2010

Course Name: Fabric Manufacturing Engineering & Technology -3 Course Code: TXE-403

Date of submission: 06 April 2010.

Joy Krishna Saha Lecturer Dept. of Textile Engineering.

Md. Mizanur Rahman Md. Moznu Mia Shaoun Chandra Das

(TE-06009) (TE-06016) (TE-06043)

FLEECE FABRIC
A brief description

Fleece Fabric

leece is a wonderful outerwear fabric. Introduced in the '80's by Malden Mills in the USA, it has gained popularity because it is comfortable and practical. Fleece is a general term for a soft fabric (often with a deep pile). The chemical name of polymer in fleece fabric is polyethylene terephthalate, or PET. Garments made with fleece fabrics have become very fashionable.

Characteristics of Fleece
It has unique characteristics such as: It is warm, cozy & comfortable. Easy to sew, easy to care, washable and hang to dry. Many types of fleece fabric can be easily produced at very low cost with the help of circular knitting machine. It has the amazing ability to insulate the wearer, while wicking moisture away from the body. It can be used both practical & high fashion purpose. It is environmentally friendly.

There is a wide variety of fleece qualities in today's market. It is up to the discriminating sewer to determine whether a particular fleece is of suitable quality for the intended project. Just as with any other fabric, quality is determined by many factors. *Density: How much fiber is in the fleece? Is it dense and thick or thin enough to show threads under the fuzzy surface? The denser the fleece the better the quality. *Recovery: How good is the memory? Gently stretch the fleece and let it relax. Does it quickly bounce back to its original dimension or does it wave and ripple? High quality fleece has quick recovery. *"Rough it up": To give yourself a preview of how well the fabric will wear, rub the fleece roughly against itself, in a circular motion, on both sides of the fleece. If it looks a bit rugged, starts pilling, or distorts, it is a lesser quality fleece. High quality fleeces go through multiple shearing and flouring processes to reduce pilling.

Tips for Sewing

Fleece is an easy fabric to sew. Use a 90/14 universal needle and good-quality polyester thread. There is no need to finish seams as fleece does not ravel. However, we are so used to seeing serged seams, that always finish the seams on the serger. find that fleece can be too thick for the serger so sew it on the conventional machine first and then serge the seams together, trimming them down to about 1/4" in most areas. If wish to topstitch seams after they are sewn, leave the seam allowances longer and sometimes grade them to reduce bulk. The only difficulty with fleece is its bulk. It tends to "snow-plough" up in front of the presser foot. One method which helps feed fleece through the machine is to pin the seams alternately: stagger the pins on both sides of the seam to be sewn. Use the tip of your point turner to compress the fabric in front of the presser foot if you are still having difficulty getting the fleece to feed easily. Also lengthen stitch length to 3 or 4 (almost basting). Fleece garments are loose fitting and don't need the tiny stitches of tailored clothing. Stitches will then be easier to remove if needed.

FACTS SHOULD KNOW BEFORE SEW FLEECE

Some fleeces are single-sided and others double-sided. Single-sided fleeces are napped on one side only, while double-sided are napped (or fluffed up) on both sides. This does not mean that you can use either side indiscriminately. There is still a wrong and right side to double-sided fleece. It is very important to remember this, as the garment will look terrible if it is sewn with the wrong side out. Identifying Right or Wrong sideFirst Look at a cross-section of the cut edge; the right side will be thicker. This is quite noticeable on the 16-oz. fleeces (such as most of the Yukon samples) but it is not quite so apparent on the 14-oz. If you are not sure which is the wrong or right side, the absolute test is the "pull" test. When pulled on the lengthwise grain (parallel to the selvedge), fleece will roll to the right side; when pulled on the crosswise grain (perpendicular to the selvedge), the fleece will roll to the wrong side. If the selvedge has been cut off and you don't know which grain is which, hold the fleece up to the light. You should be able to see the vertical ribs of the knit (yes, fleece is a knit fabric) and this will indicate the lengthwise grain.

CARE OF FLEECE
Fleece will not shrink and it will not fade or run. All great qualities to have in a garment. Also there is no need to pre-wash fleece fabric. Most of us delay that first washing since the texture does change somewhat.

To launder - wash in warm water with laundry detergent. Dissolve the detergent in the water first before adding the garments, to avoid getting soap residue on the clothes. Do up all buttons, snaps, zippers, etc. before washing and turn the garment inside out. This reduces the amount of surface abrasion which happens during the wash cycle. Wash fleece articles separately or with other fleece garments. Fleece picks up lint easily and a fleece garment washed with wool socks or terry towels will never look the same again. Fleece can be machine-dried. However, recommend hanging it to dry. Since it dries very quickly, this is not a problem and the drier causes more abrasion to the surface. No Ironing! DO NOT iron fleece. The heat of the iron will melt the fibers and you will be left with flattened areas or, worse, an iron imprint.

Polar Fleece fabric

Polar fleece is a soft napped insulating synthetic fabric made from Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or other synthetic fibers. One of the first forms was Polar Fleece created in 1979 by Malden Mills, now Polarity LLC., a new, light and strong pile fabric meant to mimic and in some ways surpass wool. Fleece has some of wool's finest qualities but weighs a fraction of the lightest available woolens. Construction: Here base structure is produced by filament Polyester yarn, the back side or loop side is being produced by spun Polyester yarn. And finally both side brushes are done in this fabric.

