Influences of Elastane Content, Aesthetic Finishes and Fabric Weight on Mechanical and Comfort Properties of Denim Fabrics

The denim is a fabric woven from coarse indigo dyed warp and grey un-dyed weft yarn. Denim fabric is hard-wearing and has high density with a high mass per unit area and a 3/1 or 2/1-twill weaves construction. It is comfortable, fashionable, affordable, durable and a popular clothing material. Nowadays, the stretchable denims are in fashion due to its comfort fit and flexibility. These fabrics possess elasticity so that garments made out of stretchable denim fabric closely fit to body without restricting body movement. Clothes are mostly under strain in some parts of the body, such as the knee, elbow and lower back areas. Therefore, stretching is very important for the comfort of the wearer. Generally, fabrics are required to stretch comfortably in accordance with body movements, and also after stretching, to retain their original shape without any deformation. However, if clothes don’t have such great flexibility, deformation occurs which is dubbed as fabric bagging. Özdil [1] studied the stretch and bagging properties of denim fabrics containing different rates of elastane. The test results revealed that increasing the amount of elastane usage in denim fabric offers enhanced comfort properties. Mourad et al. [2] studied the effects of elastane content percentage on physical and stretch properties of the plain woven cotton fabric. The results obtained in this study indicated that the amount of lycra has a significant influence on physical and elastic properties of woven fabrics. Fabric contraction increases with the increasing elastane content percentage. Fabric tensile strength decreases with Lycra rate, while fabric breaking extension increases because of the higher extension of Lycra fibers. Air permeability and tearing strength decreased significantly with the increase in lycra rate. This is because the fabrics will be thicker and more compact with the increase in lycra rate in the woven fabrics. It is observed that maximum stretch and fabric elastic recovery increases with Lycra rate fabric growth decreases. ALansary [3] studied the effect of elastane content percentage on physical and mechanical properties of different woven fabrics including shrinkage %, fabric growth and air-permeability and they revealed that the ratio of Lycra had a significant influence on the physical properties of woven fabrics.