Textiles: knitting – Fabrics or articles – Articles
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-08
2001-02-27
Worrell, Danny (Department: 3741)
Textiles: knitting
Fabrics or articles
Articles
C066S171000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06192717
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to substantially seamless garments such as panties, briefs, bodysuits, brassieres, and the like. The invention relates more particularly to methods for making such garments from circularly knit tubular fabric blanks, and to tubular blanks from which such garments are made.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
It is known to form a lower-body garment such as a panty from a circularly knit tubular blank by cutting away one or more regions of the blank to form portions that can subsequently be joined together in the crotch area to make leg openings, as shown for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,115. Such a panty is desirable from an aesthetic standpoint because it does not have any seams in the torso-encircling part of the panty that might be unsightly under a wearer's clothes, and is advantageous from a manufacturing standpoint because only a minimal amount of sewing need be performed to form the finished panty.
It is also known to form a bodysuit from a seamless knit tubular blank by cutting away regions of the blank to define leg openings and a crotch portion that can subsequently be joined to the rear panel of the bodysuit, and wherein the crotch portion has a modified knit construction such as a construction having a terry pile surface on the side facing the wearer, as shown in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,605,060, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. In the '060 patent, a tubular blank is used for fashioning a single bodysuit. The present invention represents a further development of the technology exemplified in the '060 patent as applied to the manufacture of garments such as panties, briefs, bodysuits, brassieres, or the like, enabling a more-efficient usage of material.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention provides methods for making garments from seamless knit tubular blanks, and tubular blanks for making such garments, enabling multiple garments such as panties, briefs, bodysuits, teddys, and brassieres to be produced from a single circularly knit fabric tube. Multiple garments of differing silhouettes can be produced from the same tube. Each garment generally includes a tubular portion for encircling the torso of a wearer, and at least one non-tubular portion for forming a crotch or gusset and/or one or two shoulder straps. The non-tubular portions of two adjacent garments preferably are cut from the same lengthwise-extending portion of the tube at circumferentially staggered locations about the tube.
The tube in one embodiment has at least one gusset panel formed therein at one longitudinal location along the tube when two garments are to be produced from the tube, and at a plurality of longitudinal locations along the tube when more than two garments are to be produced from the tube. The gusset panel has a different knit construction from the rest of the tube. The tube is cut along silhouette sew lines to define front and rear panels and a gusset for each garment, the gussets for two adjacent garments being cut from the at least one gusset panel at one of the longitudinal locations of the tube.
In one embodiment of the invention, a seamless fabric tube is formed with a circumference suitable to accommodate the lower torso of a wearer therein and having a length about twice a lengthwise dimension of garments to be produced so that two garments can be produced from the tube. At least one gusset panel is knit into the tube at a longitudinally central region of the tube, the panel having a knit construction differing from that of the remainder of the tube. For example, the gusset panel may be knit with a terry pile surface on the side that faces the wearer in use. The fabric tube is then cut along silhouette sew lines (i.e., the lines that will define the leg openings of the garments) so as to divide the tube into two garment blanks each having a front panel and a rear panel and a gusset portion integrally knit with one of the front and rear panels. The silhouette sew lines are so arranged such that the opposite ends of the tube form the waist-encircling portions of the blanks, and the gusset portion of each blank is cut from the at least one gusset panel. Thus, the garments are formed from the fabric tube in opposite top-to-bottom orientation relative to each other. To form the finished garments, the gusset portion of each blank is joined to the other of the front and rear panels of the blank. Decorative and/or elastic banding may be sewn along the leg openings, and preferably is simultaneously sewn as the fabric tube is being cut along the silhouette sew lines. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, an aperture (e.g., a slit or hole) is formed in the fabric tube as the tube is being knit, the aperture enabling a portion of an automatic sewing machine to be inserted for starting the cutting of the tube along the silhouette sew line.
In one advantageous embodiment of the invention, the silhouette sew lines of the two blanks are circumferentially staggered relative to each other such that each of the gusset portions is formed from substantially the full axial length of the at least one gusset panel. The gusset panel can comprise a full-circumferential panel or, alternatively, two separate gusset panels that are circumferentially spaced apart from each other can be formed in the fabric tube, preferably occupying the same axial portion of the tube such that the gusset panels overlap in the axial direction.
The two-garment fabric tube, when used for making panties or brassieres or the like, preferably has turned welts formed at its opposite ends for forming torso-encircling bands of the two garments. The turned welts can incorporate elastic yarns for forming elasticized bands.
The method of the invention can also be used for making brassieres in which the non-tubular portions of the garment blanks form shoulder straps, or for making bodysuits or the like in which non-tubular portions are provided on both ends of each garment blank for forming both crotch portions and shoulder straps. In each case, the non-tubular portions preferably are circumferentially staggered from one blank to the adjacent blank along the fabric tube such that they are cut from the same lengthwise-extending portion of the tube.
In another aspect of the invention, more than two garments can be formed from a single fabric tube. When the garments have crotch portions, the fabric tube has at least one gusset panel of different knit construction formed at each of a plurality of locations longitudinally spaced along the length of the tube. The at least one gusset panel preferably has an axial length that does not substantially exceed the length of the gusset of a garment to be produced from the tube. The at least one gusset panel can comprise a pair of separate gusset panels that are circumferentially spaced from each other. The tube is cut along silhouette sew lines arranged such that adjacent pairs of garment blanks are alternately oriented top-to-top and bottom-to-bottom along the tube, and the bottom-to-bottom garment blanks have their silhouette sew lines circumferentially staggered relative to each other such that their gussets are axially overlapping and circumferentially spaced from each other.
Preferably, at least first, second, third, and fourth blanks are produced from the tube, arranged sequentially therealong. The first and third blanks have the same top-to-bottom orientation, and the second and fourth blanks have the same top-to-bottom orientation that is opposite that of the first and third blanks. Preferably, the first and third blanks have the same circumferential orientation, and the second and fourth blanks have the same circumferential orientation that is circumferentially staggered relative to that of the first and third blanks.
REFERENCES:
patent: 1831192 (1931-11-01), Persky
patent: 1868854 (1932-07-01), Smarr
patent: 2285012 (1942-06-01), Burkey
patent: 3946579 (1976-03-01), Heinig
patent: 4010627 (1977-03-01), Pernick
patent: 4043156 (1977-08-01), Pernick
patent: 4065942 (1978-01-01), Kejnovsky et a
Alba-Waldensian, Inc.
Alston & Bird LLP
Worrell Danny
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