Sustainable Patchwork Fabrics from Pre-Consumer Waste : Assessment of Physical, Mechanical and Comfort Properties

Pre-consumer waste in the textile industry refers to material that is created during the process of makingtextiles, but is not used by consumers. Pré-consumer textile waste is one of the biggest problems in resourceefficient textile production that is generated in the process of making textiles, but not consumed by consumers.During the process of pattern cutting, sampling and making garments, small scale garment manufacturing unitsand boutique stores create a lot of cotton fabric remnants. Although the original material properties remaingood, these remnants are generally thrown away, which leads to material loss and higher environmentalburden. The study explored patchwork fabric making techniques by using pre-consumer cotton waste fromsmall-scale garment manufacturing units and their characteristics.Fabric scraps of cotton were gathered, sorted by size and fabric type and then transformed into patchworkfabrics using a set of standard patchwork construction techniques. Physical, mechanical and comfort relatedproperties of developed patchwork fabrics were characterized and compared with conventional cotton fabric.The physical properties of the fabrics involved were determined by fabric mass per unit area (GSM) andthickness, and mechanical properties were measured based on tensile strength, seam strength and abrasionresistance. The properties being assessed regard comfort were the air permeability and the moisturetransmission. All the testing was carried out by following the appropriate standard textile testing methods andthe experimental results were analysed statistically and the significance of the differences between the textilesamples was determined.This study is intended to assess the applicability of patchwork fabrics made from pre-consumer cotton wastematerials for clothing and/or home fabrications. The outcome is anticipated to offer insights into how thepatchwork construction affects the performance and durability of the fabric. Moreover, the material utilizationefficiency obtained by converting the cutting waste for the creation of value-added textile structures isquantified in order to gain an insight into the potential for this process as a waste minimization strategy. Theresults add to the sustainable production of textile materials by combining waste utilization and textileengineering in the production of textile materials and provide a practical approach towards increasing theefficiency of the use of resources in small-scale garment production systems.