If you are tired of making poor fabric choices for your
sewing patterns,
I understand your pain because that was me too.
So in this video,
I've broken it down into sort of three main points that
what are the actual things that you need to be looking
at when you're trying to choose and decide the right fabric
for the right sewing patterns,
so you just start to think better choices and understand fabric
choice. Welcome back.
My sewing friends,
what a delight to actually see all your faces again,
as always,
if you are new here.
Welcome. My name is Evelyn Wood and I'm the creator of
vintagesewingschool.com And here on this channel,
we talk about vintage sewing skills,
like the skills that we need to help improve your garment
sewing. So if that's something you're interested in,
do check and see if you have hit the subscribe button
down below,
because we have many more videos obviously to improve your sewing
and today's topic is a fabric.
Fabric has been very much top of mind for me as
of late.
And I recently just asked you all,
what are your questions about fabric?
Because we all know it is really hard to learn.
You can't really know fabric until you touch and feel it
yourself. And it does take a long time and it is
quite hard to learn.
It is one of the harder points of sewing to learn,
I think.
And so one of the big areas that you all asked
about was choosing the right fabric for the right design and
sewing pattern.
Like what are you actually looking for?
So I've broken it down into a few main points here.
And now when you're learning fabric,
I will stress.
First of all,
that knowing names of fabrics is important.
It's not as important as you think what's really important is
understanding the qualities,
knowing the qualities of the fabric that you're looking for,
because let's face it.
They will call fabrics all types of different names.
It doesn't mean that that one name,
it could mean many different things that like one chiffon is
not the same as everything.
It's the different qualities that,
that even that particular chiffon might have.
So it's about understanding the different qualities and this will make
more sense as we go through.
So when you're learning fabrics in your sewing journey,
don't hold a lot onto just particular names of fabric while
it's useful.
Understanding the qualities that you're looking for is what you really,
really want to learn.
And that's when you really start to see a lot of
success in your choices.
So this is like a brief overview of all of the
things like the areas that I think you should be looking
at. This is what I look at when I'm choosing fabric
for the bright design.
So the main points,
so each of these points are like entirely individual categories that
space out and all individual learning things as well.
But this is kind of an overview.
So you can start to checklist often and get in your
mind what to look for when you're choosing fabric,
a sewing pattern.
So I'm going to break this down into knits and wovens
because they are different.
But first of all,
let's please talk about the difference between a fibre and fabric.
So this is an area of confusion when you first start,
because one,
you know,
you've never known how fabric is made and pattern companies will
often just say linens or cottons.
These aren't fabrics at all.
These are fibres.
A linen could be woven into a lightweight,
into a medium weight into a heavyweight fabric.
It could be knitted into a,
this does not,
it's not very helpful when describing what fabric to get by
describing the fibre.
So what do I mean here,
let's quickly talk about how fabric is made for those of
you that aren't quite sure of this process yet.
So there's three stages of how fabrics are made.
One is you start with the raw ingredients,
the fibres,
this is cotton linen,
well, polyester,
rayon, viscose.
All these are fibres.
These fibres are then spun and twisted into yarns.
These little threads coming out of this fabric here,
these are yarns.
This is a yarm.
So then these yarns,
this is the second stage are then either knitted or woven
into fabric.
And that is how we get fabric.
So fabric names include things like chiffon,
Georgette, crepe,
denim, taffeta.
There's just,
you know,
all of them,
those types of names are fabric types.
And so you have fibre types and fabric types.
And when you look at fabrics,
you've got those two things to consider because the fibre type
really does play a lot in how the fabric handles and
particularly moisture absorption,
whether it's like cool or warm,
and the drape drapey fibres include Rayon.
For example,
a plain woven fabric in a,
you know,
light to medium weight in rayon is very drapey.
The same thing in cotton is not.
So these are,
these fabric pipes are made pretty much the same,
but here it's the fibre that is causing this difference in
the drape,
in how it looks.
And so it's very important to understand the difference between the
fibre and the fabric and the names of different things.
And you should make your own lists as you go along
to help you get this in your mind,
but that plays a big part in what you're looking for
and how the fabric handles.
And so both the fibre type and the fabric type affect
the qualities that you will look for in your fabric.
And so knowing if you see linen,
for example,
you'll know that it has a natural drape.
If you see round viscose you'll know that has a natural
drape, no matter how the fabric is constructed,
he will still want to have beautiful drape and handle to
it. Things like this.
You then start to know when you see the fibre type,
if it might be stiffness or structured drapey,
you'll start to know these different things.
And we'll get into more about that in the different categories
coming up,
how to look for it.
So start to understand the difference between fibres and fabric types
make, make yourself list.
So, you know,
what are the names of the fibres?
What are the names of the different fabrics?
And so you can start to understand,
and when you're looking at all these things and trying to
buy fabric,
you'll know what each are talking about.
Trust me,
it makes it a lot easier.
Okay. Let's start off with how to choose wovens.
