In the military, British soldiers' uniforms could soon use electrically conducting yarn woven directly into the clothing, replacing cumbersome batteries and cabling.

BBC: 'Computerised fabrics' in clothes could charge phones

New York-based designer and manufacturer Sandy Chilewich reinvented the art of the table when she came across woven vinyl, a kind of extruded yarn that could be encased in PVC.

WSJ: The Art of the Table

Production of the material includes several stages: silk floss is spun into yarn by hand, with patterns added by hand-tying bundles of yarn before dyeing the yarn with indigo, then the silk is woven using a back-tension loom.

UNESCO: Culture