Abstract
This paper reports the application of blended yarns consisting of silk and nylon, or super hybrid silk (SHS), to produce wash-resistant silk crepes for domestic launderable kimonos. The three kinds of nylon core fibers used were semi-dull (sd), bright (br), and low-shrink (Is) nylons. Three 45/55 silk/nylon hybrid yarns (sd-SHS, br-SHS, and Is-SHS) were used to produce three different crepes (warp/weft: sd/sd-SHS, sd/br-SHS, and sd/ls-SHS). For comparison, a silk crepe and a silk-like polyester crepe were also prepared. The crepes were subjected to a series of wash and dry cycles with a household washing machine and examined for dimensional stability. The mechanical properties and six hands including stiffness (Koshi), anti-drape stiffness (Hari), crispness (Shari), fullness and softness (Fukurami), flexibility with soft feeling (Shinayakasa), and scrooping feeling (Kishimi) of the unwashed and washed crepes were measured by the KES-FB method. After five launderings, the hand value trends of the SHS crepes were similar to that of the silk crepe. They showed decreased Koshi and Hari hand values and increased Fukurami and Shinayakasa hand values. However, the changes in the hand values of the SHS crepes caused by five washings were less than those of the silk crepe. The hand values of the sd/br-SHS crepe became close to those of the polyester crepe while the sd/sd-SHS and sd/ls-SHS crepes showed similar hand values to the silk crepe. The dimensional stability and wash-and-wear properties of the SHS crepes were found to be significantly improved by using the SHS yarns. These results confirmed that the SHS crepes have excellent wash-resistance compared to the silk crepe.
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