Comparison of Cantilever, Heart Loop and Circular Bending Test Methods in Determining the Bending Behaviours of Sewn Woven Polyester Fabrics

Fabrics are cut and sewn to form 3-dimensional end-products. Bending rigidity is one of the properties that should be interpreted for sewn fabrics as it can affect drape, appearance and sensorial comfort of a garment. In the literature, there are several methods to measure the bending behaviours of fabrics. Parallelly, a variety of tests were employed for bending rigidity of sewn samples but their comparability for sewn samples are not known. In this study, 3 simple and standard test methods were used to compare the bending behaviours of fabrics with plied edge seams. Statistical analysis showed that, circular bend method had no or low correlation with cantilever and heart loop methods. Also any difference between the different types of sewn samples could not be detected by this method. In contrast, results of cantilever and heart loop methods showed low to moderate positive correlations for the bending lentghs and bending rigidities of samples.