Tailoring water supply to achieve confined heating has proven to be an effective strategy for boosting solar interfacial evaporation rates. However, because of salt clogging during desalination, a critical point of constriction occurs when controlling the water rate for confined heating. In this study, we demonstrate a facile and scalable weaving technique for fabricating core-sheath photothermal yarns that facilitate controlled water supply for stable and efficient interfacial solar desalination. The core-sheath yarn comprises modal fibers as the core and carbon fibers as the sheaths. Because of the core-sheath design, remarkable liquid pumping can be enabled in the carbon fiber bundle of the dispersed super-hydrophilic modal fibers. Our woven fabrics absorb a high proportion (92%) of the electromagnetic radiation in the solar spectrum because of the weaving structure and the carbon fiber sheath. Under one-sun (1 kW·m⁻²) illumination, our woven fabric device can achieve the highest evaporation rate (of 2.12 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹ with energy conversion efficiency: 93.7%) by regulating the number of core-sheath yarns. Practical application tests demonstrate that our device can maintain high and stable desalination performance in a 5 wt% NaCl solution.

• Core-sheath photothermal yarns were fabricated via scalable two-dimensional braiding.

• Water transport could be controlled through adjusting the number of the core fiber.

• The optimized device exhibited excellent and stable desalination simultaneously.

• Industrial weaving methods ensure the device scalable fabrication.