Process for imparting elasticity to woven textile fabrics

A process for imparting elasticity to a woven textile fabric made of thermoplastic blended spun yarns made of 50-80% of poly-ether-ester or polyester fibers and 50-20% of cellulose fibers in its warp direction and in its weft direction a member of the group consisting of the same yarns as used in its warp direction, 100% of textured poly-ether-ester yarns, and 100% of textured polyester yarns, wherein said woven fabric fed to said process has a low initial web density in its weft direction, and the resultant fabric of the instant process has an elastic recovery of 65 to 90% and an elongation of 10 to 25% in its warp direction and has 5 to 60% greater web density than said feed fabric, which comprises:

• a. rotating a heating drum,
• b. rotating a deformable elastic roller, the drum and the roller having a parallel axis and the same peripheral velocity,
• c. passing a flexible elastic belt through the nip between the drum and the roller,
• d. contacting the belt with the heating drum around a substantial proportion of its periphery beyond the nip,
• e. applying a cellulose reactive resin solution to the fabric,
• f. feeding the fabric so treated in its warp direction into the nip between the heating drum and the flexible belt so as to shrink the fabric by 10-30% in its warp direction, whereby said fabric is compressed owing to the deformation of the deformable elastic roller as well as the deformation of the flexible elastic belt,
• g. temporarily heat-setting the fabric in its altered state by contacting it with the heating drum at a temperature of 130.degree.-150.degree. C, and
• h. completely heat-setting the fabric at a temperature of 150.degree.-200.degree. C for a period of 1-5 minutes.