That Fly Bob is host of the CBC Radio science program Quirks and Quarks. Parachutes were originally made of canvas, then silk, and these days they are made of nylon.
Different materials make very different parachutes.
A tissue parachute is not very durable, and will only work over short distances indoors. A cloth parachute is much hardier and can be used outside, but we couldn't get ours to work very well. The best material we found for making a parachute was the plastic bag. Cut the plastic bag, tissue or cloth into a square. Measure one of the sides of the square.