What is Wrinkle?
Garments made from 100% cotton fibers are comfortable. Unfortunately, garments made from cotton become badly wrinkled during wear, and they don’t retain the nice smooth ‘just ironed’ look because of the creases or wrinkles that form on the fabric. Crease means ‘a line or ridge produced on paper or cloth by folding, pressing or crushing’. Wrinkle means ‘a small furrow, ridge or crease on a normally smooth surface, caused by crumpling, folding or shrinking’. While creases are a fold in a fabric that is introduced unintentionally, the definition of a wrinkle is less clear. Some define wrinkles as three-dimensional creases. Two types of wrinkles usually occur in garments during wear, viz. pressure (sharp) wrinkles and movement (rounded) wrinkles. They are normally confined to small areas and specific locations in the garment.

Wrinkling may be defined as the unwanted residual bending deformation, largely random in nature, which occurs during wear and which does not disappear spontaneously, resulting in wrinkles or creases which can make the fabric appear unsightly. A wrinkle, also known as a rhytide, is a fold, ridge or crease in the cloth or garments. Wrinkle is a particular type of pressure in the finished fabric. It is produced during finishing operations by the thickness of the seam used to join pieces for processing. Wrinkles are often seen as an undesirable property of fabrics.
Wrinkle resistance in a fabric is a desirable attribute, but it is not easily measured quantitatively. Wrinkle resistance varies from quite low in many fabrics to very high in resilient fabrics. In order to form a wrinkle, a fabric’s wrinkle resistance must be overcome. The fabric may, however, produce strains and store potential energy that can become evident as wrinkle recovery under suitable conditions.
Types of Wrinkle Process in Fabric:
There are two types of wrinkle process in fabric:
- Permanent wrinkle process
- Overall wrinkle process
Above two wrinkle process in fabric is explain below:
A. Permanent wrinkle process:
- Generally permanent wrinkle is doing on garments after all types of wet process wash in dry position.
- Permanent wrinkle is done on the garments made from all types of fabrics like, Denim, Twill, Canvas, Poplin, Corduroy, Knit and Polyester etc.
- For permanent wrinkle we are use resin which is spray on garments particular/specific area by nozzle.
- Resin is diluted with water which is recommended by chemical supplier, generally 20% resin and 80% water.
- After resin spray on respective area, then fold by buyer demand and clip attached upon the folding area.
- Now hangers the garment in to the hanger trolley, Trolley capacity approx. 80-100 pcs garments.
- Then trolley with resin treatment garments put inside the Industrial oven.
- Set temperature 140°C to 160°C, Time 20-40 minutes (if folding layer is less,
- Less time required, if folding Layer is more, more time is required).
- Start the machine.
- When setting time is over, machines are automatically off.
- After heating time over garments with hanger will stay 10 minutes for cold in oven.
- Now open the door and trolley with garment out from oven.
- Open the clip from garment and go to quality section for quality checking and delivery.
B. Overall wrinkle process:
- Generally overall wrinkle is doing on garments after all types of wet process and dry process.
- Overall wrinkle is done on the garment made from all types of fabrics like, Denim, Twill, Canvas, Poplin, Corduroy, Knit, Polyester, Viscose and Nylon etc.
- Now tie the whole garment in tight position by thread.
- For overall wrinkle, we are used resin in washing machine with water and run tied garments for 5 to 10 minutes at 50°C temperature.
- Then unload the garments from washing machine to trolley for hydro extractor to remove the excess water.
- Open the tie or cut the thread.
- Now hanger the garments into the hanger trolley. Trolley capacity appreciates 80-100 pcs garments.
- Then trolley with resin treatment garments put inside the Industrial oven.
- Set temperature 140°C to 160°C, Time 50-70 minutes.
- Start the machine.
- When setting time is over, machines are automatically off.
- After heating time over garments with hanger will stay 10 minutes for cold in oven.
- Now open the door and trolley with garments out from oven and go to quality section, checking and delivery.
Factors Affecting Wrinkling on Fabric:
Some of the physical factors that affect wrinkling are summarized below:
Fiber parameters:
Fabrics made from fine cotton fibers do not wrinkle as badly as fabrics from coarse fibers because the bending radius of curvature is greater for a thick fiber than for a thin one. The greater the radius, the greater the stress on the polymer chains. Fabrics made from fine Egyptian cotton wrinkle less than those made from coarser fibers.
Yarn parameters:
Fabrics made from high-twist yarns wrinkle worse than those made from low-twist yarns. For low-twist yarns, the distortion stresses are dissipated by the physical rearrangement that takes place as adjacent fibers slip by each other. The stress is dissipated before it can affect the individual fibers.
Fabric parameters:
Tightly woven fabrics wrinkle more than loosely constructed fabrics. In a loosely constructed fabric, the yarns can move as they respond to the wrinkling forces, and the individual fiber is spared. Woven fabrics wrinkle worse than knits because the knit loops allow an even greater freedom of yarn movement, again sparing the individual fibre.
You may also like:
- Wrinkle Resistant Finishing Process of Cotton Fabric
- Textile Finishing Process | Mechanical and Chemical Finishes in Textiles
- Determination of Fabric Crease Recovery by Shirley Crease Recovery Tester

Founder & Editor of Textile Learner. He is a Textile Consultant, Blogger & Entrepreneur. Mr. Kiron is working as a textile consultant in several local and international companies. He is also a contributor of Wikipedia.