A stitch-bonded fabric construction in which broadly spaced parallel linear stitch lines are applied through a very low weight fibrous substrate to stabilize the substrate in the machine direction. Texture is imparted by applying significant overfeed conditions to the stitching substrate thereby causing a substantial bunching of the substrate at the stitching position. The resulting product has an arrangement of alternating ridges and valleys running predominantly in the cross-machine direction. The stabilizing linear stitch lines lock in the puckered texture.