Garment blank and brief

A knit garment blank includes a tubular body portion having a first section knit with desired stitches and second sections knit with yarn from selected spaced courses of the first section, for example, such as every fourth course. In each second section, selected spaced courses continuing from the first section are looped through other selected spaced courses. At a given course during knitting, needles knitting the front of the first section and the second sections are pressed off and a plurality of courses appending from the remaining stitches of the course forms a rear panel. A brief is formed by cutting away selected portions of the blank to define leg openings and sewing a crotch piece to the body and the rear panel.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Garments such as briefs or panties have been made by knitting a tubular 
blank on a circular knitting machine and cutting out areas on opposite 
sides that form leg openings when the front and rear ends of the blank are 
sewn together. As described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,628,115, guide lines for 
the cutting operation may be formed in the blank by a distinctive stitch 
such as a tuck stitch in a jersey knit or by knitting the entire area to 
be cut out with a distinctive stitch so that the line of demarcation 
between it and the rest of the blank serves as a cutting guide. It is 
estimated that this process wastes about 20% of the yarn depending on the 
particular design of the brief or panty. In the highly competitive garment 
industry this amount of waste is very significant. 
In my patent application bearing the same title as this application and 
filed concurrently herewith, a blank is described that eliminates much of 
the waste yarn. A tubular body is knit with 360.degree. courses down to a 
given course in which a majority of the needles are pressed off and the 
remaining needles continue to knit so as to form a rear panel for the 
brief. Notches are cut in either side of the body from the course that is 
pressed off, and the rear panel is also cut to shape. A brief or panty is 
made by sewing one end of a crotch piece to the rear panel and sewing the 
other end to the central portion of the tubular body so as to form leg 
openings on either side that can be trimmed in any desired manner. 
In an application by Michael J. Bolin, entitled: "Garment Blank With 
Special Disposable Section" that is filed concurrently herewith, a tubular 
blank is provided with a first section that is to be used in the garment 
and second sections in the form of notches on opposite sides of the blank 
that are to be cut out so as to form leg openings when the front and rear 
ends of the blank between the notches are sewn together. The second 
sections are knit with yarn from spaced courses to that its area is a 
fraction of what it would be if it were knit with yarn from all courses, 
thereby reducing the amount of yarn that is wasted. At the same time, 
however, the second sections prevent the first section from curling and 
thereby interfering with cutting along specially provided nearby 
guidelines and sewing trimming to the edge thus formed. 
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
In accordance with this invention, a first section of a tubular blank is 
knit with stitches that are desired in the garment, and second sections on 
either side of the blank are knit with yarn from spaced courses as in the 
application of Michael J. Bolin referred to. At a given course, the 
needles knitting the front of the first section and the needles knitting 
the second sections are pressed off, but the needles for knitting the rear 
of the first section continue to knit so as to form a rear panel. Cutting 
guide lines for the upper part of the leg opening are knit into the first 
section that extend from the pressed off course, around each of the second 
sections and back to the pressed off course. Cutting guide lines can also 
be knit in the rear panel. A brief or panty is formed by sewing one end of 
a crotch piece to the bottom of the rear panel and its other end to the 
front central part of the first section so as to provide leg openings. 
Yarn is saved because less yarn is used in the second section than in my 
application just referred to.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
In the side view of a blank of this invention as shown in FIG. 1, a 
waistband 2 in the form of a transfer or double welt may be knit with 
elastic material at the top of the blank. This is followed by the knitting 
of a tubular body 4 between courses 6 and 8 having a first section 10 knit 
with stitches desired in the garment and a second section 12 lying between 
lines 14 and 16 that is knit with yarn from spaced courses of the section 
10 such as every fourth course as will be described in more detail. The 
stitches of the first section are knit with yarn in courses connected 
vertically to adjacent courses. The line 16 shows the course 8 in the 
section 12. Courses between said spaced courses are simply not knit, and 
the yarn is cut at one edge of the second section 12. A portion of the 
course 8 along the bottom of the section 10 and the line 16 of the section 
12 is pressed off, and the needles around the rest of the course 8 
continue knitting so as to form a rear panel 18 extending down to a course 
20. The rear panel 18 is equidistant from the second sections 12, and is 
generally rectangular in plan. 
During the knitting of the courses in between the spaced courses, the 
needles for the portions of the wales within the section 12 are held in 
their welt positions, and the yarn is cut as indicated by the short lines 
22. This results in a knit fabric that extends one-quarter of the distance 
between the line 14 and the course 8 at the bottom of the section 10 so as 
to save 75% of the yarn that would be thrown away if, as in my other 
application, the entire area between the line 14 and the course 8 were 
knit with yarn from all of the courses. Other spaced courses could be used 
so as to save more or less yarn. 
