How to make Cloth in RimWorld

RimWorld’s plentiful natural materials let you harvest resources and tame animals to craft vital gear like warm Cloth clothing, but finding the right sources can be tricky.

You won’t be able to get the best gear immediately in RimWorld, but you can start with some basic plants and make clothes to protect your crewmates from getting exposed to cold temperatures. If your crewmates don’t have clothes, it’ll take a huge hit on their mood and they’ll become less productive in their work—unless they have the Nudist trait. 

How to make Cloth in RimWorld, explained

Select your Architect option in the bottom left corner to create Cloth and choose the Zones menu. Among all the different zones, select the growing zone and place the plantation for cultivation. Since we want clothes as a product, select the Cotton plant, and the crewmates should start planning the seed. The plants grow without a resting period and must be fully mature before you can harvest them. 

The Cotton plants grow under specific temperature and light conditions. They also need a soil fertility of 70 percent to fully grow, and the best way of ensuring fertility is by growing them with a Hydroponics Basin inside your base. However, you can also grow it outside your base; the natural light should be good enough. Unlike other fabrics, you don’t need to kill or tame animals, making Cotton a fairly good crop for growing and getting clothes.

Once the Cotton plants mature fully, crewmates will automatically harvest them and keep the light grey Cloth in your storage area. If you don’t want to make Cloth, you can also purchase it from the traders who show up frequently at your door, looking to strike a deal. 

How to use Cloth in RimWorld

Once you have enough stock of light grey Cloth, you can build a Hand-Tailor Bench or an Electric Tailor Bench to start weaving Cotton clothes. Select the bill option and start making the clothes with a crewmate with a crafting skill. You can choose the material to be clothes, and it should be ready in no time. You also need to research Complex Clothing on the research tree to get the options to build them. 

Keep in mind, the clothes made of Cotton are 20 percent more flammable than other materials, so don’t lead your crewmates into a fire-prone area. It is also the worst material to make clothes, so if you need the best ones for your team, consider building it out of Devilstrand and Hyperweave in the late game. 

Apart from making clothes, you can also use it to build recreational buildings like a Billiards Table and Poker table to keep the teammates’ morale high. You can also use it to make Carpets to decorate your base. You cannot make colored dyes using clothes, but you can purchase them from the Traders.

Next up, you can read our guides to learn about building a Gravship and collect Gravcores in RimWorld Odyssey.