Foundation garments – Breast or chest – e.g. – brassieres – Including elastic portions with variable modulus of elasticity
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-14
2001-09-11
Hale, Gloria M. (Department: 3765)
Foundation garments
Breast or chest, e.g., brassieres
Including elastic portions with variable modulus of elasticity
C450S156000, C066S171000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06287168
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to brassieres. The invention relates more particularly to substantially seamless brassieres including non-underwire and underwire brassieres, and blanks and methods for making such brassieres.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Brassieres are generally designed to provide support, lift, and separation of the wearer's breasts. Conventionally, brassieres for larger-breasted women often include underwires extending along the lower margins of the breast cups. Underwires provide a level of stability that fabric alone generally cannot provide, in part because fabric cannot support compressive forces the way underwires can. Typically, brassieres are fashioned in a cut-and-sew manner, as exemplified for instance in U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,322 issued to Stern et al. A brassiere made in this manner may consist of more than a dozen separate fabric pieces sewn together. One advantage of the cut-and-sew method is that different areas of the brassiere can be given different properties, since the various fabric pieces can be of different knits, different yarns, etc. It may be advantageous, for example, to make some portions of the brassiere resiliently stretchable to hug the wearer's body, while other portions are relatively unstretchable for greater stability.
The cut-and-sew method, however, is disadvantageous in that it entails a great number of cutting and sewing operations. Accordingly, methods of fashioning brassieres from circularly knit fabrics have been developed in an effort to improve the speed and efficiency of production. For example, commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,479,791 and 5,592,836 disclose methods for making non-underwire brassieres from circularly knit tubular blanks. The brassieres are made from single-ply tubular blanks that have a turned welt at one end to form a torso-encircling portion of the brassiere. A series of courses for defining breast cups and front and rear shoulder straps are integrally knit to the turned welt. The brassiere requires sewing only for joining the front and rear shoulder straps to each other. The '836 patent discloses modifying the knit structure along outer edges of the breast cups nearest the wearer's arms to form panels having a greater resistance to coursewise stretching than the remainder of the fabric blank. The relatively unstretchable panels provide increased lift and support.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a substantially seamless brassiere and a blank and method for making the same. In preferred embodiments, the brassiere has a gusset or central panel between the breast cups that has a greater resistance to stretching than the remainder of the body of the brassiere. The central panel provides stability by preventing the cups from undergoing excessive movement relative to each other, while the rest of the brassiere is resiliently stretchable for comfort and for closely hugging the body.
In other preferred embodiments, the brassiere is formed from a blank that is knit to have two pairs of breast cups that are arranged in mirror image about a fold region at which the blank is folded to place one set of breast cups in overlying relationship with the other set of breast cups. Thus, the resulting brassiere is a two-ply structure. The brassiere can be formed in either non-underwire or underwire form. When included, the underwires are attached either to an exterior side of one of the plies, or alternatively between the plies.
Preferably, the blank has a relatively thin region that defines the line about which the blank is folded. For example, the blank can be knit from a plurality of yarns of different deniers, and the heavier yarns can be dropped for a plurality of courses such that only the lighter yams are knit for those courses. The thin region facilitates a sharp fold. The blank preferably also has a turned welt at each end to prevent raveling of the ends of the tube and to facilitate handling of the blank.
The two-ply construction of the brassiere can also be accomplished by circularly knitting both plies in overlying relation, essentially forming a fabric tube as one long turned welt. This construction enables the two turned welts at the ends of the tube to be eliminated, and the blank is already in a two-ply configuration when it comes off the knitting machine, resulting in a more-efficient manufacturing process.
The blank, whether knit as one ply and then folded or knit as a two-ply structure, preferably defines a relatively unstretchable gusset or central panel between the breast cup panels of each ply. A separate, relatively unstretchable piece of fabric can be affixed between the plies in the region of the central panels to increase the resistance to stretching of the panel, if desired. Furthermore, an adhesive can be disposed between the plies in the gusset region to provide additional stability to the fabric.
The greater resistance to stretching in the central panel can be achieved in various ways, as noted above. In a preferred embodiment, a float stitch construction is used and an additional yarn is spliced in throughout the region of the central panel.
The brassiere can be formed with integrally knit shoulder straps, or alternatively can have separate shoulder straps that are sewn to the brassiere. The torso-encircling portion of the brassiere can be formed as a single continuous panel that extends from one breast cup around the wearer's back to the other breast cup, or alternatively can be formed in two halves that have fastener members such as hooks and eyes for releasably securing the ends of the two halves together. The brassiere can also be formed as a single-ply construction if desired.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3537279 (1970-11-01), Epley
patent: 4372322 (1983-02-01), Stern et al.
patent: 4531525 (1985-07-01), Richards
patent: 5081854 (1992-01-01), Lonati
patent: 5479791 (1996-01-01), Osborne
patent: 5553468 (1996-09-01), Osborne
patent: 5592836 (1997-01-01), Schuster et al.
patent: 5660577 (1997-08-01), Modena
patent: 5946944 (1999-09-01), Osborne
Alba-Waldensian, Inc.
Alston & Bird LLP
Hale Gloria M.
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