Flexible electronic textiles are the future of wearable technology with a diverse application potential inspired by the Internet of Things (IoT) to improve all aspects of wearer life by replacing traditional bulky, rigid, and uncomfortable wearable electronics. The inherently prominent characteristics exhibited by textile substrates make them ideal candidates for designing user-friendly wearable electronic textiles for high-end variant applications. Textile substrates (fiber, yarn, fabric, and garment) combined with nanostructured electroactive materials provide a universal pathway for the researcher to construct advanced wearable electronics compatible with the human body and other circumstances. However, e-textiles are found to be vulnerable to physical deformation induced during repeated wash and wear. Thus, e-textiles need to be robust enough to withstand such challenges involved in designing a reliable product and require more attention for substantial advancement in stability and washability. As a step toward reliable devices, we present this comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art advances in substrate geometries, modification, fabrication, and standardized washing strategies to predict a roadmap toward sustainability. Furthermore, current challenges, opportunities, and future aspects of durable e-textiles development are envisioned to provide a conclusive pathway for researchers to conduct advanced studies.

In this study, we analyzed the impact of the dyeing and the digital printing processes of linen/silk fabric (70% linen/30% silk) on its color fastness and shrinkage in the directions of warp and weft. This is a highly relevant topic because a single fabric combines two natural fibers of different origins—silk, a protein, is animal-based, whereas linen is derived from cellulose and is, thus, plant-based. Therefore, the different natures of the two fibers determine distinctive chemical properties. As a result, selecting the optimal technological course of processing for blended yarn fabrics and their yarn is a challenging task. The quality of the conducted finishing is determined by the physical properties of fabrics, such as color fastness to perspiration; soap; dry friction and wet friction; the pH of the fabric after finishing; and the shrinkage of the fabric in the directions of warp and weft. Here, color fastness was assigned the top grade with respect to all potentially harmful factors, except for wet friction. The evaluation proves that the technological regimes employed for digital printing and dyeing in the production item’s fabrics were properly selected.

The pilling resistance of fashion fabrics is a fundamentally important and frequently occurring problem during cloth wearing. The aim of this investigation was to evaluate the pilling performance of linen/silk woven fabrics with different mechanical and chemical finishing, establishing the influence of the raw material and the peculiarities of dyeing and digital printing with different dyestuff. The pilling results of the dyed fabrics were better than those of the grey fabrics and even a small amount of synthetic fiber worsened the pilling performance of the fabric. Singeing influenced the change in the pilling resistance of the linen/silk fabrics without changing the final pilling resistance result. Singeing had a stronger influence on the fabrics with a small amount of synthetic fibers. The pilling resistance of printed fabrics was better than that of grey and dyed fabrics without and with singeing. The pilling resistance of pigment-printed fabrics was better than that of the reactive-printed fabrics.

The behaviour of textile products made from different fibres during finishing has been investigated by many scientists, but these investigations have usually been performed with cotton or synthetic yarns and fabrics. However, the properties of raw materials such as linen and hemp (other cellulose fibres) and linen/silk (cellulose/protein fibres) have rarely been investigated. The aim of the study was to investigate and compare the mechanical (breaking force and elongation at break) and end-use (colour fastness to artificial light, area density, and abrasion resistance) properties of cellulose and cellulose/protein woven fabrics. For all fabrics, ΔE was smaller than three, which is generally imperceptible to the human eye. Flax demonstrated the best dyeability, and hemp demonstrated the poorest dyeability, comparing all the tested fabrics. The colour properties of fabrics were greatly influenced by the washing procedure, and even different fabric components of different weaves lost their colours in different ways. Flax fibres were more crystalline than hemp, and those fibres were more amorphous, which decreased the crystallinity index of flax in flax/silk blended fabric. Unwashed flax fabric was more resistant to artificial light than flax/silk or hemp fabrics. Finishing had a great influence on the abrasion resistance of fabrics. The yarn fibre composition and the finishing process for fabrics both influenced the mechanical (breaking force and elongation at break) and end-use (area density and abrasion resistance) properties of grey and finished fabrics woven from yarns made of different fibres.

The main parameters of tensile tests for fabrics and yarns are the breaking force and the elongation at break. The aim of this investigation was to find the relation between the tensile properties of yarns and woven fabrics for different natural raw materials. Manmade bamboo, natural single flax, blended plied flax and natural silk yarns, plied combed cotton yarns, blended plied cotton, and polyester yarns were used for the research. The warp of almost all fabrics, except of one fabric, was from flax. This fabric was woven using blended flax and silk yarns in the warp. Weft yarns were more various – yarns of one kind were used in the weft for certain fabrics; yarns of two kinds were used in 1:1 repeats in other fabrics. It was established that the breaking force for both woven fabrics and yarns increases when the elongation at break increases. The relationships between the tensile parameters of yarns and woven fabrics were established. The results showed weak dependence between the tensile parameters of yarns and fabrics because the coefficients of determination of the dependences are small.

A comparative analysis of traditional western Ukrainian and Lithuanian towels provides rich material for new creative inspirations, as well as diversification of individual and mass-produced interior textiles, and also visualizes historical ties between the two countries. Therefore, the objective of the article is to analyse the weaving techniques that prevail in the creation of towel decor, to determine the artistic and stylistic parameters of Ukrainian and Lithuanian towels and to establish the common and unique features of their decor. The techniques of plain and twill weaving, the latter of which could obtain simple textured patterns on the canvas, were widespread in both countries. Various weaving compositions were obtained by the pick-up techniques of weaving, the overshot, and the damask weaving technique, which was much more widespread in Lithuania than in the western part of Ukraine.