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The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of knit fabric stitch patterns, as indicated by fabric thickness variations, on moisture responsiveness for different seamless knitted wool-based fabrics.

Forty fabrics were created on a Santoni Top-2 circular knitting machine by using combinations of jersey, tuck and float stitches in combinations of wool/Nylon, wool, and spandex yarns. Physical properties of the knit fabrics as well as changes in fabric thickness during dry, wet, after 30 min air-drying and after 60 min air-drying conditions were compared. Repeated measures ANOVA tests and bivariate correlation analysis were conducted.

The results indicated that changes in moisture conditions had a significant effect on fabric thickness, and these changes differed by stitch pattern groups. Float patterns and tuck/rib patterns showed a continued relaxation of fabric thickness through all conditions, but tuck stitches and rib stitches showed a thickness recovery. Wool swatches, unlike the wool/Nylon swatches, increased their average thickness in after 60 min air-drying condition compared to 30 min air-drying condition.

This research documents the moisture responsive properties for wool based yarns, as emerging natural functional materials for seamless knitting industry, with applications in garments for activewear as well as healthcare.

Wool fiber is accepted as one of the natural and renewable sources and has been used in the apparel and textile industry since ancient times. However, wool fiber has the highest global warming potential value among conventional fibres due to its high land use and high methane gas generation. This study aimed to recycle the wool fabric wastes and also to create a mini eco-collection by using the produced yarns.

This manuscript aimed to evaluate the fabric wastes of a woolen fabric producer company. Fabric wastes were opened with two different opening systems and fiber properties were determined. First, conventional ring yarns were produced in the company’s own spinning mill by mixing the opened fibres with the long fiber wastes of the company. In addition, opening wastes were mixed with different fibres (polyester, long wool waste, and Tencel fibres) between 25% and 70% in the short-staple yarn spinning mill and used in the production of conventional ring and OE-rotor yarns. Most of the yarns contained waste fibres at 50%. Recycled and virgin yarns were used as a weft and warp yarn and a total of 270 woven fabric samples were obtained and fabric properties were examined. Also, a fabric collection was created. A life cycle assessment (LCA) was made for one of the selected yarns.

At the end of the study, it was determined that it was possible to produce yarn and fabric samples from fiber blends containing high waste fiber ratios beyond 50%. All the woven fabric samples produced from conventional ring and OE-rotor yarns gave higher breaking, tearing and stitch slip strength values in the weft and warp direction than limit quality values of the company. In addition, abrasion resistance and WIRA steam stability properties of the fabric samples were also sufficient. Environmental analysis of the recycling of the wastes showed a possible decrease of about 9940034.3 kg CO2e per year in the global warming potential. In addition, fiber raw material expenses reduced yarn production cost about 50% in case of opened fabric waste usage. However, due to insufficient pilling resistance results, it was decided to evaluate the woven fabrics for the product groups such as shawls and blankets, where pilling resistance is less sought.

The original aspects of the article can be summarized under two headings. First, there are limited studies on the evaluation of wool wastes compared to cotton and polyester fibres and the number of samples examined was limited. However, this study was quite comprehensive in terms of opening type (rag and tearing), spinning systems (long and short spinning processes), fiber blends (waste 100% and blends with polyester, long wool waste and Tencel fibres) and yarn counts (coarser and finer). Recycled and virgin yarns were used as a weft and warp yarn and a total of 270 woven fabric samples were obtained using different colour combinations and weave types. All processes from fabric waste to product production were followed and evaluated. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and cost analysis was also done. The second unique aspect is that the problem of a real wool company was handled by taking the waste of the woolen company and a collection was created for the customer group of the company. Production was made under real production conditions. Therefore, this study will provide important findings to the research field about recycling, sustainability etc.

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.

This study compared physical characteristics in four fabrics before and after a wear trial. The constructed fabrics were: 100 per cent pima cotton, 90–10 per cent pima cotton/wool, 80–20 per cent pima cotton/wool, and 70–30 per cent pima cotton/wool. The physical properties of breaking strength, stiffness, tear resistance, pilling resistance, and wrinkle recovery were compared between worn and unworn fabrics. Wear trial participants (n=20) were asked to assess fabric comfort and performance satisfaction during wear. Results of physical testing found significant differences among blend levels and before and after wearing and care treatment levels. Tear resistance, breaking strength, stiffness, and wrinkle recovery were affected by fibre content and care level. Contrary to the authors' hypothesis, consumer satisfaction was also affected by fibre content of the fabrics.

Wool, mainly composed of keratin, is a relatively high-grade clothing material. Although woollen textile has the advantages of high wearing comfort and excellent warmth retention property as we have known, its inherent disadvantage of easy pilling has easy puzzled people for a long time. Most of the existing technologies for pilling resistance are not eco-friendly or severely damaged the internal structure of wool.

In this work, a controlled and effective surface treatment method was proposed to controllable micro-dissolution the scale layers of wool with minor damage to its internal structure, thereby improving the anti-pilling property of wool. Thiourea dioxide (TD) is used as a dissolving agent to swell and dissolve wool surface flakes. After TD treatment, the morphology changes of wool fibers were observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and methylene blue staining. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to characterize the structural changes of TD wool. At the same time, the anti-pilling properties and wettability of wool fabrics were tested.

The results show that the wool scale layer is destroyed after TD treatment, which reduces the friction between fibers and improves the anti-pilling performance of wool fabrics. The methylene blue-stained images further demonstrate that low concentrations of TD can damage the superficial scale layer of wool without significant loss of strength.

This method is simple, eco-friendly and economical, and opens up a new direction for the surface treatment of wool fabrics.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify how the micro-structure and -properties of wool fibers influence the pilling property of woolen fabrics.

