Abstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the comfort and fabric hand characteristics of selected lining fabrics made of acetate and polyester. The comfort of the linings was determined by human subjects wearing suit blazers constructed with different lining materials in an environmental chamber controlled at $30.6^{\circ}C$ air temperature and 50% relative humidity. The hand characteristics of the lining fabrics were determined by five trained panelists using standard fabric reference samples. The effect of lining fabrics on the subjects' thermal sensations was not statistically significant. But the subjects voted warmer when wearing the polyester surah lined blazer or the polyester taffeta blazer than wearing the acetate blazers. The results of the subjective comfort evaluation indicated that, in general, the subjects rated the acetate linings significantly less sticky, clammy, damp, and non-absorbent than the polyester linings. Acetate surah was rated a little higher than the other acetate fabrics on these comfort descriptors. The results of the subjective hand evaluation indicated that the lining fabrics rated low on the geometric and mechanical hand characteristics and rated moderate on noise. Acetate surah scored the highest on most of the hand characteristics, whereas, polyester taffeta scored the lowest.