I remember in HS welding class back in the early 1970s an incident. Back then, the popular style was to take the hems out of jeans as soon as you bought them and wash them a few times so that you could have a nice fringe along the bottom. Well, that nice little fringe of cotton fibers tends to catch fire rather readily. Next thing you know, this guy had fire climbing his leg. That was also back in the day of large bell bottoms on jeans, so it was nearly up to his knee before he realized it. Let's just say that he was hopping around the shop rather quickly and swatting at the flames with his gloves. Best I remember, he didn't get any major burns -- probably just lost the hair on his legs. I think cotton burns at a lower temperature.
When I'm working on projects around the house and needing to weld, it's usually during the summer, so it's hot. As such, I usually just have a t-shirt and jeans on. T-shirts do not provide much in protection. I have a t-shirt that I weld in a lot and it looks more like Swiss cheese from all the burn holes in it... Of course, each burn hole has a matching scar on my body. Still, even a cotton t-shirt is better than synthetic fibers -- they melt and stick to you.
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