Embroidery fabric strip with deformable, shape-retaining properties

An embroidery fabric includes a main body consisting of interwoven weft and warp fibers that delimit between themselves respective rows and columns of openings for the passage of embroidery threads through them. At least one of the elongated marginal portions of the main body is substantially straight and is reinforced by one or more elongated reinforcing elements of a plastically deformable material secured to it and extending fully within the confines of, and at least substantially over the entire length of, such one marginal portion. The corresponding other marginal portion may also be reinforced in the same manner, while the intermediate portion situated between the marginal portions and having a width many times in excess of that of the marginal portions is devoid of any such reinforcement. The fabric is advantageously of an elongated, strip-shaped, configuration, and the affected marginal portions are those extending in the longitudinal direction of the strip-shaped fabric.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to embroidery in general, and more 
particularly to the fabric used in making the same. 
2. Description of the Related Art 
The art of embroidery is an ancient one, and hardly any changes have been 
made in it since times immemorial. To recapitulate, it involves making 
adorning articles by passing threads of different colors with the aid of a 
needle or a similar instrument as individual stitches through holes 
pre-existing, or made or enlarged by the instrument, in a sheet- or 
strip-shaped substrate, thus creating different aesthetically pleasing 
patterns or even images or scenes that in some instances embellish the 
otherwise rather bland substrate, and in others completely cover the same, 
especially if the latter has a rather unappealing appearance or is 
preprinted with a faint "original" of the image or pattern to be 
replicated on the substrate by using the various colored threads. 
The present invention is concerned with that kind of embroidery--hereafter 
referred to as cross-stitching or needlepoint regardless of the courses 
the particular stitches follow--in which the substrate--hereafter referred 
to as fabric irrespective of the kind of filamentary material it consists 
of--remains a part and parcel, albeit often a concealed one, of the 
finished article. In this milieu, the manner in which the fabric behaves 
while being handled either in the course of the embroidering process or 
afterwards, is of a critical importance. 
So, for instance, it is well known even by those with a very cursory 
acquaintance with embroidery that not all kinds of textile materials or 
fabrics are well suited for use as the fabric as that term is being used 
here; rather, the textiles chosen for this purpose typically consist of 
fibrous materials--monofilaments, threads, yarns, strands or the like, 
either and all referred to hereafter as fibers without distinguishing 
among them--that not only form a mesh with clearly discernible holes or 
interstices between the individual fibers or the like arranged in 
generally orthogonally extending arrays, but also, while still flexible, 
possess a certain, rather pronounced, degree of stiffness or rigidity. 
This is so because it is very difficult, if not impossible, to provide the 
desired patterns or images on fabrics that behave as if "alive", i.e. 
change the courses along which they extend seemingly indiscriminately in 
response to every little external influence, be it a minuscule movement of 
the embroiderer's fingers or a whiff of air. To avoid this undesirable 
effect, it is a frequent practice of the embroiderers to span the fabric, 
even a relatively stiff one, over a rigid frame that confers increased 
rigidity to the portion of the fabric being worked on. Of course, this 
increase in rigidity is a temporary one and does not carry over into the 
finished article. 
It goes without saying that it would be possible to solve the 
above-mentioned handling problem and/or avoid the attendant need to use a 
reinforcing frame by using for the fabric one that consists in its 
entirety of fibers of sufficiently high stiffness for the fabric not to 
yield in such an objectionable manner. This, however, would not be a very 
practical solution in many cases because the resulting article would be 
rather unwieldy so that it would not gracefully drape itself around 
corners if used as an embellishment of or a cover for a horizontal surface 
of an article of furniture, or around curtains, draperies or the like if 
used as an adorning holder for their central to lower regions or in many 
other known applications; just about the only use for such a stiff article 
would be if it were to be hanged on a wall either by itself--a Gobelin 
tapestry of sorts--or mounted in a frame. Besides, such a stiff article 
would not be too pleasant to touch--again a pronounced disadvantage in 
many possible uses. The same or similar considerations would also apply if 
just the warp fibers, or just the weft fibers of the woven fabric 
possessed the higher rigidity, and the situation would not be much better 
even if only some of such warp or weft fibers, substantially equally 
distributed throughout the respective fiber array, were to exhibit such 
increased rigidity. 
