Development of Wool Underwear to Prevent the Deformation Due to Repeated Washing

Abstract

The authors examined the dimensional changes of underwear due to repeated washing. Three types of underwear were knitted from (1) wool yarn,(2) polyester-covered wool yarn and (3) polyester yarn itself. The test results of dimensional change, wale- and course-density, and photomicrographs of cloth surface have shown that wool underwear shrinks in the wale direction and expands in the course direction, thus resulting in shape deformation. On the other hand, the polyester-covered wool underwear and polyester underwear did not deform their shape. It was suggested that polyester-covered wool and polyester underwear have the equivalent form stability.