Drape Behavior of Woven Fabrics with Seams

Abstract

Drape is a unique property that allows a fabric to be bent in more than one direction with double curvature. For many years, textile researchers studied this attribute in order to evaluate the drape quality and improve the drape appearance of garments. However, fabric drape can be more realistically investigated by considering seams. At present, research in this area is very limited. This paper presents a fundamental drape analysis of seamed fabrics using Cusick's drapemeter. Simple plain and twill woven fabrics with various fiber contents of cotton, linen, silk, wool, and polyester are given radial and circular seams. The effects of seam allowance and seam position are investigated experimentally. Drape behavior is determined and compared in terms of drape coefficient, node analysis, and drape profile. Investigating drape on seamed fabrics can improve apparel design and fabric end-use applications. Moreover, it contributes to garment drape prediction for the clothing CAD system. Drape describes the ability of a textile material to orient itself into folds in more than one plane under its own weight. This unique characteristic offers a sense of fullness and a graceful appearance, which distinguish textiles from other materials such as paper or polymer films. Practically, drape determines apparel design and influences fabric quality for specific enduses. Thus, studies of drape have appeared in the literature for years.Three-dimensional studies of drape were first begun by Chu [ 1 ] , when he established a measuring method for fabric drape using the FRL drapemeter. Chu quantified the drapeability of a fabric into a dimensionless value he called a &dquo;drape coefficient,&dquo; which is defined as the percent of the area from an angular ring of fabric covered by a vertical projection of the draped fabric. The apparatus was further studied by Kaswell [ 7 and later revised by Chu [ 2,3 ] . Finally, Cusick [ 6 investigated the experimental method again by using a parallel light source that reflects the drape shadow of a circular specimen from a hanging disc into a piece of ring paper. He also modified the calibration of Chu's s drape coefficient in terms of the paper-weighing method. In recent years, the emphasis has been on improving the efficiency and accuracy of Cusick's drapemeter by using digital readouts of drape shadows from photovoltaic cells [ 4 ] , as well as by computerized image analysis [ 9 ] .Obviously, the study of fabric drape is served by understanding and evaluating the final garment appearance, but fabrics must be sewn to form garments, and seaming is believed to affect garment appearance significantly. A plain seam, the most typical seam found extensively in apparel, is the simplest type in which a single row of lockstitches joins two pieces of fabrics together. Thus, investigating the effect of a plain seam on fabric drape has a significant value for both the textile and clothing industries. ' Suda and Nagasaka 18 ] investigated fabric drape related to the effect of seams on a skirt. In their wo...

Fabric objective measurement and drape

“…Hu and Chung found that increased SA of radial seams (RS) (seam between two edges of a circular sample passing through the centre) slightly affected DC which had a rapid increase between 1-5 mm SA and insignificant increase after this period. DC trend curves of 1, 2 and 4 RS were similar; however the latter was the most stable and clear with variable SA [69].…”

“…The most significant increasing effect for DC was for a seam just off the supporting disc as seam allowance was still hanging on the sample disc and increased sample support. DC decreased with CS movement towards the sample edge to reach the lowest value when CS was at the edge of the fabric specimen [69].…”

“…Increasing the SA reduced NN along the unseamed parts, and light weight fabrics were less sensitive than heavy weight fabrics with changed SA [69].…”

“…The variability of the number of nodes was used as an indicator of fabric drape stability. Regularity of node arrangement, their orientation, location and highest and lowest node length were proposed as drape parameters [69].…”

“…Fabric weight had an influence on the effect of SN on DC as increased SN had more impact on increasing DC of heavy weight fabrics than light weight ones. [69].…”