Cool and Carefree Cotton Seersucker

GEORGE J. KYAME and JOHN T. LOFTON

Those among us who are old sucker suits were fast disappearing. enough to remember the **roaring Why? Perhaps it was the wrinkling twenties," approximately two genera- and bagging of the suit, making laun- tions ago, will recall that man's most dering necessary after even short pe- comfortable dress wear during hot, riods of wear. Or it might have been humid, summer months was a gray- the use of "plissés"—seersucker-type and-white striped suit that not only fabrics with chemically produced looked cool, but felt cool as well. We pucker stripes—which failed to hold could wear the suit in relative comfort shape or size in the garment. In any for hours on end. What made this event, a market for cotton was lost. possible? It was the unique structure of The problem, then, was one of pre- the fabric from which it was made, a venting wrinkling and maintaining structure of alternating flat and crinkle pressed-in creases. In 1928, the first (puckered) stripes. The cool secret? patent in this field was granted to The pucker stripe—it kept the fabric Foulds, Marsh, and Wood, three Brit- from clinging to the body, thereby al- ish scientists, for a chemical treatment lowing air to circulate between the which would reduce the wrinkling body and the garment. tendencies of cotton and cottonlike The fabric, commonly known as fabrics. Ever since, researchers have seersucker, is easily woven on any tex- been seeking better treatments which tile loom adapted to weaving light and would ease the care of cotton garments. medium weight cotton goods. To make Their goal was, and still is, a treatment the fabric, two loom beams are needed which would produce a launderable instead of the single beam used in cotton garment that would come out of weaving most other fabrics. One beam the clothes drier wrinkle free and ready carries warp yarns for the flat stripe; to wear without ironing. the other, warp yarns for the pucker Many treatments and new chemical stripe. During weaving, adjustments compounds have been developed, some are made to make the pucker stripe good, but none ideal. The treatments warp yarns feed forward faster than the flat stripe warp yarns. This results in localized buckling of the fabric in GEORGE J. KYAME is a Research Physicist and the areas of the fast-feeding yarns, first Project Leader with the Southern Regional Research one way, then the other. This produces Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, New the pucker in the pucker stripe. Orleans. Despite its comfort advantages, the JOHN T. LOFTON is a Research Textile Tech- popularity of^ seersucker began to nologist and Project Leader with the Southern wane. By the early thirties, men's seer- Regional Research Laboratory. 311 were eñective in preventing wrinkling, We made yarns for the fabric from but usually caused major losses in the the strongest American-grown cotton strength of the treated fabric. Here we could get (Pima S-2) and subjected then was a target for research, namely, them to a special mercerizing treat- what to do to minimize or prevent ment developed at this laboratory by these strength losses. A. L. Murphy and coworkers. Two In June 1964, the Southern Regional hundred yards of the woven fabric Research Laboratory at New Orleans were sent to the National Cotton attacked the problem from the stand- Council of America to be treated and point of fabric structure. The authors service tested. We treated and tested of this chapter set out to find what 50 yards of the fabric to determine its part fabric structure played in the performance in the washing machine. ease-of-care picture, and how struc- For this test, we made short-length, ture could best be used to counteract cuffed trouser legs which were washed undesirable effects of the new chemical and tumble-dried 30 times in home- treatments. type laundering equipment. Despite As a starter, we tackled the revival all this washing and drying, each of the seersucker suit of old, as this trouser leg still retained its creases and offered a great potential market for wrinkle-free appearance and developed cotton in men's suits. We designed an from one to not more than three tiny all-cotton seersucker fabric with suffi- holes, mostly at the cuff corners. cient initial strength so that, when it In the meantime, the Cotton Council was given wrinkle-resisting and crease- had their 200 yards of fabric treated retaining properties, it would still by a textile mill and tailored into suits retain strength sufficient to withstand by a garmentmaker. The suits were all the rigors of repeated wear and distributed among staff members and laundering. others for testing in everyday use.

New cotton seersucker garments developed for modern living.

312 Kind of yarn ^ Average number of holes per Fabric identi- Flat Pucker Mercerizing cuff after 55 fication stripe Filling stripe treatment lauruierings A ply ply ply special 0.5 B ply ply singles conventional 1.7 C singles ply singles conventional 2.2 D ply singles singles conventional 7.8 E singles singles singles conventional 4.5 1 Yarns for fabric A were made from expensive, Pima S-2 cotton. Yarns for fabrics B through E were made from a shorter staple cotton of moderate cost.

The preliminary results were so en- differing as to the type of yarn— couraging that the Council initiated singles or two ply—in the flat stripe a test-marketing program as part of and in the filling. its research and promotion activity on As before, we treated the fabrics, cotton suits in the summer of 1966. made test trouser cuffs from each, and They had a textile mill weave and subjected the cuffs to 5b cycles of treat 3,500 yards of seersucker fabric laundering and tumble drying in made substantially to specifications home-type machines. To make a long set up by the Southern Regional Re- story short, we found that each sub- search Laboratory. The treated fabric stitution of singles yarns for ply yarn was fashioned into about 700 men's reduced the strength (breaking, tear- suits which were put on sale in six ing, and bursting) of the fabric and major cities in the United States. reduced its résistance to wear in Response of the public was favor- laundering. able; not a single complaint was re- The table shows how these fabrics ceived. Several well-known converters performed during the repeated laun- (fabric finishers, garment manufac- dering tests. turers, etc.) became interested and Fabric A, made from plied, Pima wanted to add seersuckers to their S-2 yarns was obviously the best of lines. In fact, one of these converters the fabrics, but that was to be ex- placed an order for 10,000 yards of pected. Fabrics B and C averaged less all-cotton seersucker fabric for suits than three holes in 55 launderings. that were to be marketed in the spring This would indicate that an adequate of 1968. The future of our old friend fabric could be made from less costly looks quite rosy. cotton and cheaper mercerizing pro- Our research did not end there. Our cedures. It should be mentioned that next step was to reduce fabric produc- other tests showed all five fabrics to tion costs. You will remember we have about the same wrinkle-resisting made our yarns from the strongest and crease-retaining properties. cotton we could buy and mercerized Although our research was slanted them in a special way. Not only that, toward seersuckers for men's suiting, but we had also plied our yarns, i.e., the new durable-press fabric and the twisted two strands of the singles yarns production techniques that produced together to form a single strand of it are applicable as well to women's two-ply yarn. All this added to the and children's wear. One converter's cost of producing the fabric. Conse- interest in all-cotton, durable-press quently, we were interested in finding seersucker has prompted him to em- out whether we could use singles yarns bark on a marketing program of his made from less costly cotton and mer- own. Others are bound to follow. The cerized in conventional manner and entire family will soon enjoy the com- still produce an adequate fabric. So, fort of cotton seersucker and benefit we wove four different fabrics, all with from its newly acquired, ease-of-care singles yarns in the pucker stripes, but characteristics. 313