Abstract
The hand characteristics of bast blended fabrics are studied by a subective evaluation method. To offer basic data for development of better hand of bast fiber fabrics customer's hand preference surveys are executed as well. IN this study 51 varieties of linen or ramie blended fabrics of various blending ratio density and thickness and Hansan ramie Chinese ramie and a Shingosen fabics of various blending ratio density and thickness and Hansan ramie Chinese ramie and a Shingosen farbic and used. To evaluate the hand of the fabrics subjectively nine ranks' semantic differential scale questions of 26 items are developed with adjective pairs. A seven ranks' scale is also developed to evaluate hand preferences in blouse and jacket cloths, Through subjective evaluation of bast blended fabrics the 26 items could be classified into seven kinds of hand classification : surface characteristics extensibility/drapability felling of heaviness stiffness resilience moisture property and feeling of density. The cumulative variance value explained by these seven factors is 67.18% According to the results of fabrics' preference by age groups no significant differences are found in blouse cloths but a few significant differences are found among different age groups in jacket clothes. However experts and non-experts show considerable differences on preference It can be concluded that fabrics' preference I more dependent on professionality than on age. In the survey experts. However more drapery cloths are preferred by experts and cloths with drier touch are preferred by non-experts. Experts prefer rougher less even less winding heavier and sparser fabrics but non-experts prefer rougher lighter thinner and stiffer fabrics as jacket cloths.