So woven fabrics are well,
think of like,
if you're not sure yet we're fabrics think of like a
basket weave,
all of these little yarns,
like we talked about are woven.
So that means it goes up,
down, up,
down this way and up,
down, up,
down this way,
and they kind of crisscross like a basket weave is the
simplest way to put it.
And this is your fabric,
that phrase,
and it doesn't usually stretch a,
that is a woven fabric.
And now we usually choose a woven fabric for weight and
the drape stiffness let's start with the weight.
What do we mean when we say the weight of fabric?
So the weight of fabric is usually described as GSM grams
per square meter or ounces per square yard,
Imperial metric.
Of course.
So I'm going to use GSM because that makes sense for
me. And I can say that very easily.
So it is the,
if you have one square yard or one square meter,
my case of fabric,
how much does that fabric way?
Because then it's like for like,
right. And so different fabrics are going to weigh different amounts,
a lightweight versus a heavyweight.
Generally your lightweight fabrics are,
you know,
tend to often be a shear because they are so light.
And as you get heavier,
of course they are big,
thick, heavy outerwear jackets.
And so knowing all of the weight categories and all of
this is an entirely different video in itself,
of course,
is something you should delve into,
particularly when buying online that white,
that GSM is very,
very handy.
And so that will give you a reference of how heavy
it is and maybe how sheer it is as well.
Lighter fabrics always tend to be a little bit more,
just light up small see-through.
So something to be very careful with heavier fabrics of course,
are more suited for outerwear and coats.
You're not going to make a top out of denim,
for example,
because it will probably be very thick and heavy.
So the weight of fabric is appropriate for the type of
garment that you're making.
A blouse probably wants something lighter,
I, a coat or jacket.
You want something heavier.
And having a look at those ma weights is how we
determined what a fabric to start with.
And then for wovens,
we go into drape and or stiffness.
So you either have drapey fabrics or you have stiff and
structured fabrics.
And so the drape,
as we just have been talking about is determined by both
the fibre type and how the fabric is constructed.
So the tighter woven fabrics.
So when all of those yarns are really tightly woven,
like lots of them are packed into a small amount of
fabric, usually results in a stiffer fabric.
So you're going to have things like your organzas is your
cotton's plain,
weave cottons.
All of these types of ones are stiff and structured.
You can see that they just don't really want to drape
much. They hold their shape and form.
And so when you talk about woven fabrics,
you generally want for looser fit garments like bigger and baggier
fit garments,
just as a general rule,
something with more drape is what you're going to want because
when it's big and baggy,
it will fall down and have that nice float around your
body, right?
Where if it's big and baggy and bigger than your body,
and you have something steep structured,
you guessed it.
That's when you start to get that potato sack look,
and it doesn't really feel very nice.
I'm sure we've all made the mistake pretty much of using
a quilting cotton for a blouse or something like a bigger
blouse. And it's just like a potato sack,
right? So as a general rule,
and then as you get a tighter fit garments,
you want a more structured,
stiffer fabric because it will hold the shape of dots.
It will contour and hold the shape of your body around.
And that is what you need trying to make something tight
and fitted in.
This is going to be a nightmare because it just will
not hold its shape.
It's just not made for it.
So as a general rule,
the looser fit,
the bigger,
the baggy of things are the more drapey probably want in
your fabric,
the tighter and more body form your wovens are.
The pattern is the more,
you'll probably want a more structured fabric that holds its shape.
So it will hold that structure for you.
So there's a few key points when looking at patterns,
look for how big the garment is against the model.
Can you see outlines of how big the garment is versus
the model?
Look for drape lines.
Do you have these sort of like squiggly lines and shadowing
through the garment that indicates drape that that is what it's
showing, have a look at your hemlines?
Are they wavy or are they dead straight?
If they're dead straight,
it probably indicates a more structured fabric if they are actually
wavy. So to say that is indicating again,
drape and flow to the fabric.
And so you should probably be looking for fabrics that are
more like that.
So that's really how you start looking at the pattern illustrations
and determining what you need.
Of course,
for the fabric.
I could keep talking forever about this obviously,
but I think that the main points,
and I think you get the idea of what you're looking
for in a woven now.
So what are we looking for when we're deciding on a
knit fabric?
Well, knits are mostly determined by weight and then by stretchiness
and drape,
so similar,
but not quite the same.
So knit fabrics are,
can constructed all of your yarns.
Where am I knit fabrics?
So knits are constructed by knitting all of those yarns together.
And so you'll probably most likely know because knits have a
natural stretch to them because they're not woven.
They're actually knitted and knotted together.
There's areas that are like looped around and it allows like
that stretch to the fabric and knits don't fray either.
So when you try and pull the edges,
they don't fray.
Now the amount of stretchiness depends a lot.
And we'll talk about that as we go through.
So as I said,
white and stretching the straight,
how you determine what kind of knit fabric to use for
your garment?
Well, let's start with weight.
As we've talked about,
the weight means how heavy the fabric is.
