US3611440A - Expendable non-woven wearing apparel - Google Patents

Abstract

EXPENDABLE WEARING APPAREL FORMED OF TWO-DIMENSIONAL BLANKS PREFERABLY OF NON-WOVEN FABRIC MATERIAL, THE BLANKS HAVING A CRUCIFORM PROFILE TO DEFINE A CROTCH PORTION AS WELL AS FLY, SEAT AND SIDE FLAPS EXTENDING THEREFROM. THE CROTCH PORTION IS PROVIDED WITH EXPANDABLE LEG HOLES, WHEREAS THE FLAPS HAVE COMPLEMENTARY APERTURES THEREIN TO RECEIVE FASTENERS, THE APERTURES BEING SO PLACED THAT WHEN THE FLAPS ARE RAISED ABOUT THE WEARER, THE FLY AND SEAT FLAPS MAY BE CONNECTED TO THE SIDE FLAPS TO DEFINE SHORT PANTS, A ROMPER OR A SIMILAR ARTICLE OF APPAREL.

Description

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EXPENDABLE NON'WOVEN WEARING APPAREL Filed April 24. 1970 lNVliN'lllR United States Patent ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Expendable wearing apparel formed of two-dimensional blanks preferably of non-woven fabric material, the blanks having a cruciform profile to define a crotch portion as well as fly, seat and side flaps extending therefrom.

The crotch portion is provided with expandable leg holes, whereas the flaps have complementary apertures therein to receive fasteners, the apertures being so placed that when the flaps are raised about the wearer, the fly and seat flaps may be connected to the side flaps to define short pants, a romper or a similar article of apparel.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to wearing apparel and more particularly to expendable or disposable garments fabricated of low-cost, non-woven material and taking the form of pants, rompers or other items having leg openings.

A non-woven material may generally be described as a coherent sheet of entangled or bonded fibers made without the fibers first being spun into yarns and thereafter interlaced by weaving, knitting, braiding or other means of yarn manipulation. Among the materials used in making non-woven fabrics are papers, needled felts, battings, and other forms of textiles produced by forming synthetic fibers into a web and causing the fibers to adhere to each other.

While non-woven materials in the apparel field have been the subject of an enormous amount of interest, their actual use has been limited largely to interfacing and as felt-replacement materials for shoulder pads,belts, and the like. Non-woven fabrics have been considered for outerwear purposes, but little use has been made of them in this field.

Non-woven fabrics are not properly classified as disposable items, except in special cases where woven or knitted structures are also disposable, as in surgical bandages. Non-woven materials are basically permanent textiles. However, within the context of the present invention, where the desideratum is low cost, the choice of materials and the fabrication technique are deliberately such as to afford an attractive garment having good wearability, which garment, because it includes no investment in tailoring, may nevertheless be discarded without sacrifice after one or two uses. 1

In an increasingly mobile society, there exists a growing need for disposable clothing which lends itself to compact storage and packaging, and which may be put to use when the occasion arises and discarded after serving its purpose. The typical American family is constantly on the go, and whatever the means of transportation, the family is faced with the problem of providing an adequate supply of garments suitable for changing conditions encountered in the course of travel. Where, for example, parents on a trip are accompanied by two or more children or teenagers, the number of items which can conveniently be brought along almost invariably falls short of actual clothing requirements and creates a laundry problem.

In attempts heretofore made to fabricate disposable clothing of paper or low-cost synthetic, non-woven materials, the garment material has been preformed or "ice tailored to shape by sewing, heat-sealing, or even glueing. Non-woven fabrics made of paper ordinarily cannot be machine-sewed, for the usual feeding operation tends to introduce creases in the paper and to otherwise mar the surface of the fabric. While the paperrnay be glued, the resultant seam tends to be somewhat stiff and unattractive and may include gaps of adhesion.

In any case, when a disposable garment is tailored to final form, its ultimate price must take into account the cost of the sewing, pressing and other operations carried out in manufacturing the garment. As a consequence, these garments inevitably fall in a price range which does not admit of disposability, except as an extravagance.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the foregoing, it is the primary object of this invention to provide low-cost expendable or disposable apparel, which apparel is constituted by a blank of fabric material capable of being assembled into pants, rompers or any other article having leg holes, without sewing, heat-sealing, glueing or any other operation heretofore performed in manufacturing such apparel. While the invention is mainly intended for disposable apparel, it will be recognized that the same principles are applicable to low-cost permanent apparel.

More specifically, it is an object of the invention to provide apparel of the above-described type in the form of two-dimensional blanks in a cruciform profile and having complementary sets of apertures therein, whereby the contoured blank, which is packagable in flat, folded or cylindrical form, may readily be converted into a threedimensional garment by passing laces or other fasteners through appropriate apertures.

A significant advantage of the invention is that because it is packagable in compact fiat, folded or cylindrical form, it may be distributed through vending machines as well as by conventional over-the-counter sales or through selfservice racks in stores. A traveling family may lay in a large and varied supply of such packages or purchase them on route and discard the articles after use, so that in returning from a trip, it will do so with lightened baggage rather than a burden of apparel in need of laundering.

Briefly stated, these objects are accomplished by diecutting a sheet or web of non-woven material into a twodimensional blank whose profile is determined by the form of the garment to be created, the blank having a cruciform configuration to define a crotch portion as well as fly, seat and side flaps which, when interconnected by fasteners inserted in complementary apertures in the flaps, provide pants, a romper or similar article, the crotch portion having leg holes therein.

