Stitchbonded and gathered lyocell fabric unit

A gathered stitchbonded fabric unit, consisting essentially of:

• (i) one or more nonwoven sheet with a machine direction MD and a cross direction CD, consisting essentially of a plurality of cellulosic fibers comprising about 30% to about 90% by weight of the gathered stitchbonded fabric unit, wherein the plurality of cellulosic fibers are oriented multidirectionally within the one or more nonwoven sheet;
• and
• (ii) a pattern of stitches of a shrunken yarn that gather the one or more nonwoven sheet, forming a plurality of yarn overlaps over a technical front surface and yarn underlaps over a technical back surface of the gathered one or more nonwoven sheet, the shrunken yarn comprising about 10% to about 70% by weight of the gathered stitchbonded fabric unit;
• wherein the un-stitched one or more nonwoven sheet has a ratio of a tensile strength in a machine direction (MD) to a tensile strength in a cross direction (CD) of about 3.0:1 or less.

A method for making a gathered stitchbonded fabric unit, comprising the steps of:

• i) providing one or more nonwoven sheet with a machine direction MD and a cross direction CD, the one or more nonwoven sheet consisting essentially of a plurality of cellulosic fibers oriented multidirectionally to provide the one or more nonwoven sheet with a ratio of a tensile strength in a machine direction (MD) to a tensile strength in a cross direction (CD) of about 3.0:1 or less;
• ii) stitchbonding the one or more nonwoven sheet with a pattern of stitches of a shrinkable yarn to form a stitchbonded fabric unit, wherein the pattern of stitches includes a plurality of yarn overlaps over a technical front surface of the one or more nonwoven sheet and a plurality of yarn underlaps over a technical back surface of the one or more nonwoven sheet;
• and
• iii) shrink-activating the stitchbonded fabric unit to shrink the shrinkable yarn and gather the stitchbonded fabric unit into the gathered stitchbonded fabric unit.