Understanding the performance and behavior of garment leathers provides valuable inputs for the design and production of leather garments. The drape is one of the important properties associated with garment fitness quality and appeal. This study aims to show how the independent variables flexural rigidity and thickness affect the dependent variable drapability. Nowadays, studies on the drape of garment leathers are scarce. In this work, the drape coefficient (DC) was measured for sheep garment leather, which influences the garment drapability, such as flexural rigidity in the range of 9.2 to 22 and thickness in the range of 0.64 to 0.96. The average DC was calculated in the range of 47.35 to 69.9% for the selected sheep leathers from four samples. The drapability of the garment leather was determined using the DC. Flexural rigidity and thickness have been shown to have a considerable influence on the DC, while they do bear a significant relationship to the DC. The results of this study can be used as an elementary tool for leather selection of appropriate materials for garments.
Keywords: drapability; drape coefficient; leather; leather rigidity; leather thickness.