It is probably for the reasons mentioned above why such uniform uni- or 
bi-directional internal fabric rigidification or reinforcement has not 
been successfully proposed and/or employed before in embroidery fabrics, 
even though it has been suggested for use in other fields of human 
behavior, as exemplified by the U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,467,006 to Hasegawa et 
al., 4,567,094 to Levin or 4,861,645 to Standing. 
Of these patents, the only one in which such a stiffening is actually the 
desired result rather than an incidental byproduct of a measure taken for 
a different purpose is the Hasegawa et al patent. It is disclosed there 
that a metallic fiber, extending along a serpentine path from one edge of 
a reinforcement cloth strip to the other and back, can be used to give the 
strip "staying power", that is to cause it to generally retain the shape 
that has been impressed onto it. While this approach may well achieve 
excellent results in the field for which it has been developed, namely 
that of making molded synthetic plastic material articles of intricate 
shapes including embedded reinforcements or mesh-like skeletons, it would 
not be suited at all for use in embroidery, precisely for the reasons 
mentioned before, especially because it would result in overall 
rigidification of the fabric and hence of the final article--an undesired 
effect. 
The other two patents are concerned with making the weave, mesh or fabric 
conductive so as to, for instance, avoid local accumulation of an electric 
charge (static electricity) or assure delivery of electric current to 
remote regions of a strip at all times. In the Standing patent, this is 
achieved by substituting electrically conductive (metallic) fibers at 
regular intervals throughout the strip for the graphite or similar fibers 
constituting the regular warp fibers, while in the Levin case a similar 
effect is accomplished by wrapping very thin electrically conductive wires 
around selected, regularly distributed ones, of the warp (and also the 
weft) fibers. While neither one of these patents is concerned with or even 
mentions the reinforcing effect of such metallic fibers on the remainder 
of the strip, it is more than likely that it exists in both instances; if 
so, the aforementioned disadvantages stemming from the presence of the 
reinforcements throughout the strip, albeit at regular intervals, are 
encountered here as well. Hence, it would be totally futile, useless and 
even counterproductive to try to use either one of the three variations of 
the same overall concept of dispersing the reinforcing fibers throughout 
the strip as disclosed by the above three patents in the manufacture of 
fabrics for use in the embroidery field. 
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION 
Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to avoid the 
disadvantages of the prior art. 
More particularly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an 
embroidery fabric that does not possess the drawbacks of the known fabric 
of this type. 
Still another object of the present invention is to devise an embroidery 
fabric of the type here under consideration which, and especially the 
article made of the same by utilizing well-known cross-stitching or 
needlepoint techniques, can be deformed to any desired shape and will 
retain it even after the termination of the deformation forces. 
It is yet another object of the present invention to design the above 
embroidery fabric in such a manner that the overall look and feel of the 
embroidered article made on such fabric is the same or better than in the 
traditional articles of this kind despite the shape-retaining properties 
of such fabric. 
A concomitant object of the present invention is so to construct the 
embroidery fabric of the above type as to be relatively simple in 
construction, inexpensive to manufacture, easy to use, and yet reliable in 
operation. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
In keeping with the above objects and others which will become apparent 
hereafter, one feature of the present invention resides in an embroidery 
fabric which includes a main body including two filamentary arrays each 
including a multitude of substantially parallel fibers that are interwoven 
with those of the respective other array and extend substantially normal 
thereto to form between themselves respective rows and columns of openings 
for the passage of embroidery threads through them. The body has two 
elongated marginal portions spaced from one another by an intervening 
portion of a width many times exceeding that of the marginal portions. At 
least one of the marginal portions is substantially straight and extends 
in substantial parallelism to the fibers of one of the filamentary arrays. 
In accordance with the present invention, there is further provided 
reinforcing means for reinforcing at least the aforementioned one of the 
marginal portions of the body to the exclusion of at least the intervening 
portion, including at least one elongated reinforcing element of a 
plastically deformable material secured to the one marginal portion and 
extending fully within its confines at least substantially over the entire 
length of the one marginal portion. A particular advantage of the fabric 
of the present invention as described so far is that the reinforcing 
means, by virtue of being absent from the intervening portion, does not 
adversely impact the properties of such intervening portion and ultimately 
of the final article made with the use of the fabric, that is it does not 
impose unnecessary and undesirable rigidity on the intervening portion, 
while at the same time the increased rigidity that the reinforcing means 
confers, but only on the affected marginal portion of the fabric, renders 
it possible to give the article any desired shape for the article to stay 
in indefinitely. Advantageously, the reinforcing element is secured to the 
main body by being interwoven with its weft fibers. 
