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India being a tropical country is blessed with plenty of renewable resources obtainable from the plant kingdom. The plant-based fibres are cellulosic in nature and are classified as hard and soft fibres. Generally, the bast fibres are called soft fibres and the leaf fibres are called hard fibres. The leaf fibres are obtained from the monocotyledonous plants. The plant Agave Americana belongs to Agavaceae family. Due to the lack of knowledge in the utilization of these fibres, it had been confined only to non-textile areas like cordage and mats. Hence, the specific objectives of the study are to:

     •    Extract the fibres from leaves of agave Americana plant by a suitable method.
     •    Study the physical properties of the fibres.
     •    Convert the fibres into blended needle punched fabrics and study their properties.
     •    Convert blended needle punched fabrics into stitch-bonded fabrics and study their properties.
     •    Construct suitable apparel and evaluate by wear study.

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This article was presented at ATNT 2007. The author of this article is Dr. G. Krishnabai, Professor & Head, Department of Textiles and Clothing, Avinashilingam Deemed University and Ms. R. Sunitha, M.Phil (Ph.D), HOD, Department of Costume Design and Fashion, Sri Krishna Arts and Science College, Coimbatore, India.