Effect of sewing parameters and wash type on the dimensional stability of knitted garments

Abstract The aim of this research is to study the effect of clothing manufacturing parameters, that is, stitch type, stitch density, sewing thread type and washing type on the dimensional stability of single jersey knitted garment. Single jersey bleached fabric, made from Ne 32 cotton combed ring spun yarn, was used to make 32 medium size crew neck T-shirts selecting two levels of stitch type, stitch density, sewing thread type and wash type according to the experimental design. After constructing the garments, four critical measurements of each garment, that is, body length, body width, across shoulder and sleeve length were measured. The constructed garments were divided into two equal groups. One group was washed with water and the other group was washed using a detergent. After washing, drying and tumbling, the same critical measurements of each garment were taken and the percent shrinkage was calculated. Analysis of data was done on responses of output variables against the input variables using MINITAB. The results showed that three input variables: stitch type, stitch density and garment wash type have significant effect on all the output variables.