A particularly advantageous construction of the embroidery fabric of the 
present invention is obtained when the reinforcing means includes at least 
one further elongated reinforcing element similar to the one elongated 
reinforcing element and extending substantially parallel thereto also 
fully within the confines of, and at least substantially over the entire 
length of, the one marginal portion. This improves the shape-retaining 
function, while the confinement of the reinforcing means, no matter how 
many of the elongated elements it includes to the marginal portion area, 
still avoids the detrimental effect that inclusion of reinforcing elements 
in the intervening portion would have on the properties of the article at 
that area. 
The above is also true when, in accordance with another aspect of the 
present invention, the other of the marginal portions is also elongated 
and substantially straight, and the reinforcing means further includes at 
least one additional elongated reinforcing element of a plastically 
deformable material secured to the other marginal portion and extending 
fully within the confines thereof at least substantially over the entire 
length of the other marginal portion. In this instance as well, the 
reinforcing means advantageously includes at least one further additional 
elongated reinforcing element similar to the one additional elongated 
reinforcing element and extending substantially parallel thereto also 
fully within the confines of, and at least substantially over the entire 
length of, the other marginal portion. 
Last but not least, it is to be mentioned that especially advantageous 
results are obtained when the main body has an elongated, strip-shaped 
configuration, and the one marginal portion extends, or both of the 
marginal portions extend, longitudinally of the main body. The particular 
advantage of this approach is that, because of the relative narrowness of 
the body and hence of the resulting article, preferably on the order of 5 
cm to 15 cm, the width of the intervening portion, while still many times 
that of the marginal portions, is small enough for the reinforcing means 
to have a profound effect--not a rigidifying one, though, but rather a 
shape-conferring one--on the intervening portion. More particularly, if so 
desired, the marginal portions can be deformed in such a manner that the 
interfering portion obtains a series of regular or even irregular peaks 
and valleys, thus complementing the inherent softness of the intervening 
portion to the touch with a visual representation of this quality. 
The novel features which are considered as characteristic of the invention 
are set forth in particular in the appended claims. The invention itself, 
however, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together 
with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood 
from the following description of specific embodiments when read in 
connection with the accompanying drawing.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Referring now to the drawing in detail, and first to FIG. 1 thereof, it may 
be seen that the reference numeral 10 has been used therein to identify a 
fabric strip embodying the present invention, in its entirety. As its name 
implies, the strip 10 not only is longer than it is wide, but also is 
intended to serve as a fabric as that word is used in the world of arts 
and crafts, that is as a substrate for a rendering, in this case that 
produced by resorting to cross-stitching or needlepoint techniques. 
As such, the fabric 10 includes two arrays of substantially orthogonally 
extending weft and warp fibers 11 and 12 that are visible particularly in 
FIGS. 2 and 3 of the drawing, respectively. In order not to unduly 
encumber the drawing, though, not all of such weft and warp fibers 11 and 
12 are identified by the respective reference numerals in the drawing, and 
they are not individually shown in FIG. 1 at all; rather, their presence 
is merely indicated there by appropriate regional shading or 
cross-hatching. It will be appreciated, though, that the actual 
orientation of the fibers is not what it would appear from the 
cross-hatching; rather, the warp fibers 12 extend longitudinally of the 
strip 10, while the weft fibers 11 extend in the transverse direction of 
the strip 10. 
The fabric strip 10 is produced by a well-known weaving process on a loom 
or a similar machine in that sub-arrays of alternate ones of the warp 
fibers 12 are moved up or down as a shuttle pulls the weft fiber 11 first 
in one transverse direction and then, after the sub-arrays of the 
alternating fibers 11 have exchanged their positions, in the opposite 
transverse direction through the V-shaped gap delimited by such 
sub-arrays. This method, which is well known in the textile industry, 
results in a structure depicted in FIG. 3 of the drawing in which the warp 
fibers 12 undulate between the weft fibers 11 and vice versa meaning that 
the fibers 11 and 12 alternatingly pass over and under one another as 
considered both in the longitudinal and in the transverse direction of the 
strip 10. 
