Effect of fabric structure changes during manufacturing and finishing on fabric hand and skin comfort: A study of a double-faced semi-worsted wool fabric

Unlike color, which has already been widely digitized and standardized in the textile industry, fabric hand feel and skin comfort remain weakly standardized and digitized. The hand feel properties of fabrics are highly sensitive to structural changes induced by finishing processes, making it challenging for manufacturers in the wool textile sector to consistently reproduce the desired hand feel characteristics when processing new samples. Motivated by this gap, this study proposes a structure-centric framework, utilizing SEM and the fabric touch tester (FTT) to correlate processing-driven micro/mesoscale alterations with hand feel and skin comfort performance, enabling standardizable measurement and predictive control. A double-faced semi-worsted fabric (80% wool, 20% Tencel) was sampled across 12 manufacturing and finishing processes. This study quantitatively characterizes and focuses on three structure-related descriptors: total fabric hair thickness ( {T}_hair ), fabric core thickness ( {T}_core ), and surface fiber alignment dispersion, and relates them to fabric hand and skin comfort primary sensory indices as well as instrumental parameters measured by the FTT. Across the sample, {T}_hair was strongly and positively associated with compression work ( {R}²=0.87, p<0.0001 ), compression recovery rate ( {R}²=0.93, p<0.0001 ), and the hand feel warmness index ( {R}²=0.93, p<0.0001 ). Fabric core thickness was positively associated with skin comfort softness and the total indices, and exhibited nonlinear relationships with bending-related indices: bending average rigidity in the weft direction ( {R}²=0.97, p<0.0001 ) and bending work in the weft direction ( {R}²=0.92, p<0.005 ). By quantifying structural properties of wool textile during production, the study establishes predictive links from structure to hand feel/skin comfort performance and defines actionable set points for finishing. This supports target-based control, improves consistency and energy efficiency in line with the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, and advances digital, performance driven manufacturing.