A Study on Adapting Patterns to Stable Knit Fabrics in Relation to Drapability

This research focused on pattern adjustments of the stable knit garment for women. Fourteen different types of the knitted fabrics by 12 gauge, computerized flat bed machines were cut in as one half of the torso front, one half of the torso back, and one side of the sleeves for each of them. Guidelines such as the center front, the center back, the armhole, the bust-line, the waistline, the hip-line the hemline were basted on the torso patterns in the knitted fabrics. Also the grain-line, the elbow-line, and the hemline were basted on the one side of the sleeves in the same as above knitted fabrics. The torso patterns in the knitted fabrics were exhibited on the dress-forms on top of the torso patterns in Muslin, which also have the same guidelines drawn on. The distances between the guidelines on Muslin and those on the knitted fabrics for each set of the sample fabrics were measured every three days for two weeks. The fabric properties of the fourteen knitted fabrics such as fiber contents, stitch density both in the wale and course directions, weight, thickness, stretch & recovery, residual shrinkage, relaxation and drapability were laboratory tested for how these were related to finished appearance of 12 gauge, computerized flat knit garments and also in order to prove the fourteen knitted fabrics fall to a category of such as the stable knit. The results from the investigation revealed that six fabric properties such as stitch density, thickness, stretch recovery, residual shrinkage and relaxation were not so much significant factors as weight and drapability. In conclusion, fabric weight, and drapability of the fabric resulting from fiber contents were the cause of final appearance distortion of garment. When adapting patterns for stabilized, 12 gauge, computerized flat knitted fabrics, the fiber contents of the fabrics should be taken into consideration to reduce the production cost and produce better-fit garments.