Abstract
Silk, polyester, cotton, and wool fabrics were embroidered with varying stitch length of 3mm, 5mm, and 10mm to examine the difference in fabric shrinkage in terms of sewing direction, fabric thickness, cover factor, stitch length, and fiber type. Warp, filling, and bias direction of sewing resulted in no difference in fabric shrinkage. Within the samples with same stitch length, there was less fabric shrinkage in fabrics with higher fabric thickness or higher cover factor. There was larger shrinkage when sewn with longer stitch length. Comparing fabrics with different fiber types but similar fabric thickness, silk and polyester fabrics showed the smallest fabric shrinkage and wool fabrics showed the largest shrinkage. It is shown that similar fabric shrinkage between silk and polyester is due to the similarity in cover factor.