Process for making unitary fibrous structure comprising randomly distributed cellulosic fibers and non-randomly distributed synthetic fibers

A process for making a unitary fibrous structure, comprising steps of:

• providing an aqueous slurry comprising a plurality of cellulosic fibers mixed with a plurality of synthetic fibers;
• depositing the aqueous slurry on to a macroscopically monoplanar fluid-permeable forming member and partially dewatering the deposited slurry to form an embryonic web comprising a plurality of cellulosic fibers randomly distributed throughout the web and a plurality of synthetic fibers randomly distributed throughout the web;
• transferring the embryonic web from to forming member to a microscopically monoplanar molding member comprising a non-random repeating pattern of a plurality of fluid-permeable areas and a plurality of fluid-impermeable areas, wherein the web disposed on the molding member comprises a first plurality of micro-regions corresponding to the plurality of fluid-permeable areas of the molding member and a second plurality of micro-regions corresponding to the plurality of fluid-impermeable areas of the molding member;
• redistributing the synthetic fibers such that two or more regions of different basis weight of the synthetic fibers are formed in the fibrous web;
• densifying at least one of the regions that has a relatively high basis weight of synthetic fibers such that a unitary fibrous structure is formed;
• and
• heating at least one of the first plurality of micro-regions and the second plurality of micro-regions of the web to a temperature sufficient to cause at least partial melting of the synthetic fibers in at least one of the first plurality of micro-regions and the second plurality of micro-regions, thereby causing co-joining between the cellulosic fibers and the synthetic fibers in at least one of the first plurality of micro-regions and the second plurality of micro-regions.