth or mat starts coming apart at that place. The hole can keep growing. Each thread is important because every thread holds its neighbours in place and is held by them.

At the tailor’s shop I saw a sewing machine, big scissors, a measuring tape, tailor’s chalk, pins, needles, a thimble, reels of thread and an iron. At a handloom weaver’s place I saw a wooden loom with a shuttle, foot pedals and a reed (comb), used to weave cloth.

In our state, Punjab, the famous stitching work is Phulkari — embroidery of bright flowers and shapes with silk thread on a dupatta or odhni.

(Write the work of your own state — for example Chikankari in Uttar Pradesh, Kantha in West Bengal, Kanjeevaram silk in Tamil Nadu, Pashmina in Kashmir or Khneng embroidery in Meghalaya.)

We should not throw old clothes away because they are still useful. A younger child can wear them, or they can be made into quilts, bags and dusters. Making cloth takes a lot of work, water and land, and thrown-away cloth — especially nylon and polyester — stays as waste for years.

Numbers to write in the circles (steps in the order printed in the book):

Sample answer — my filled table (your pieces may be different):