Polar fleece

End uses: Mainly used for producing winter garments. Others are as follows: Polar fleece is used in casual jackets, sweaters, inexpensive throw blankets. Jogging bottoms/sweatpants, gym clothes, hoodies, hats. And high-performance outdoor clothing, and can be a vegan alternative to wool.

Micro Fleece
Micro Fleece is a fabric made from recycled plastic bottles or synthetic materials. micro fleece fabric is one of the products produced from recycling used plastic bottles and other synthetic materials, which is then made into various clothing or ready-to-wear products. Micro fleece does not have the finest qualities wool has. Its hydrophobic properties make it good for wicking away sweat, so fleece is a great material for active wear. It comes in four different thicknesses: micro is the thinnest and most flexible, followed by 100, 200, and 300. Micro fleece is also a great alternative for people who are allergic to wool or those with sensitive skin. Construction: It is constructed by Micro yarn. Here both face and loop side is produced from Micro filament yarn. Individual filament count should be below 1 Decitex.

Micro Fleece

Micro Fleece

Properties of Micro Fleece Micro fleece fabric is more comfortable to wear. It is more soft and light weight than wool fabric and not itchy like wool &easy to wash. Its lightness and warmness which is a best fabric to be made into sleepwear, hence there are micro fleece sleepwear products like micro fleece jackets, micro fleece pajamas, and micro fleece vests; an even as well as blankets.

Because of its light weight quality, it is easy to take care Micro fleece is also hydrophobic, or water-repellent. It dries quickly when wash it or cleans it and does not hold much liquid, only contain one percent of its weight & remain breathable. It has flammable property. Micro fleece is also considered to be more environmentally friendly than wool. Despite of these good qualities of micro fleece, it has also a very few disadvantage as well which is worth considering in order preventing unpleasant matters resulting from micro fleece products. Others areMicro fleece is a flammable products and vulnerable to tearing and pilling mechanism or could easily be tear off which really a big hassle.

Micro fleece also have very high static electric charges that could attract your pets hairs, dusts, and other elements or materials that can be attracted by a static electrical charges. And that is really, oh so messy and dirty. Depending on its quality, micro fleece is not always durable. It is also not always windproof, though denser forms of fleece and fleece products with windproof linings are available. But should be careful when wash it because it can be especially susceptible to pilling and tears.

Two Thread Fleece:

Other types of simpler fleece structures is Known as the two-thread fleece (also commonly known as French terry). The two-thread fleece fabrics suggest that the inlay yam mainly governs their dimensional behavior in the widthwise direction.It is produced from natural fibre. Construction: Mainly Two thread fleece is constructed by two types of yarn. One yarn (which is very fine yarn) is form base & another yarn (which is course such as Rotor types yarn) forms the loop. Cam Arrangement: FACE SIDE K K K M M T K M K T K M K T K M K M

BACK SIDE

Two thread fleece

Three Thread Fleece:

In circular knitting, the fleece is also known technically as three-thread fleece. It uses three types of knitted loops to form a strong fabric, with light stretch ability and very low skewness. The fabric variations are achieved on the same circular knitting machine through the changes in the arrangement of the knitting cams and the arrangement of the needles. Fabric structures of three-thread fleece The double yarns, i.e. tie-in yarn and ground yarn, formed a plain jersey structure, while the fleece yarn is held by the tie-in yarn. Floating stitches of the fleece yarn over a span of three wales form the fleecy loop. This illustrustion shows the most common three-thread fleece structure. Other variations are created by varying the width of the fleecy loop, or varying the location where the tie-in yarn holds the fleecy yarn between two adjacent courses.

Cam Arrangement:

Base Yarn K K K K K K K K

Bind yarn M K K M K K M K K T M K K M K K T K K M M K K T K K M K K M T K K M K K M K K M Loop yarn

Three Thread Fleece Fabrics

Product Description Article name: Three-thread fleece fabric. Quality: 65%cotton, 35% poly; 60%C, 40%Poly; 80%Cotton, 20%Polyester, 100%cotton, 100%polyester Surface: None brushed, one side brushed, only dyed, one side brushed &one side printed antipilling.

Three thread fleece knitting machine

Advantages and disadvantages of Fleece Fabric: Fleece is a soft, lightweight, warm and comfortable fabric. It is hydrophobic, holding less than 1% of its weight in water, it retains much of its insulating powers even when wet, and it is highly breathable. These qualities make it useful for making clothing intended to be used during strenuous physical activity; perspiration is able to readily pass through the fabric. It is machine washable and dries quickly. It is a good alternative to wool (of particular importance to those who are allergic or sensitive to wool). Another benefit of fleece is that it can be made out of recycled PET bottles, or even recycled fleece.

There are disadvantages to this fabric as well. If not treated with a flame retardant, fleece is quite flammable, in contrast to wool, which is quite nonflammable for a textile.[ Nonrecycled fleece is made from non-renewable petroleum derivatives. Regular fleece is not windproof, and does not absorb moisture (although this is often seen as a benefit, per above). Fleece also tends to generate a high amount of static electricity, which causes the accumulation of lint, dust, and pet hair. It is also susceptible to damage from high temperature washing, tumble drying or ironing. Lower-quality fleece material is also prone to pilling.

Uses of Fleece Fabric:

Fleece has a very wide application. These may be numbered as follows: The wide applications include outer garments, vests, warm garment lining/insulation, mittens, socks, hats, scarf, blankets, quills and pajamas. It also used as sports wear, apparel, baby Gown, Night gown, dressing gown,blanket,Home textiles.

Due to its popularity, the fabric developments have been extensive worldwide.

The End