In addition to saving yarn, the section 12 prevents the material of the 
section 10 from curling sufficiently to interfere with the introduction of 
the blank into a cutting machine so that it cuts along a dashed guide line 
24. The portion of the guide line 24 in the section 10 determines the 
shape of the upper part of a leg opening, and the portion in the rear 
panel 18 determines the shape of the lower part of the leg opening. 
In order to make a brief or panty, one end 26, of a crotch piece shown in 
FIG. 2 is sewn to the bottom of the rear panel 18 as indicated at 28 in 
FIG. 3, and its other end 30 is sewn to the front lower portion of the 
body 10 as indicated at 32 so as to form a leg opening 34. The shape of 
the upper portion of the leg opening 34 is determined by the portion of 
the guide line 24 in the section 10 and in the rear panel 18, and the 
shape of the lower portion is determined by a side of the crotch piece of 
FIG. 2. 
As in my other application, the blank of FIG. 1 saves yarn that would 
otherwise be used to knit an area between the courses 8 and 20 and between 
the left wale 36 and the wale 38 at vertical edges of the rear panel 18, 
but as pointed out above, it also saves a portion of the yarn that would 
normally be used to form a fully knit fabric in the area between the line 
14 and the course 8. 
The knitting of the second sections of the tubular knit body with less yarn 
in such manner as to inhibit curling that would interfere with cutting and 
sewing along the cutting guide line 24 can be accomplished as follows. 
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing what the yarn for every fourth course 
of the first section 10 is knit to in order to form the second section 12. 
The second sections are knit with yarn in courses continuing from selected 
spaced courses of the first section, and each selected spaced course in 
each of the second sections is looped or stitched through another selected 
spaced course. No attempt has been made to show the actual positions of 
certain stitches because that would involve showing puckers that are 
formed when yarn coming from an earlier knit course is knit to a later 
knit course. The drawing is further simplified by not indicating the 
stitches in the section 10 and by indicating the stitches in the section 
12 by arrows rather than showing the actual yarn. The ends or floats 
produced by cutting the yarn for the intermediate courses at points 
adjacent the section 12 are shown by short upwardly directed diagonal 
lines. Courses are represented by horizontal lines, wales are represented 
by vertical lines, and the knitting proceeds in a downward direction. 
A course 34 runs from the section 10 across the top of the section 12, and 
the diagonal lines C.sub.36, C.sub.38 and C.sub.40 show the yarn ends or 
floats that are produced when the yarns of the successive courses 36, 38 
and 40 are cut just after a wale 42. Although not shown, knitting is 
resumed in the courses 36, 38 and 40 at the other side of the section 12 
as each course is knit. 
Yarn from the same feeder that supplied the yarn for a course 34' is knit 
to the course 40 in the usual manner, but the stitches are not indicated 
by arrows because they are part of the section 10 and not part of the 
section 12. After the stitch at the wale 42 is completed, yarn from the 
feeder supplying yarn for the course 34' is knit to the course 34 at a 
wale 44 as indicated by an arrow 46. From this point successive stitches 
ar made to the course 34 as indicated by the arrows 48, 50, 52 and 54 so 
as to finish knitting the top course of the section 12. Note, however, 
that it is aligned with the course 36 of the section 10. 
When the stitch indicated by the arrow 46 is made, the yarn at the wale 42 
of the course 34' is drawn toward the intersection of the wale 44 and the 
course 34 so as to form a pucker, not shown, but this presents no problem 
because it is to be cut out and disposed of. 
At this point the courses 36', 38' and 40' are knit in sequence with the 
yarn being cut just after wale 56, and the knitting is resumed on the 
other side of the section 12. A course 34" is then knit as usual to the 
course 40' until it reaches the wale 56 at which point it is knit to the 
course 34' at a wale 58 as indicated by an arrow 60. Inasmuch as the 
knitting of yarn connected to courses 34'" and 34"" corresponds to the 
knitting just described, there seems to be no need to explain it in 
detail. Puckers are formed when yarn from the courses 34', 34", 34 '" and 
34"" are first knit to the previous one so that the upper edge of the 
section 12 is uneven when it does not run along a course. The lower edge 
will be even, however. 
FIG. 5 shows the actual yarn when yarn from the course 34' is knit to the 
course 34 at the wale 44 by the stitch at 46. 
From the above description, it can be seen that a circular knitting machine 
can be operated continuously to form the blank of this invention. It knits 
course after course as usual except that during portions of courses lying 
within the sections 12, it knits only during selected courses that are 
separated by other courses. Every fourth course was selected in the 
example described above, but any combination can be used as long as some 
courses are omitted. 
As a non-preferred variation, needles for the wales of a course part way 
down and within the section 12 can be pressed off and normal knitting 
carried out in the wales on either side from that point on.