Disposable diaper having shirred ears

摘要

The back ears of a contoured disposable diaper are shirred to become stretchable and elastically retractable. Because of this, the diaper can be pulled snugly around the buttocks and the waist merely by applying ordinary fingertip pressure to the fastening tabs. The shirring can be provided by incorporating into the back ears of a flat diaper-forming blank a piece of heat-elasticizable material and then heating each diaper that is cut from the blank to shrink the piece. A preferred heat-elasticizable material comprises a substantially flat inelastic web to which is heat bonded a plurality of parallel elastomeric strands extended to at least about three times their relaxed length.