Weft density and draw in plan play an important role since they affect physical properties such as fabric weight, cloth cover factor as well as seam strength. Weft density refers to the amount of weft yarn in one inch. Meanwhile, draw in plan refers to the amount of heald shaft used and the order of warp yarn through the heald. In this study, plain woven fabrics were produced by using Sulzer Rapier Loom Machine. There were two different types of weft density used which were 15 and 20 weft per centimeter (wpcm) and four draws in plan: pointed, straight, broken and broken mirror. Seams were constructed by using plain seam of Ssa-1, four stitches of stitch density and 301 lockstitches for stitch type. Subsequently, the fabric samples were tested on seam strength by using Testometric tester. As a result of this study, it is proven that weft density and draw in plan of woven plain fabric are parameters that affect the seam strength and seam efficiency. The highest increase in percentage of seam strength was obtained from straight draw in plan which increases up to 17.19% from 15wpcm to 20wpcm. Meanwhile, broken draw in plan has the lowest increase percentage for seam strength which is 6.46%. Furthermore, seam efficiency also shows straight draw in plan gives good fabric durability compared to others. Lastly, it also shows broken draw in plan has no significant effect on fabric tensile strength and seam strength.
This study was carried out to determine the hand properties of cotton woven fabric treated with three different brands of commercial softeners and to identify the stiffness relationship between objective and subjective assessment. The hand properties refer to the impression feels when the fabric is touched, squeezed, rubbed or otherwise handled. The cotton woven fabric was categorized into light to medium weight and medium to heavy weight type. Three different brands of softener; Brand A, Brand B and Brand C were used, and the fabric samples were washed by using top load home washing machine for 48 minutes in each cycle with the detergent and softener added into the washing machine dispenser drawer following the instruction label on the softener’s bottle. After washing process was done, the samples were evaluated objectively by their stiffness and panel experts did subjective assessment on the samples by investigating three attributes namely stiffness, softness, smoothness. The results obtained from objective and subjective evaluation were then analysed using Two-way ANOVA and Kruskal Wallis test respectively.