OUTLINE OF DRAWING For a better understanding of the invention, as well as other objects and further features thereof, reference is made to the following detailed description to be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates the blank for a basic pants-like form in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 shows the article formed from the blank, the fly flap being cut away to reveal the manner in which the seat flap is attached to the side flaps;

FIG. 3 shows the blank for a sun-suit in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 4 shows the sun-suit worn by a child;

FIG. 5 shows the blank for a romper in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 6 is a front view of the romper, as worn; and

FIG. 7 is a back view of the romper, as worn.

3 DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown a contoured blank generally designated by numeral which in practice may be mass-produced by die-cutting the blanks from a continuous web of non-woven material or from a stack of sheets. The non-woven material may be a paper product or formed of rayon, felt or any other available synthetic low-cost material.

The nature of the non-woven fabric forms no part of the present invention, although the use of resin-reinforced or impregnated paper is preferred because of the high strength and good textile characteristics of this lowcost material. While the use of non-woven materials is stressed herein, the invention is also applicable to lowcost woven fabrics. The terms disposable and expendable are used herein more or less interchangeably. However, one may draw a fine distinction between these terms, for disposable garments, strictly speaking, are those intended for a single wearing, after which the garment is discarded, whereas expendable garments are capable of being worn one or several times, it being, however, more economical to dispense with the garment than to clean or repair it. Whether the garment is disposable or expendable depends on the wearing qualities of the material used. The present invention encompasses both expendable and disposable apparel.

Blank 10 has a cruciform profile to define a crotch portion 11, a fly flap 12, a seat flap 13 and opposing side flaps 14 and 15, all integral with the crotch portion. Cut into the crotch portion are a pair of leg openings 16 and 17 whose peripheries are scalloped to allow for expansion of the openings when legs are inserted therein.

Punched into the flaps at strategic positions are complementary sets of apertures. Thus fiy flap 12 is provided on either side with apertures 12A and 12B which complement apertures 14A and B, respectively, of side flaps 14 and 15. Seat flap 13 is provided with apertures 13A and 13B which complement apertures 15A and 14B in the side flaps.

It is to be noted that seat flap 13 is provided with foldable side panels 13P and 13P defined by score lines, such that when these panels are folded in and attached to side flaps 14 and 15, as shown in FIG. 2, a reinforcing gusset is formed thereby.

The flaps are held together by laces or other forms of removable fasteners such as stud buttons inserted in the complementary holes. For purposes of storage and shipment, blank 10 may be neatly folded or rolled into a small package and housed within a sealed transparent envelope which also encloses the necessary fasteners. After the package is opened, the blank may be unfolded, and the fasteners applied by the wearer to convert the two-dimensional blank into a three-dimensional garment.

In practice the pants are first assembled by connecting together all flaps but one, to make it easy for the wearer to insert his legs in the leg holes, after which the last flap is fastened.

Because the fly flap and the seat flap may be separately detached, it is not necessary to remove the pants to carry out body functions.

The arrangement shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 is a variant of that in FIGS. 1 and 2, but operates on similar principles to provide an expendable sun-suit. Blank 19 has a cruciform profile to define fly flap 20, seat flap 21 and side flaps 2:2 and 23 as well as a crotch portion 24. The crotch portion has leg holes 25 and 26 cut therein. The flaps have complementary apertures to facilitate their joining together, and the fly and seat flaps have foldable panel sections to provide gussets. Seat flap 21 is provided with a suspender extension 27 which, when the garment is assembled, is hitched onto the fly flap in the manner shown in FIG. 4.

A still more elaborate version of the invention is shown in FIGS. 5, 6 and 7, where a romper is formed from a cruciform blank 28, again having a fly flap 29, a seat flap 30, and side flaps 31 and 32, with leg holes 33 and 34 cut in the crotch portion 35. But in this instance, fiy flap 29 includes a front panel extension 36 having shoulder tab pieces 37 and 38, whereas the side flaps 31 and 32 include tab extensions 31A and 31B, and 32A and 32B, which, when the romper is assembled, fasten onto the front panel as shown.

While there have been shown and described preferred embodiments of the expendable non-woven wearing apparel of the invention, it will be appreciated that many changes and modifications may be made therein without, however, departing from the essential spirit of the invention.

I claim:

1. An expendable or disposable article of wearing apparel comprising a two-dimensional contoured blank of fabric material of uniform thickness, said blank having a cruciform pro-file defining a central crotch portion, a fly flap, a seat flap and opposing side flaps, each of said flaps extending outwardly from said crotch portion to define said cruciform profile, said crotch portion having leg holes therein, said flaps having complementary apertures therein to receive fasteners, the apertures being so placed that when the legs of the wearer are inserted in the holes and the flaps raised about the wearer, the flaps may be interconnected by the fasteners to define pants, a romper or similar article of apparel.

,2. An article as set forth in claim 1, wherein said leg holes are scalloped to render them expandable.

3. An article as set forth in claim 1, wherein said blank is formed of non-woven fabric material.

4. An article as set forth in claim 3, wherein said material is resin-reinforced paper.

5. An article as set forth in claim 1, wherein said seat flap includes a suspender extension which is attachable to said fly flap.

6. An article as set forth in claim 1, wherein said fly flap includes shoulder-piece extensions which extend over the shoulder and are attachable to said seat flap.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,411,129 11/1946 dAprile 2.-224 A 2,525,170 10/1950 Ehrlich 2-224 A 3,078,467 2/1963 Artzt 2--114 X 3,435,461 1/1969 Artzt 283 H. HAMPTON HUNTER, Primary Examiner

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