GARMENT BLANK AND BRIEF

Abstract: A knit garment blank comprising a tubular body (4) having stitches around a portion of a course at the bottom of the body that are pressed off and a plurality of courses appending from the remaining stitches of said course to form a rear panel (18); there being oppositely disposed sections (12) of said tubular body (4) adjacent said course at the bottom of said tubular body that are knit with yarn from the same feeders as spaced ones of the courses in said body that intersect said sections (12).

Description: 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. Patent No. 4,624,115, 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° 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 so 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 US 4624115, there is provided a garment blank comprising a first section of a tubular blank knit with stitches that are desired in the garment, and second sections on either side of the blank knit with yarn connected to all courses in said first section. Cutting guidelines for the leg openings are knit into the blank that extend around each of the second sections and back. 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. According to the present invention, there is provided a garment blank comprising: a knit tubular body having a bottom course, a first section of said body having stitches desired in a garment, second sections in opposite sides of said body that are knit with yarn connected to courses in said first section, characterised in that said second sections are knitted from courses at least some of which are spaced from one another and in that a rear panel is knit on said body along a portion of said bottom course, the portion being equidistant from said second sections, According to the present invention, there is further provided a method of making a garment blank comprising the steps of: knitting a succession of 360° courses up to a bottom course to create a tubular body during knitting of the tubular body knitting a first section having stitches desired in the garment and knitting with yarn connected to courses in said first section second sections in opposite sides of said body characterised in that, knitting of the courses of said second sections is performed using yarn from selected spaced courses in the first section and in that a rear panel is knitted along a portion of the bottom course, the portion being located equidistant from said second sections, BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a side view of a garment blank of this invention; Figure 2 illustrates a crotch piece; Figure 3 shows a brief or panty made with the blank of this invention that is illustrated in Figure 1 and a crotch piece of Figure 2; Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of this stitching for forming sections of the blank that are to be cut out and disposed of; and Figure 5 shows the actual yarn in a few of the stitches occuring in a transition between first and second sections. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In the side view of a blank of this invention as shown in Figure 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 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 portion of course 8 which is pressed off is preferably more than 180° of the tubular body. 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. 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 c₃₆, c₃₈ and c₄₀ 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 are 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.

Claims: A garment blank comprising: (a) a knit tubular body (4) having a bottom course (8), (b) a first section (10) of said body having stitches desired in a garment, (c) second sections (12) in opposite sides of said body that are knit with yarn connected to courses in said first section, characterised in that said second sections (12) are knitted from courses (34,34'..) at least some of which are spaced from one another by cut and non-knit courses and in that a rear panel (18) is knit on said body along a portion of said bottom course, the portion being equidistant from said second sections. A garment blank according to claim 1, wherein the stitches of said bottom course that are in the remaining portion of said bottom course are pressed off. A garment blank according to claim 2, wherein said remaining portion extends around more than 180° of the tubular body. A garment blank according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein said courses (34,34'..) of the second sections are knitted from every fourth course in the first section. A garment blank according to any of claims 1 to 4, wherein selected courses part way down the second sections comprise pressed off stitches with knitted wales located on both sides of the pressed off stitches. A garment blank according to any preceding claim, further comprising: means defining guide lines (24) in said first section for cutting an upper portion of a leg opening (34) around each of said second section, said guide lines intersecting said bottom course (8) at both ends. A brief or panty comprising a garment blank according to claim 6, wherein second sections (12) have been removed by cutting along said guide lines (24) and including a crotch piece having one end (26) sewn to said rear panel (18) and its other end (30) sewn to said tubular body (4). A method of making a garment blank comprising the steps of: (a) knitting a succession of 360° courses up to a bottom course (8) to create a tubular body (4) (b) during knitting of the tubular body (4) knitting a first section (10) having stitches desired in the garment and knitting with yarn connected to courses in said first section second sections (12) in opposite sides of said body characterised in that, knitting of the courses of said second sections is performed using yarn from selected spaced courses in the first section and in that a rear panel (18) is knitted along a portion of the bottom course, the portion being located equidistant from said second sections. A method of making a garment comprising producing a blank according to claim 8 with cutting guidelines (24) in said first section (10), removing said second sections by cutting along guidelines (24) and securing a crotch piece to the blank by sewing one end (26) of the crotch piece to the rear panel and sewing the other end (30) to the tubular body.

Inventors: BOLIN, MICHAEL J., PELEG, ELIEZER
Applicants: SPRING CITY KNITTING CO. INC. (A DELAWARE CORPORATION)
Application year: 1989
Main classification: D04B1
IPC codes: D04B1