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The continuing development of the textile and clothing manufacturing industries depends in no small measure on the successful implementation of reliable objective methods for the specification, prediction and control of fabric quality and performance attributes. In the last decade, we have seen several notable examples of fabric design and development, and production and quality control in textile processing and clothing manufacture in terms of fabric objective measurement technology. The quality and performance characteristics of fabrics are related to their low stress mechanical, surface and dimensional properties. The experimental errors involved in the measurement of these properties are known to be much smaller than the errors involved in subjective assessment of fabric quality attributes, especially those made by individual judges. We may define the concept of fabric objective measurement as a necessary and sufficient set of instrumentally measurable parameters which are required to specify the fabric quality, tailorability and clothing performance. In this way, fabric objective measurement technology provides a “fingerprint” of the fabric quality, tailorability and performance implying that any two fabrics will generally differ at least to some extent in their objectively measurable characteristics. Fabric objective measurement technology therefore provides the key for scientific and engineering principles to be used for fabric specification and design as well as process control. The most important consequence of the introduction of fabric objective measurement technology will be the promotion of technological communication between various sectors of the textile and clothing industry, research and development workers and all other sectors of industry (e.g. fibre producers, retailing, merchandising, machinery manufacturers) concerned with fibres, textiles and clothing.

There has been much discussion in the literature about the relationship between fabric “handle” and objective instrumental measurements of fabric low stress mechanical and surface properties such as fabric tensile properties, shear, bending, lateral compression, surface friction and surface roughness. But fabric “handle” is not really an inherent fabric property, rather it is a description of one of the ways in which people generally make a subjective assessment of some of the quality attributes of apparel fabrics, designed for particular end‐use applications. In contrast, fabric drape is an inherent mechanical property of a fabric. Fabric drape is that unique property which quantifies the ability of a fabric to bend simultaneously in more than one plane. In order to exhibit the property of drape, fabrics must be able to bend and shear simultaneously, thus distinguishing textile materials from paper or thin polymer films. Develops a fundamental mechanical analysis of fabrics bending under their own weight. The equations governing the shape of an elastic fabric cantilever are solved numerically. Discusses the implications for experimental measurement of fabric bending length and fabric bending rigidity in terms of these numerical solutions with negligibly small errors. Graphically presents profiles of the draped fabric cantilever. Makes a comparison of the numerical solutions with the approximate formulae derived by F.T. Peirce.

The mechanical properties of fabric longitudinal extension and compression, shear and bending have an important influence on the performance of fabrics during tailoring and also on the performance of garments during use. Fabrics are overfed or underfed in tailoring during the sewing operations in such a way that longitudinal compression and extension are allowed in the fabric plane in order to produce the three‐dimensional shape or fullness of the garment. Fabric buckling or puckering at the seams should not occur, or if it does, should be removed during subsequent steam pressing operations. An experiment is described to measure the maximum limit of overfeeding that is possible during seaming without the subsequent formation of seam puckers. The relationships are studied between the maximum degree of overfeed, the bias angle between the feed direction and the fabric warp or weft, fibre type and fabric mechanical properties, especially fabric formability defined as the product of fabric bending rigidity and fabric longitudinal compressibility. When fabrics are extended or compressed longitudinally at a bias angle to the warp or weft direction during seaming in order to produce garment fullness, the warp and weft threads are rotated relative to each other in such a way that a local shear deformation is applied to the fabric adjacent to the seam‐line. Measurements are reported of the variations in the local shear angle along the shoulder seam‐line of a men's jacket and the measured values are related to the high degree of overfeed required in the bias direction in this area of the garment. Finally, hygral expansion measurements for wool fabrics and yarns unravelled from the fabrics are measured and compared for six different wool fabrics.

In Part 1 of this series of papers, we investigated the importance of fabric overfeed in the sewing operations during tailoring. It was also shown how fabric bending rigidity, formability, shear and hygral expansion are important in clothing manufacture. The present paper is concerned with the measurement and experimental study of seam balance, breaking elongation and bending properties of seams. The aim is to evaluate quantitatively the consumption of sewing thread and the relationship between the degree of fabric overfeed during sewing and the curvature of the seam in the garment. Balanced seams have much higher breaking elongation and more symmetrical bending properties than unbalanced seam structures. A natural curvature and curling couple result from fabric overfeed during sewing. The value of the curvature is time‐dependent because of fabric viscoelastic effect and also depends on the level of fabric overfeed, the tensile and longitudinal compressive module of the component fabrics and the structure of the seamed composite. The natural curvature of the seam may be derived quantitatively from the relative lengths of overfeed fabrics using a modified theory for a bimetallic themostatic strip.

