A crepe process includes applying an adhesive composition to a nonwoven web, drying, and creping the nonwoven web on a creping drum. The improvement includes using an adhesive composition that includes an aqueous copolymer dispersion obtained by emulsion polymerization of a monomer mixture including 65 to 94.5% by weight of vinyl acetate, 5 to 30% by weight of ethylene, (meth)acrylamide, and 0.1 to 4% by weight of an N-methylol functional monomer. The N-methylol functional monomer constitutes from 25 to 85% by weight of the combined amounts of acrylamide and N-methylol functional monomer, which combined amounts constitute from 0.5 to 5% by weight of the monomer mixture. The emulsion polymerization is performed in the presence of 1 to 10% by weight of polyvinyl alcohol, based on the total weight of all monomers used for the polymerization. The adhesive composition does not include alkylphenol ethoxylates, phosphate ester surfactants, or sodium laureth sulfate.

A crepe process includes applying an adhesive composition to a nonwoven web, drying, and creping the nonwoven web on a creping drum. The improvement includes using an adhesive composition that includes an aqueous copolymer dispersion obtained by emulsion polymerization of a monomer mixture including 65 to 94.5% by weight of vinyl acetate, 5 to 30% by weight of ethylene, (meth)acrylamide, and 0.1 to 4% by weight of an N-methylol functional monomer. The N-methylol functional monomer constitutes from 25 to 85% by weight of the combined amounts of acrylamide and N-methylol functional monomer, which combined amounts constitute from 0.5 to 5% by weight of the monomer mixture. The emulsion polymerization is performed in the presence of 1 to 10% by weight of polyvinyl alcohol, based on the total weight of all monomers used for the polymerization. The adhesive composition does not include alkylphenol ethoxylates, phosphate ester surfactants, or sodium laureth sulfate.