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Drape is a fabric characteristic defined as a fabric's ability to hang gracefully. Occasionally problems in garment drape occur affecting a garment's final appearance. Undesirable garment drape often occurs because of the manufacturer's desire to save fabric by positioning patterns more closely in the marker. This study was designed to investigate apparel industry specifications affecting the resultant drape of garments, and to subjectively and objectively measure the relationship of grain alignment to fabric and garment drape. / A mailed, random national survey of 990 apparel manufacturers was conducted. Data from 70 surveys were analyzed. Fifty-two respondents made markers at the surveyed establishment, and twenty-three of these tilted patterns off-grain in their markers. / Data obtained from the survey were utilized to establish tilt values for quantitative analysis of fabric drape and shear properties. Twelve tilt combinations were examined. No significant differences were found between the drape coefficients of control drape samples and those with tilt variations. Generally, all three shear values increased as tilt angles increased across all fabrics. Bending and shearing properties were significantly correlated with each other, but not with drape coefficient values. / Subjective evaluations of fabric and garment drape were conducted. Twenty-one apparel design students participated in the study by evaluating fabrics draped on a pedestal and skirts constructed in each tilt variation. Fabric drape amount was more highly correlated with the drape coefficient than was drape preference. Students were unable to correctly evaluate off-grain skirts consistently. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-08, Section: B, page: 3269. / Major Professor: Mary Ann Moore. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

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Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

This dissertation explores pictorial kesi, silk-woven tapestry, from its origins in China through the Qing dynasty, focusing on objects and sources from the Ming and Qing periods. While pictorial kesi imitated the visual appearance of paintings and calligraphy, no in-depth study of the three media in relation to each other has been undertaken. By approaching kesi through the techniques of the weaver and the materiality of the finished product, this dissertation explores an important pictorial art form on its own terms. This dissertation is divided into two parts, the first focusing on the origins, technology and techniques of weaving kesi in China. While tapestry weave was imported from Central Asia in the seventh century, Chinese craftsmen embraced the technology of creating colorful clear designs in silk and used it to imitate court paintings of the Song dynasty in the twelfth century. The author will study the intricate techniques of color blending and color joining that were developed by Chinese weavers to create complicated, beautiful images inspired by paintings. Looking at a kesi reproduction of a calligraphy scroll by Dong Qichang (1555-1636), I will analyze kesi calligraphy through the process of its making and the meaning in its materiality, as well as the political implications of this work. The second part will study kesi in relationship to the visual arts, focusing on painting. Examining a kesi attributed to the woman weaver Zhu Kerou (active twelfth century) will shed light not only on the practice of weaving painting-like images but also on the elaborate system of male connoisseurship in the Ming and Qing dynasties that judged and categorized it. Lastly, focusing on a composition attached to the name of a famous Ming painter, Shen Zhou (1427-1509), this dissertation will study the issue of authorship in kesi and the practice of adding famous names to woven compositions. Through studying the issues of intermediality, reproduction, connoisseurship, and materiality, the author will shed a new light on kesi, believed for so long to be decorative copies of paintings. These works incorporate complex techniques developed to solve aesthetic problems and have a unique visual language of their own. Through this study, the objects, so carefully and painstakingly created by craftsmen and weavers, will begin to speak for themselves.

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Sensors and actuators featuring biomimetic properties, with linear and angular resolution, good compliance and long term biostability are in growing demand for applications such as synthetic muscles, sensor equipped limps and other bio-engineering designs. Recent research papers have demonstrated that insulator materials coated with polypyrrole or polyaniline and combined with various dopants can achieve piezoresistive and dielectric properties, enabling the detection and displacement of local strains in polymer sheets, textile fibers and fabrics. It is known that composite films made from layers of carbon black (CB) filled polyvinylindene fluoride (PVDF) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) films provide stable piezoelectric behavior in the temperature range from 20 to 140 oC and low tensile loss on exposure to moisture and hydrolytic conditions. However, to date the literature contains no references to the use of this particular polymer system in fiber or textile form. Moreover, since the resistivity of such composites can be quantitatively specified by selectively localizing CB in one polymer phase or at the interface of an immiscible polymer blend, it was hypothesized that bicomponent fiber spinning might lead to similar piezoelectric properties within individual fibers. This research study was therefore aimed first at determining whether a blend of PVDF and HDPE polymers filled with CB could be melt spun and drawn into a series of composite or bicomponent fibers using a laboratory extruder and drawing machine. This was accomplished successfully with loadings of CB varying from zero to 27.7% by weight. The second goal was to determine the weight fraction of CB that should be added to PVDF / HDPE composite fibers in order to optimize their electrical functionality and piezoelectric performance. Analysis of the deformation of the as-spun and drawn fibers in their longitudinal direction during charging and discharging was conducted in a novel piezoresponse force microscope (PFM). It demonstrated that increasing the CB content also increased the ferroelectric hysteresis and piezoelectric constant of the composite fiber up to the percolation threshold of 20.7% of CB by weight. The CB was selectively located in the HDPE phase, resulting in a significant loss of crystallinity in the HDPE phase. At the same time, the PVDF phase was transformed from a non-polar to a polar form. The optimum spun and drawn composite piezoelectric fiber measuring 120 microns in diameter contained 56/32/12 PVDF/HDPE/CB by weight. Under the electric stimulation of a few volts it was predicted to be capable of producing a tensile force of about 2 x 10^-2 N for a 350 mm long fiber with 1 mm 2 cross-sectional area. It is anticipated that a bundle of such piezoelectric fibers measuring 26 mm² in cross-section could generate the force of 0.5 N required to complete flexion of a human distal interphalangeal (finger) joint. The incorporation of CB filled HDPE produces a conductive matrix phase within these bicomponent fibers, which acts as an electrode around the PVDF regions, facilitating a more uniform distribution of the piezoelectric charge within the PVDF phase. These encouraging results bode well for future piezoelectric fibers, which have both rapid electromechanical response and good biostability. Additional larger scale tests are recommended to evaluate the efficiency of these novel biomaterials for use in biomedical and electrotextile end-uses.