Yet, the structure of the fabric strip is not as tight as it would appear 
to be from observing FIG. 3 of the drawing; rather, the fibers 11 and 12 
form a mesh with respective holes or interstices between the respective 
adjacent ones of the fibers 11 and 12. These holes are arranged in 
respective row and column arrays extending in the weft and warp 
directions, respectively, and serve initially as visual guides for 
determining, by counting the number of the intervening fibers, through 
which of them a needle pulling a colored thread is to pass next in the 
course of the embroidering process to form a respective stitch of the 
desired or predetermined length, and subsequently for the passage of the 
needle and of the thread through it. In a cross-stitching fabric, the 
holes along both said directions are all of the same size. All this is 
well known, so that it need not be elaborated upon any more. 
Unlike conventional formations of this kind that are uniform in 
construction throughout, the strip 10 of the present invention is 
provided, in at least one of its longitudinally extending marginal 
portions 10a and 10b, with at least one elongated reinforcing element 13. 
As illustrated particularly in FIG. 3 of the drawing, the element 13 is 
incorporated into the strip structure in lieu of a corresponding warp 
fiber 12; however, it is conceivable and contemplated by the present 
invention to situate the element 13 next to the respective warp fiber 12 
so that both the element 13 and the adjacent fiber 12 pass through the 
very same space delimited by the respective undulation of each of the two 
adjacent weft fibers 11. 
Moreover, the element 13 does not necessarily pass through each and every 
possible such space that it encounters or would be able to form on its 
way; rather, as a comparison of FIGS. 1 and 2 with one another will 
reveal, the element 13 may skip or bypass every second one of such 
possible spaces, so that it passes under one of the warp threads 11, then 
over the next three of such warp threads 11, then under the next one, then 
over the following three, etc. This is possible to accomplish even if the 
remainder of the fabric structure is regular (with the respective adjacent 
warp fiber 12 passing alternatively over and under the successive weft 
threads) in that the element 13 joining the adjacent warp thread 12 during 
its passage through one of such spaces but bypassing the next one, then 
rejoining, then bypassing again, etc. 
The element 13 is made of a material that is bendable, but does not exhibit 
any, or only a very small or negligible amount of, resilience. Materials 
that satisfy these requirements are certain metals, metalloids and metal 
alloys; therefore, the elongated element 13 will henceforth be referred 
to, in the alternative, as a wire. It may be seen especially in FIG. 1 of 
the drawing that there are four such wires 13 incorporated in the 
structure of the elongated fabric strip 10, but not uniformly or 
equidistantly spaced throughout the width of the strip 10. Rather, such 
wires 13 are arranged in respective pairs, relatively close to one 
another, only in the respective longitudinal marginal portions 10a and 10b 
of the strip 10. 
As alluded to before, just one, rather than the illustrated two, wires 13 
may be used in the respective marginal portion 10a or 10b; moreover, more 
than two of such wires 13 may be used in the respective marginal portion 
10a or 10b. The number of the wires 13 may be the same in both of the 
marginal portions 10a and 10b, or may differ from each other even to the 
extent that one of such marginal portions 10a and 10b contains no wire 13, 
as may have already been inferred from some of the above statements. 
In any event, though, the wire or wires 13 are present exclusively in the 
marginal portions 10a and 10b, and an intervening portion 10c of the strip 
10 that is situated intermediate such marginal portions 10a and 10b is 
totally devoid of such wires 13. As a result, the fabric 10 exhibits the 
desired so-to-speak indiscriminate pliability in between such marginal 
portions 10a and 10b, but is merely flexible and/or bendable at its 
marginal portions 10a and 10b, so that the built-in courses along which 
such marginal portions 10a and 10b extend are, on the one hand, 
predetermined and constant so long as the forces acting on the marginal 
portions 10a and 10b are within the range of elastic deformation of the 
wires 13, and alterable at will by applying forces exceeding such range, 
that is in the plastic deformation range of the wires 13, to selected 
regions of such marginal portions 10a and 10b, on the other hand. Of 
course, once the wires 13 are thus deformed, they will have a tendency to 
retain their shape forever or until, again, sufficiently high external 
forces to overcome this tendency and cause another plastic deformation are 
applied to the respective selectively affected regions of the marginal 
portions 10a and 10b. 
