WASHINGTON - Corn may become another fabric of our lives now that companies are using it to make blankets and clothes.

Cargill Dow LLC, based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, developed a fiber called Ingeo, from corn-based plastic. Clothing and textile companies are knitting, weaving and threading Indeo into fabrics and household materials to sell to consumers.

Michael O' Brien, a Cargill Dow spokesman, said the product is so versatile that it is possible to furnish an entire house with it.

"You could go to bed at night with pajamas made from it and your sheets and your pillow and your bedding. Put your feet down in carpet made from it in the morning," he said. "You'd have to open your drapes, of course, that are made" from polylactic acid, a biotech plastic that is the raw material for making Ingeo.

The company's plant in Blair, Nebraska, makes the acid by milling corn into starch and then sugar. The sugar is fermented using enzymes to create lactic acid, which is then purified. In the end, what used to be yellow corn is transformed into small, opaque and white plastic pellets of polylactic acid with the potential to be molded into plastic cups, wrappers or spun into the Ingeo fiber.

In January, Cargill Dow announced that 85 companies worldwide-from clothing makers such as Diesel to blanket manufacturer Faribault Woolen Mills-were forming a business partnership to develop new products with the patented Ingeo ofiber.

Patrick Gruber, vice president of technology at Cargill Dow, promotes Ingeo as a biodegradable fiber, meaning it can be composted without emitting pollutants into the environment. Unlike many synthetic materials, petroleum-based chemicals are now needed to complete the recipe for Ingeo, which is another plus Gruber said.

Gruber said partners using Ingeo agreed they would not blend it with harmful chemicals. For example, he said they cannot use chemicals that will form dioxin, a toxic substance that can harm people's health, pollute the environment and potentially lead to cancer.

If a company is caught violating the Ingeo agreement, "we'd say stop it," Gruber said. "And if you didn't, then you'd be cut off."