Washing Effect on Fabrics Made of Cotton and its Blends with Modal and Tencel

Natural fibers made from cellulosic materials are in constant demand owing to their beneficialproperties. The climatic conditions of nature affect the production and supply of cotton fibers, which areboth constrained. Regenerated fibers have been created to meet the demand for cotton fibers. Viscosefiber, a member of the first generation of regenerated cellulosic fibers, has a lower wet modulus thancotton. In order to address the shortcomings of first-generation cellulosic fibers and improve the qualitiesof the regenerated cellulose fiber, some modified cellulosic regenerated fibers, such as Modal and Tencelfibers, have been produced. The numerous washings could alter the physical structure of yarn and fabricshence affecting the physical properties of the fabrics. In the present study, three types of fibrousmaterials: cotton, a blend of modal-cotton and tencel-cotton have been used to produce single jerseyknitted fabrics and the effect of repeated washings on the physical properties (stitch density, fabricweight, fabric thickness, shrinkage and pilling) of knitted single jersey fabrics has been investigated. Ithas found that all three physical factors (stitch density, fabric weight and thickness), fabric shrinkageincrease while pilling decreases drastically in the first two washing cycles thereafter little change hasbeen observed in further washing cycles. Pilling has good correlation with all three physical factors butshrinkage shows good correlation with stitch density only