Placket straightener

Abstract

A placket straightener device for minimizing buckling, gapping, or puckering of the overlapping placket panels on the ends of a shirt, such as a woman's blouse, when the fasteners, such as snap buttons or buttons with buttonholes, are fastened together. The device may be placed inside of the placket panel(s) or the device may be placed between two overlapping placket panels between the closed fasteners. The placket straightener device maintains a predetermined distance between the closed fasteners of the shirt thereby reducing buckling, gapping and puckering.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates generally to an improved garment and, more particularly, to an improved shirt or blouse and also a re-useable, removable device used in or on such garments to decrease the opening, gapping, and / or puckering that sometimes occurs between fasteners.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]A shirt, such as a man's button down shirt or dress shirt or a woman's dress shirt or blouse is put on one arm at a time and then fastened or joined down the front and middle of the garment at overlapping edges or panels having reinforced fabric, often referred to as plackets, containing a fastening system to facilitate connection thereof. On some garments the fastening system comprises zipper teeth fixedly attached to each of the placket panels which provides for a zippered connection when a zipper pull is raised and lowered. Other times, the fastening system is made from snap buttons with male and female counterparts, buttons and loops, buttons and ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009]In one embodiment, the placket stiffener device is configured to fit inside of at least one placket panel of the garment and it is intended to remain in the garment's placket panel. The placket stiffener for this embodiment is configured to create stiffness between adjacent fasteners of the garment inside the placket panels. The stiffness decreases the ability for two adjacent fasteners on the same placket will move closer to each other thereby resisting separation of the placket panels from each other and the resulting opening, gapping, and puckering that could accompany the separation. The length of one or more of the placket panels of the garment could be segmented lengthwise (such as for example between fasteners) with at least some of the segments having the stiffener device or a single piece stiffener device could be installed the entire length of one or both placket panel(s).

[0014]In another embodiment, the length of the placket stiffener device is less than the distance between two fasteners but it is also long enough so that when installed and when the distance between fasteners is lessened by a certain distance due to, for example, movement, such that separation would result without the device in place, the stiffness of the device between two fasteners minimizes the separation of the placket panels.

[0015]In yet another embodiment of the invention, the placket stiffener device could also include adhesive on one or both sides of the device that abut the placket panels when the device is installed. The adhesive provides additional resistance to the opening of the placket panels and also helps keep the device from falling out of or off the garment.

[0016]The stiffener device according to the present invention is configured to create stiffness between the fasteners of the garment inside a placket panel and / or between the placket panels depending upon the specific embodiment and device configuration. The resulting stiffness minimizes the separation of the placket panels when the garment is worn. The stiffener device reduces the amount of movement of the fasteners towards each other thereby decreasing the chance of gapping or puckering of the placket panels.

[0018]In one embodiment, the removable placket stiffener device is configured to have a grasping tab for grasping the device with the user's fingers for ease of placement and removal.

Problems solved by technology

In some instances, however, the fastened placket panels separate (e.g., open, pucker or gap) between fasteners and the separation most often results in an undesirable opening.

On both men and women, an opening reveals undergarments, if worn, and / or parts of the bare body which is usually troublesome, particularly for women.

The reason(s) for the separation could be that a shirt may fit properly in length and width except for the chest or bosom area, the wearer may be in a position pushing the placket panels apart, and / or the weight of the wearer may play a role in bunching or an undesirable positioning of the shirt.

Whichever the case, the wearer oftentimes becomes uncomfortable when the placket panels separate.

The wearer may become self-conscious about the possibility and / or expectation of the shirt separating between placket panels thus causing awkward gestures or tendencies for body positioning.

The drawbacks to these adhesive-type devices is dependability (the tape often peels away from the garment when stress is applied and oftentimes the adhesive is simply not strong enough to keep the placket panels together), the devices are sometimes visible when used, and / or the devices are not re-useable.

The drawbacks to that invention is that it does not provide a solution for conventional shirts that are completely open in the front and the stitching together of the placket panels is permanent and makes placing the shirt on and taking it off inconvenient and cumbersome.

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