Denim-like knitted fabrics are getting popular for
their several favorable properties, such as flexibility, comfort, and
ease of manufacturing. This study aimed to manufacture knitted denim
fabrics made from various blend ratios of cotton, polyester, and spandex
fibers. Seven fabrics with a fiber blend ratio ranging from 95%
cotton/5% spandex to 30% cotton/65% polyester/5% spandex were developed
using a weft circular knitting machine. First, the twill effect of the
knitted denim fabric was brought by following a cross terry knitting
structure to produce each fabric sample of this study. After that, the
fabric performance was analyzed by characterizations, such as areal
density, pilling and abrasion resistance, dimensional stability,
stretch, and recovery, tear strength, bursting strength, air
permeability, vertical wicking, liquid absorbency capacity, and
different colorfastness tests. The results showed that different cotton,
polyester, and spandex fiber compositions did not significantly affect
knitted denim fabrics’ weight per unit area, abrasion resistance, and
different color fastness properties. However, the elongation and
vertical wicking test data showed that the knitted denim fabrics with a
higher cotton fiber ratio were better. However, the results from
shrinkage, spirality, pilling, recovery, strength, air permeability, and
liquid absorbency capacity tests revealed the benefits of having a
higher polyester fiber ratio in the cotton/polyester/spandex blended
knitted denim fabrics. One-way analysis of the variance test was also
performed on the generated data of this study and reported in the
respective section of the article.