In Parts 1 and 2 of this series of papers, we have investigated the important mechanical and physical properties of fabrics which determine their performance during tailoring especially fabric tensile, shear, bending and dimensional properties. The conditions for structural balance of seams has been quantitatively evaluated as well as the relationship between the degree of fabric overfeed during sewing and the natural curvature or curling couple of the seamed fabric assembly. Fabric forming and draping behaviour is strongly dependent on fabric bending and the fabric membrane properties of extension, longitudinal compression and shearing in the fabric plane. In this paper, the influence of these basic fabric mechanical properties on subjectively assessed garment appearance is also studied. These mechanical properties can be used to distinguish between fabrics which make up into suits of good and poor appearance. The investigation of the bending properties of overfed fabrics has established an empirical relationship between the level of fabric overfeed and the natural curvature of the overfed seamed fabric composite for three different fabric configurations.

Observes that the formability of woven fabric has a major effect on the appearance of garments, in that seams sewn from fabrics with low formability are more likely to pucker than those sewn from fabric with high formability. Describes the concept of formability and illustrates the relationship between this parameter and seam pucker, the difficulty of a particular sewing operation and the appearance of structured jackets. Notes that the formability of wool fabrics is most appropriately controlled in finishing by modifying the extensibility of the fabric. Discusses the difficulties associated with engineering, the extensibility of woven fabrics and the implications for other fabric properties, such as relaxation shrinkage.

This study has focussed on three main areas. First, an evaluation of the physical attributes of cashmere tops available to commercial spinners; second, the influence of processing variables on the efficiency of producing cashmere tops from raw Australian cashmere; and third, the influence of design of cashmere ultrafine wool blends on the fibre curvature of tops. Testing the physical attributes of cashmere tops from traditional and new sources of supply, was followed by statistical analyses based on factors of origin, processor and other determinants. The analyses demonstrated important processor effects and also that cashmere from different origins shows commercially important variations in fibre attributes. It was possible to efficiently produce Australian cashmere tops with Hauteur, tenacity, extension, softness and residual guard hairs quality attributes equivalent to those observed in the best cashmere tops. The blending of cashmere with wool resulted in a reduction of the mean fibre curvature of the blend compared with the unblended wool. The present work demonstrated that the fibre curvature properties of blended low crimp ultrafine wool tops were closer to the properties of pure cashmere tops than were tops made from blended standard high crimp ultrafine wool. The attributes of textiles made from the relatively rare Australian low curvature cashmere could enhance the marketability of both Australian cashmere and low curvature wool.

The press performance of a range of wool and wool blend fabrics has been investigated with the aid of a temperature adjustable hand steam iron, a domestic ironing board and a thermocouple digital temperature display.It was found that for a press duration of 10 seconds, the fabric crease angle is reduced with the increasing press temperature. The sharpest reduction in crease angle was found in the temperature range of 80°C to 120°C for all fabrics tested.At 100°C iron temperature, the fabric crease angle was reduced with increasing press duration until 20 seconds for wool fabrics and until 30 seconds for wool blend fabrics.The initial regain, or in other words, the relative humidity of the ambient atmosphere used to precondition the samples, has an important influence on the press performance. It was also found that the fabric crease recovery was greater for increasing ambient relative humidity.The fabric regain was greatly reduced during the first 10 seconds pressing time with further very slow reduction in fabric regain until 80 seconds pressing time. The regain in the upper layer of the fabric specimen was always lower than that in the lower layer.

A simple measurement of fabric pressing performance as indicated by crease angle has been developed and applied to the prediction of appearance of wool and wool blend tailored jackets. Industrial and laboratory trials have measured by the FAST system to give an assessment of garment appearance of lightweight fabrics after they are pressed.

To provide researchers with the details of developments in instruments to measure fabric drape and review the literature related to fabric drape.Design/methodology/approach – In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in investigating the aesthetic behavior of fabrics due to the developments in objective evaluation techniques. To understand drape behavior, it is essential to know how drape is measured quantitatively. This paper reviews research related to drape characteristics of fabrics, two‐dimensional instruments and analysis of drape by measuring stiffness, three‐dimensional instruments developed to measure drape, fabric mechanical properties and their influence on drape measurement, and the latest developments in the field including image analysis, the dynamic drape tester and other related research.Findings – Many instruments for measuring drape have been developed including the earliest that assessed stiffness of fabrics, later versions of drape meters and recent innovative instruments for capturing complex drape information. Even though extensive detail for simple geometric forms such as circles and squares can be provided by the newest methods, measurement of the drape characteristics of complex forms needs the consideration of researchers to extend the work on drape measurement to garments. It was also noted that there are some contradictory conclusions regarding the properties influencing fabric drape.Originality/value – This paper is offered as a concise reference for individuals beginning research in the area of fabric drape.