The fuzzing and pilling property of woolen fabrics was investigated, based on micro-scale including basic structural characteristics of wool fibers, wool scale topography and surface friction, etc. Scanning electron microscope was used to analyze wool fiber structure; frictional coefficients were measured by capstan method. Then three different kinds of wool fibers are spun into yarns, then knitted into woolen fabrics, whose pilling grade were estimated by means of Pillbox method.

Results show that the finer the fiber, the fabric pilling degree will be higher; the shorter the fiber, the fabric’s pilling is more serious; the number of pilling is decreasing with the increasing number of crimp; the longer the scales, the better anti-pilling property of fabrics, while the larger the scale thickness, the worse the anti-pilling property; and initially, with the increasing DFEs, fabrics are not easy to pilling, however, there exists a critical value.

Fuzzing and pilling property of woolen fabrics are affected by number of factors, including raw fibers, yarns, fabric tissue and finishing process, etc. In this paper, the authors exclude the influence of yarns’ parameter and fabrics’ tissue, etc., but focus on the micro-structure and -properties of raw wool fibers; and establish a direct connection between fabrics’ pilling property and fibers’ parameters.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the significant factors important for prickle discomfort properties of commercial wool knitwear and to analyse information on variability of garments manufactured over two decades, a total of 177 purchased garments were tested.

The relationship between the attributes of the reversed engineered garments and garment comfort, as assessed by Wool ComfortMeter, was determined.

The results indicate that: mean fibre diameter had the most significant effect on prickle assessment; the coefficient of variation of fibre diameter interacted with fabric thickness in affecting prickle discomfort; and rib knit structures were pricklier than single jersey structures.

The results provide objective evidence that the consumer surveys reporting dissatisfaction with the prickle discomfort of wool are based on real consumer experiences of prickle discomfort and are not based on “prejudice” against wool garments.

The use of nonwoven fabrics in garment has been, up to now, purely functional and hidden from view. In fact, their uses have been limited to garment interlining in the apparel industry. Felted structures from wool have been limited to the craft market for the production of art and craft objects of decoration. This paper aims to compare the mechanical and thermo-physical comfort properties of a woven wool, a felted wool fabric, a felted wool/polyester and two non-woven synthetic fabrics for apparel use.

Fabric samples were sourced locally. Five fabric samples were selected: one woolen woven, one felted woven, one polyester/wool non-woven and two non-woven synthetic fabrics. The wool fabric was felted by mechanical action using the Wascator FOM 71P machine. All fabric samples were conditioned before they were tested for their mechanical and thermal comfort properties as per standard test methods.

The comparative study of the mechanical and thermal properties of the five fabric samples have been successfully investigated as textile materials for commercial garments. In terms of fabric stiffness, drape and handle, the two non-woven synthetic fabrics were, in general, poorer than the woven wool and the felted woven wool fabrics. The synthetic non-woven fabrics also performed poorly in terms of serviceability. But it was found that the nonwoven synthetic fabrics were best suited when thermal insulation is required and were found to be better than the woven felted wool fabric of comparative weight per unit area.

The value of this study is that it demonstrates the scope of felted woolen structures and other synthetic nonwovens fabrics as usable materials, in part or in full, in the development of apparel for winter wear especially in cold environments and where aesthetic appeal is secondary.

This paper aims to study microwave pad dyeing process for wool fabric. Influences of various dyeing process conditions including galactomannan dosage, urea dosage, sodium bisulphite dosage, pH value, microwave irradiation power, treating time and cold batching time before microwave fixation on K/S values were analysed. The colour yield, fixation and levelness were compared between microwave fixation and cold batching fixation.

Colour yield (K/S values) was calculated using a Datacolor SF650 colour measuring and matching instrument (10° standard observer, CIE D65 light source Measuring; Datacolor, USA) and was used to determine the depth of the shade of dyed wool fabrics. Levelness of dyeing was evaluated also using the Datacolor SF650 colour measuring and matching instrument by measuring average deviation (S), range (P) of the maximum and the minimum for lightness (L), chroma (C) and hue (h), and balanced colour difference (ΔE) at 20 specified uniform locations on the wool fabrics. The colour difference was calculated as per the equation ΔE=(ΔL2+Δa2+Δb2)1/2 as appearing in the Experimental section. Fixation was determined using a Datacolor SF650 colour measuring and matching instrument by measuring ratio the of K/S for wool fabrics that were rinsed, washed, neutralised and then dried, and wool fabrics that were dried after fixation without washing. The pH of the padding solution was evaluated using a PHSJ-4A PH meter (Datacolor, USA). SEM analysis was done on JEOL JSM-5600LV machine (JEOL Ltd, Japan).

This study is based on application of microwave technology in the processing of silk.

It was found in laboratory experiments that uniform dyeing and deeper colour can be achieved throughout the microwave pad dyeing process for wool by using galactomannan. The novel process could reduce the dyeing time and the energy consumption of the traditional cold pad-batch dyeing process for wool fabric.

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the effects of hydrochloric acid (HCl), hydrazine, methyl methacrylate, styrene and hexamethyldisiloxane by radio-frequency (rf) plasma graftings on surface properties of wool and denim fabrics.

During plasma treatments, processing time was varied under optimized plasma conditions (50 W, rf: 13.56 MHz). All fabrics were comprehensively investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and contact angle measurements.

The experimental data shows that the rf-plasma processing has important effect on the wettability properties of wool and denim fabrics. The results indicated that HCl plasma treatment significantly improves the hydrophilicity of wool and denim fabrics.

The research on wool and denim fabric treatment by plasma is original.