A cleaning article. The cleaning article has discrete tufts of tow fibers. The discrete tufts are unequally spaced from adjacent tufts, to provide improved collection and retention of debris from a target surface. The tufts may have a pitch, the pitch decreasing as the longitudinal axis of the cleaning article is approached. The cleaning article may be made by cutting out spaces between tufts from a precursor sheet and attaching the precursor sheet to a carrier sheet. Or the cleaning article may be made by cutting a precursor sheet having tufts into discrete portions. These discrete portions are bonded to a carrier sheet.