Assessment of the dynamic elastic recovery behaviour of seams in woven polyester fabric - The effect of stitch type and stitch length

Abstract

Due to the various movements of the body while wearing clothes; not only fabric but also clothing seams encounter different and alternative tensile strains. In this regard, the elastic recovery behavior of seams against these strains considerably influences the performance maintenance, quality, and appearance of seam. This study compared the dynamic elastic recovery of the seam in a plain woven polyester fabric prepared by lockstitch and double chain stitch with various stitch lengths and sewing threads with different counts. The dynamic elastic recovery of sewn samples was measured under various strain levels including 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50% of breakage strains in five loading cycles. The results of this study indicate that the double chain stitch samples owing to the formation of yarn to the loop in the stitch structure have more significant dynamic elastic recovery than lockstitch. Furthermore, in both stitch types, the reduction of stitch length causes the increment of dynamic elastic recovery due to the rise of reserve yarn in the stitch structure and the needle penetration points in the fabric. The application of thinner sewing thread for sewing samples improves the dynamic elastic recovery. In all test samples, by increasing the exerted strain, due to the large deformation of samples, dynamic elastic recovery diminished. The trend of residual strain variation of samples was the opposite of dynamic elastic recovery. By selecting the proper parameter of the seam including stitch type, stitch length, and sewing thread count; it is possible to optimize the dynamic elastic recovery of seams under tensile cyclic loading to keep their shape and performance during use.