In recent years, a so-called fleece, in which polyester fibers are pile-woven and loop piles protruding on the front and back faces are cut and raised, is in fashion as a warm outer ware. Since the fleece is hefty, soft, light and excellent in heat retention, it is widely used for warm clothes particularly.
The fleece is typically woven by a double-side pile weaving machine. The length of loop piles of the polyester fibers protruding on the front face and the back face is adjusted by height adjustment in a sinker nose of the weaving machine, and then the loop piles are shirring-cut and raised, whereby a raised fabric called fleece is made (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
Patent Document 1: Publication of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-41460. However, in the fleece disclosed in Patent Document 1 mentioned above, the pile yarn is relatively wide of 2 to 2.5 denier and is a polyester long yarn having 5 to 10 mm length, and the loop density is non-dense. Therefore, there have been such problems of lack of flexibility, naps being easily fallen off and cold due to too-much ventilation. In particular, since a conventional fleece has long naps, there has been a problem that naps are intertwined with each other when washed so the fleece becomes hardened, whereby the touch and the texture are worsened. Further, a fleece made of polyester materials having high strength and extensibility has a problem of pills being easily caused, called pilling, since the fleece contacts or slidingly contacts other clothes during wearing, naps of yarns are rustled or rubbed by a contact friction with other clothes, or intertwined with each other, during washing. On the other hand, generation of static electricity is another problem for a fleece that the front and back faces thereof are made of polyester materials. Generation of static electricity is a phenomenon in which on two objects in an electrically neutral state originally, one polarity charges become excessive than the other, either positive or negative, along mainly with a mechanical movement such as contact, separation or the like of the two objects. As for the static electricity, the electrification amount increases when wearing synthetic fibers together such as polyester fibers and nylon fibers, whereby static electricity of unpleasant “crackle feeling” we experience typically is generated. Further, there is a problem that the fleece is easily get dirty with dirt and dust being attached in the condition of dry winter time. The present invention is researched and developed in order to solve the problems described above. It is therefore an object of the present invention to form a fleece which is supple, soft and good touch capable of creating stretching property as if natural, and to create a high quality fleece capable of preventing pilling and preventing adhesion of dirt and dust by reducing generation of static electricity.