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The demand of cotton is increasing but its low production rate cannot fulfill the world requirements. The increase in cotton demand has augmented the production of regenerated cellulosic fibers. Furthermore, cotton has proved to be unsustainable because of the use of huge amount of fresh water, pesticides and insecticides. The purpose of this work is to find out the suitable blend/blends of regenerated fibers so as to replace 100% cotton fabrics. Therefore, mechanical and comfort properties of Tencel fabrics blended with other regenerated cellulose fibers have been compared with 100% cotton to achieve the equivalent or even better end properties. Hence, cotton, viscose, Tencel, modal, and bamboo fibers were taken. Plain woven blended fabrics of 100% cotton and 50:50 blends of Tencel with other regenerated fibers were prepared from normal yarn count of 20 tex. The mechanical properties (warp-wise and weft-wise tensile and tear strengths, pilling, and abrasion resistance) and the comfort properties including air permeability, moisture management properties, and thermal resistance were evaluated. It is found that Tencel blended fabrics show better results than 100% cotton fabrics. Therefore, it is concluded that Tencel blended with these regenerated fabrics can be used to replace 100% cotton fabrics.

The increasing demand of cotton and low production rate to fulfill the world requirements has boosted the production of regenerated cellulose based fibers. The purpose of this work was to compare the performance and comfort properties of regenerated cellulose fibers. For this purpose, cotton, viscose, tencel, modal, bamboo and viscose fibers were taken. Cotton and viscose of 100% and blends (50:50) of viscose with cotton and regenerated fibers were taken. Normal yarn of count 20 tex was made and plain woven fabric samples were made and then pre-treated. The Warp-wise and weft-wise tensile and tear strengths were recorded. In addition, the tests of air-permeability, moisture management and thermal resistivity were performed It is found that the viscose:tencel and viscose:modal blends give better mechanical and comfort properties than all other blends. Also, it is found that viscose:cotton blend gives the lowest mechanical and comfort properties out of all studied fabrics. It is concluded that viscose makes more suitable blend with tencel and modal which outperforms in mechanical and comfort properties than other blends. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.24.2.18260