Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
~o~
This inventlon relates to interlinings used in tallor-
ing and more particularly relates to composite interlinings used
for such purposes as floating chest pieces or collars on jackets.
In the making of a jacket, traditional tailoring tech-
niques require a compositc interlining made up of a body canvas,
a double shoulder canvas and a piece oE Eelt. The composite is
normally positioned in the jacket with the felt side toward the
lining and helps hold the shape and drape characteristics of the
part of the jacket as well as giving a soft handle to the inside
of the foreport of the jacket.
With the advent of fusible interlinings, the normal
body canvas is now attached to the jacket front, or forepart, by
means of a fusible resin9 but a floating chest piece is still
used. It is so-called because, unlike the double shoulder piece
employed before fusible interlinings were widely used, it is at-
tached to the jacket only down the lapel crease line and in the
armhole. The floating chest piece is made from a canvas sheet
having a wool felt sheet secured to it by multiple rows of stitch-
ing.
The composite chest piece is normally produced by sew-
ing the premade felt to the canvas backing on a zig-zag machine
with rows of stitches 1/2 inch (about 13 mm) apart. This method
is costly from the point of view of both labour and material. It
has been proposed to fuse the canvas and felt together but it was
found that both the handle and drape of the finished product
suffer.
The invention seeks to provide a composite interlining
which is less costly to produce and which has desirable character-
-- 2
~ID75~
istics in use.
According to one aspect of the present invention there
is provided a composite interlining fabric having handle and drape
and suitable for a lining, comprising a dense, stiEf, non-woven
fabric and a web of felted staple fibres, said web being needled
into the face of the fabric such that a mlnor proportion only of
the fibres penetrates to the reverse side of the fabric.
Another aspect of the invention provides a method of
making a composite interlining fabric, comprising: providing a
dense, stiff fabric having handle and drape and suitable for a
lining backing, placing a web of staple fibres on a face of the
backing, and needlin~ until consolidated into the felt and at-
tached such that a minor proportion only of the fibres penetrates
to the reverse side of the fabric.
The backing may be a woven or non-woven textile fab-
ric, for example a woven fabric similar to that used with felt in
conventional composite interlinings. Preferably the backing is a
canvas fabric, and the web is of wool fibres.
Thus the method of the invention omits the felt-
Z0 making step and replaces the sewing step with a needle-punching
operation, conveniently on a standard needle-punching machine.
The composite produced is therefore cheaper than the conventional
article, and may have improved handle and drape qualities.
It should be noted that the fabric of the invention
has the needle batt primarily on one side only. Some of the
fibres from the web will of course be needled through to the re-
verse face, but generally less than a quarter of the web will
pass through and typically only about 10%. Thus the fabrics of
3L
',
~ ' '. ~ ' '
~)7S~
the invention are distinguished from needle-felts and the like
which have a loosely woven scrim in the centre to add strength.
Not only is the distribution of the needled fibres different from
that in needle felts, but the backing used in the present inven-
tion is prefera'bly a tightly-woven relatively heavy fabric, as
mentioned above.
Apart from use in tailoring as a floating chest piece,
the fabric of the invention may be used with advantage, inter
alia, to replace the 'melton' composite used for stiffening the
collars of jackets.
Melton-type collar support fabrics traditionally
comprise a milled woollen woven fabric which is stitched or fused
to a canvas. When the
- 3a -
,, ", :~
1~7S44~9
fabric of tlle inYentiol1 is to be used to rcplace sncl1 collar s-lpport
fabrics, it is preferably made hy needling wool fibres to a no~ oven
syntl1etic baclcil1g fablic. The ]atter is all-eady available as a collar
sllpport fabric in its o~n righ-t Rn~] comprisos needled synthetie fibres
togetl1er ~ith a binder. The composite of the invention having sueh a
fabric as bac1ciny gives a better drape, more body and sof-ter hnndle th~n
collar suppolt Iabrics ~Ised hit1lerto~ and is cheaper to produce than
melton-type fabric. An additional advantage is that -the composite of
this invention is more easily moulded into shape during tailoring and
is thus easier to work with.
In eollars the fabric is positioned so that the wool-rich side is
in~Yard. Because of this the fabric is machine washable, provided the res-t
of the garment is also machine washable.
A further use for a modified form of the fabric of the invention
is for tle purposes of a graded body canvas. ICnowt1 graded canvases are
fabrics woven with warp ends of increasing coarseness to~ards one side of
the fabric. A body canvas is cut from a piece in the weft direction so
that the body canvas is stiffer at the top and becomes less stiff towards
the bottom~ which is what is required in making jackets. This may be
replaced with a fabrie aecording to this invention w11erein a standard
uniform eanvas has a wool batt of graduated thiclcness needled to it,
produeing a graded body interlining fabric of superior drape and handle.
The following non-detailed description is given by way of example
only.
25 - In the accompanying drawing the single Figure is a diagrammatie
cross-section of a lining fabrie aecording to the inventionO
The fabrie l shown in the drawing comprises a woven canvas 2
--4--
1~7~4~
and a web 3 of wool fil)res. Thc fibres of thc web hlve bcen needled
;nto the c~:lnVas 2. Some wool fibres 1~ appear ~t the reverse face of the
composite fabric~ but the wool tibres are largely confined to one face.
The cross-section of the mclton--type collar lining dcscribed
above is simil;lr -to tllat ShO\~'II ill -tlle draw;ng~ except that the woven
f.bric structure 2 i9 rcplaccd l)y a close~ bol~dcd~ non-wovcn~ fibrous
web.
The following is a practical example of the production of A
typical composite fabric according to this invcnt;on.
Example
A composite interlining fabric ~Yas produced on a Garnett-Bywater
needle-punching machine using 3-inch (76 mm) 36 9 regular barb needles
set for -~-inch (13 mm) penetration. A woollen carded batt of 64~s grade
lambswool and noils~ 3-~ oz/sq.yd. ( 13~g/m )~ Yas laid on .m interlining
grade canvas fabric and passed through the machine. After needling, the
composite was pressed.
The fabric end-product was eminently suitable for use as a
floating chest piece, having excellent cohesion and drape together with
soft handle~ even on the canvas side of the composite.
.
~, '" ' '
. ' " '.'