And usually then how thick that sort of means how thick
the fabric is,
of course as well.
And so this is most important when choosing a knit,
because it depends on what type of garment it is.
You can have a knit loose top or a knit dress,
for example,
and depending on how tight it is,
might depend on how thick you want the fabric when it
comes to knits and stretching over your body weight.
And therefore thickness is really determined by think about showing all
of the lumps and bumps and how clingy the fabric is
to you.
That is what we're really looking at here.
So if I was to stretch this knit here,
this is quite a lightweight,
I can see every little bump and lump underneath this one
here. And imagine if this was in leggings or something tight
like this,
you're going to see everything.
So it might not be the choice that you're looking for.
Whereas this one here,
this double knit is really thick.
It's twice double knit,
twice the thickness of the other one.
And when I stretch this over my hand here,
I can't see as many lumps or bumps at all.
It is much more structured.
It's sturdy,
it feels more supportive.
And so if I was going for something tight over my
body, I would probably want more like this.
And so weight is usually the first port of call in
deciding which knit to go for.
Once you've decided on the weight,
then you'll look at be stretchiness and or drape.
So, well,
let's start with dry because that's quite easy.
It goes in the same with what we've just talked about
with wovens.
So it is just how much how drapey it is.
And again,
generally the looser,
the Finch.
So you can still have a loose fit knit garment.
The looser is the more that you'll want that drape.
And so drape is determined by perhaps the fibres that are
included. For example,
with knits,
the addition of a Rayon a viscose modal or bamboo,
these types of fibers will really enhance the drape of your
fabric. I have one here.
This is a half Myrtle,
half cotton with some spandex.
This is just a hundred percent cotton with spandex.
Now, I don't know if you can see already the difference
in these,
but if you have a look at this,
this tiny little bowl,
so this is really quite drapey.
Whereas if I do the same with the a hundred percent
cotton, it just it's stiffer.
Look at this.
It just doesn't want to drape as much.
So if I had a top out of this,
it would again,
stay out and hold its shape.
Whereas this one is going to fall really nice and just
look really nice over my body.
And so drape comes into consideration and then we have the
stretch factor.
So this is again a whole other category on itself,
but you need to determine the amount of stretch and the
stretch percent is quite important.
So you have,
you know,
super stretch knit,
stretch knit,
stable knits.
That is a whole other thing.
So, but you need to be amount of like determine the
amount of stretch for the garment and the use.
So if it is indeed going to stretch and be tight,
fit around your body and stretch over your body,
you're going to need something super stretchy.
If you are looking for an easy,
so that may even still be with a zip or some
other opening or just looser,
you don't need as much stretch and there might be other
considerations to make.
So how stretchy it is determines both the construction of the
fabric. And if it has the addition of elastane fibres.
So elastane,
spandex, Lycra,
these fibres.
So I generally what I considered make it stretchy or not.
And so these two,
both here have elastane about 8% of elastane in them.
It makes them super stretchy.
They stretch in both directions,
right? That's what you call a four-way or a two direction.
And then the construction two directions.
And then this one look at this barely even stretches this
way and only stretches this way.
So this is what you call a one direction or sometimes
on the cost as a two way knit.
But again,
this is where I talk about the qualities are the most
important to look for,
because if you just say cotton Jersey,
how do you know how many ways this stretches and how
much it stretches?
It doesn't that doesn't determine anything.
So this is where you need to know what you're looking
at. So the amount of stretch will depend,
of course,
on the garment.
And most patterns will,
of course,
indicate a stretch guide for you to make it really easy
because they have worked out the pattern will have a certain
amount of stretch.
It needs to fit you properly.
So I hope that really helps determine the stretch amount.
As I did mention,
these are entire categories on themselves that you need to look
and dive into,
but this is a gloss over just a little bit.
So you can start understanding the things that you're actually looking
for in when you're looking like determining wovens.
As I said,
I determined by weight and drape or structure.
That's what we usually look at.
Those two points.
Mostly when deciding knits are mostly determined by weight and then
stretchiness and drape.
Other points that we're looking at,
the qualities that you're looking at to decide,
which is the best fabric for the right garment.
If this is really exciting for you,
and you want to know more,
as you can tell,
I could talk forever about this fabric nerd alert here.
I do invite you to come join me at Vintage Sewing
School, because I've just released an entire course about all of
this going really deep.
And there's checklists,
there's charts,
there's stretch guys.
There's all types of things to really help you along in
there. So I've left links down below for you to come
join me there.
And also there are links down below for other videos,
like a grain lines,
like pre-washing is a big question that come up before.
So other videos that I think you really enjoy about fabrics
as well.
So let me know my friends,
which of these do you going to use the most in
your sewing now moving forward,
or let us know?
How do you choose the best?
Give us your own tips for choosing the best fabric for
the right style.
Because sharing all about information here is how we all get
better at our sewing.
So until next time,
happy fabric shopping and happy sewing.
Bye.