PREDICTION OF SEAM PUCKER OF SHINGOSEN FABRICS WOVEN WITH MICRO DENIER FIBRES

Shingosen fabrics (new synthetic‐fibre fabrics) have been accepted by consumers because of their new handling properties and are rapidly becoming popular as material for women's dresses. Seam puckering, however, is becoming a serious problem in the sewing process for these fabrics, especially those fabrics woven with micro denier fibres. An investigation was carried out to correlate seam puckering with fabric mechanical properties and also with penetration force of sewing needles. The results are: (1) When sewing is carried out normally, the seam pucker of shingosen fabrics is well predicted by the “seam‐pucker prediction equation” which has been derived for men's suit fabrics, based on fabric weight and mechanical parameters derived by tensile, bending and shearing fabric properties. (2) The case that a sewing needle breaks woven yarns and makes holes (sewing eyes) in fabric is observed often in the sewing of high dense weave woven by micro denier fibres. In this case, the seam pucker is reduced because of less restriction of yarn movement through the holes. (3) A new prediction equation for seam pucker of shingosen fabrics is derived on the basis of sewing experiments with shingosen instead of the men's suiting equation. The prediction ability of this new equation is higher than that of men's suiting.