While this combination of a relatively pliable intermediate portion 10c of 
the fabric strip 10 with the relatively more rigid, albeit deformable, 
marginal portions 10a and 10b may bring about certain advantages already 
during the creation of the embroidery, namely those stemming from the fact 
that the thus reinforced marginal portions 10a and 10b constitute a kind 
of a built-in frame facilitating the handling of the fabric strip 10 by 
the embroiderer, its real advantage comes to the fore only when the 
embroidered article is finished and is to be used for various decorative 
purposes, such as an ornamental holder for a curtain or a drape. Then, the 
fact that only the marginal portions 10a and 10b of the strip 10 are 
reinforced with the bendable wires 13 while the region 10c between them 
remains pliable renders it possible to give the strip 10 any desired 
shape, including the aesthetically pleasing puffed-up look where the 
marginal portions 10a and 10b are closer to one another than what would 
correspond to the width of the strip 10 and follow not only arcuate but 
undulating courses, so that a seemingly random series of peaks and valleys 
forms in the pliable region 10c between them, an effect that would not be 
obtainable if the intermediate region 10c were reinforced too. 
A further advantage of this approach is that, inasmuch as in this 
application and others similar to it the region of the strip 10 that a 
nearby person is likely to brush against or otherwise come into contact 
with is the central region 10c that contains none of the wires 13 and 
hence is rather pliable and otherwise pleasant to the touch, the overall 
tactile impression of the article is the same if not (because of the 
additional "softening" resulting from the peak-and-valley configuration) 
better than that encountered in the context of traditional (not 
reinforced) strips of this nature. These and similar advantages arising 
from the fact that the marginal portions 10a and 10b or the fabric strip 
10, and only they, are reinforced in accordance with the present 
invention, are above and beyond those attributable merely to the 
reinforcement of the strip 10, such as the ability to assume and retain a 
certain shape. 
Depending on the type of embroidery with which the strip 10 is adorned, the 
wires 13 may be completely obscured from view by the aforementioned 
stitches, so that their very existence is concealed from casual observers. 
However, even if the cross-stitching or similar needlepoint creation does 
not cover the entire strip 10 and especially the parts of the marginal 
portions 10a and 10b at which the wires 13 are located, the wires 13 are 
still hardly noticeable except on close inspection, especially when, in 
accordance with the present invention, they are rather thin (much thinner 
than the fibers of the fabric 10) and of a color (such as silvery, grey or 
the like) that blends into the background constituted by the fibers of the 
fabric 10. Furthermore, even if they could be seen, they still would not 
adversely affect the overall appearance of the strip 10; as a matter of 
fact, they could be considered or made to appear to be a part of the 
ornamental design of the article. 
It will be appreciated that at least most of the above advantages, if not 
all, would also be present to a greater or lesser degree if only one of 
the marginal portions 10a or 10b were provided with one or more of the 
wires 13. It will also be realized that, while the present invention has 
been developed for, and finds a highly advantageous application in, 
embroidery strips 10 of about 5 cm to 15 cm in width, it could also be 
used in conjunction with other shapes and sizes of embroidery fabrices, 
with the same or similar advantages. So, for instance, the marginal 
portion wires 13 could confer "plastic" (relief) looks to embroidered 
articles to be used as tapestries, but they could also be employed in 
embroidered articles to be used as doilies of sorts or for similar 
ornamental and/or utilitarian purposes; in that case, the inherent plastic 
deformability of the wires 13 would make it possible to drape the article 
around obtuse-, right-, or even acute-angle corners of furniture pieces or 
the like so that the very presence of such wires 13 would be hardly 
noticeable from the way the article would drape itself around the 
respective corner or even from the "feel" of the article, and yet the 
shape-retaining action of such wires 10 would be there, but only in the 
likely-to-curl marginal portions while the rest of the article would 
remain pliable and retain the "soft" looks and touch. For greater 
decoration value, the outer edges of both marginal portions can be 
scalloped or otherwise configured. 
It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or 
more together, may also find a useful application in other types of 
constructions differing from the type described above. 
While the present invention has been described and illustrated herein as 
embodied in a specific construction of a strip-shaped embroidery fabric, 
it is not limited to the details of this particular construction, since 
various modifications and structural changes may be made without departing 
from the spirit of the present invention. 
Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of 
the present invention that others can, by applying current knowledge, 
readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features that, 
from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential 
characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention and, 
therefore, such adaptations should and are intended to be comprehended 
within the meaning and range of equivalence of the following claims. 
What is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent is set 
forth in the appended claims: