Category Archives: Apparel Fabric

All things Apparel Fabric

Using Fabric for Wallpaper—Part I

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When choosing wall coverings for your home, remember that décor fabric can make excellent wall covering.

Paint, wallpaper and paneling are traditional ways to decorate interior walls, but you don’t have to be limited by these options. Fabric can also be used as wallpaper.

Using fabric for wallpaper is a stylish and simple way to coordinate your room décor. The same fabric can be used for curtains, pillows, comforters, and your walls.  Your design and color choices are virtually endless when you use fabric in this way.  Nearly any type of décor fabric, except sheer fabrics, can be used as wall covering.

Non-traditional upholstery fabrics, such as this Vintage Blue upholstery denim. can be used for wall coverings.

Fabric can be attached with starch to most painted walls without hurting the paint and removed when you desire. Apply the starch to the wall with a paint roller. Hang the fabric and smooth it out with a tool designed for smoothing wallpaper. Overlap the pieces of fabric about a half inch and hold the fabric in place with thumbtacks at the top and bottom until the starch dries.

Charming children’s prints such as this Covington Over the Moon fabric can make lovely wall coverings for the nursery.

You can also use adhesive molding at both the top and bottom of the fabric. Molding comes in many decorative styles. If you want to use heavier fabric for your walls, molding is an excellent addition because it will help hold the material in place.

In a painted room, consider an accent wall or a fabric border for a special touch.

Learn to Sew with a Friend

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Do want to teach yourself to sew but are having a hard time getting motivated to start?  Learning to sew along with a friend can you help you take the leap and also keep you both motivated.

The idea is to be each other’s cheerleader when the going seems rough. So, you can choose similar projects or completely different ones.

Simplicity pattern company has many great Learn-to-Sew patterns now available. These patterns give step-by-step instructions so even the most novice sewer will feel right at home with them.

Before beginning your project, make sure you have the basic notions on hand.
Absolute musts are thread, sewing needles (hand and machine), a good pair of scissors, straight pins, and a measuring tape.

All commercial sewing patterns specify what fabrics are suitable for the project. Patterns designed for beginner sewers use easy-to-sew fabrics.

A fabric is easy to sew when it cuts easily, does not ravel excessively, and is easy to guide through the machine without being jammed down into the sewing machine feed dogs. Woven cotton fabrics are the easiest fabrics to start with, and I always recommend them to beginners. Cotton fabrics recommended for quilting are perfect for many craft projects and garments; these attractive fabrics can be made into dresses, skirts, and shirts for all ages, as well as tote bags and other accessories. All-purpose thread and a size 14 sewing machine needle work well for cotton and cotton blend quilting weight fabrics.

Gingham and Amy Butler prints are perfect for beginning sewers.

Because most fabric shrinks and even fades a little when it is first washed, make sure to pre-shrink/pre-wash your material according to the manufacturer’s recommended care instructions before you begin cutting.  This step is especially important for garments and other items that will be frequently washed after being made. Making a garment without pre-shrinking can lead to a big disappointment the first time it’s washed if it shrinks and no longer fits.  That’s no way to encourage a new sewist!  Cotton fabrics should also be ironed after being pre-washed and dried.

After you and your friend have successfully completed a first project, share your ideas, what you learned, and what you would differently next time.  Then, pick the next project and carry on.  Tell us a story about your first sewing project in the comments below or post a photo on our Facebook page. We’d love to support you – and your friend!

Best Fabrics for Baby Clothes

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Loving sisters dressed for a special occasion.

A wide variety of fabrics are suitable for infant and children’s clothes.  Safety and comfort should always be top priority when choosing material  for children’s garments. Ease of care is another consideration.

Satin, taffeta, and tulle can be used to make special occasion children’s clothes, but are not practical for everyday clothes for children. These fabrics require special care, and they are not as comfortable as cotton-based fabrics; they are also more prone to ignite if near an open flame.

For everyday children’s wear, stick with safer, easy-to-care for cottons and polyesters.

Soft, fine wale corduroy is excellent for durable rompers and overalls for toddlers. Corduroy comes in 100% cotton and in cotton/polyester blends.

High quality broadcloth is a great basic fabric for all sorts of children’s garments; it is very easy to sew and is available in both 100% cotton and in cotton/ polyester blends. This classic fabric comes in numerous cheerful colors.  Gingham and seersucker are also perfect for the young set.

Robert Kaufman fabrics. Gingham, broadcloth, and seersucker are perfect for kids' clothes.

Versatile terry cloth makes soft robes and rompers for babies and children.

Cotton prints make charming dresses and are easy to sew. Cotton eyelet and batiste are great for summer dresses and for christening gowns.

Cozy polyester fleece is ideal for warm garments and soft accessories such as blankets, caps, mittens, and bibs.  Fleece is very easy to sew.  It does not ravel, and it is so easy to cut.  Advanced beginning sewers can easily work with this unique polyester fabric.  You don’t even have to sew to make charming throws and baby blankets out of fleece.  No-sew fleece throws are simple to make.  Project Linus, a charity sewing organization, offers a free no-sew fleece throw pattern.

There are thousands of fleece prints to chose from.

Uses of Terry Cloth

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Terry cloth is a cotton fabric with absorbent loops over the entire fabric surface. It has traditionally been used for towels, but it has many other uses as well.

Ah! there's nothing like wrapping up in a cozy robe and taking a nap after your bath.

This versatile cloth can be used to make bathrobes and swimsuit cover-ups. It is ideal for a comfy hooded towel-robe to wrap baby up after a bath. It makes great baby bibs and nice baby rompers as well. Terry velour is a luxurious fabric that makes lovely robes.

Terry cloth items can be embellished with appliqués and trims for a unique look. Embroidered ribbon is an excellent trim for bath towels. If you have access to an embroidery machine it is easy to make your own appliqués. Terry cloth bath mitts are a simple project and make a fun gift for a child or adult.

Of course, terry cloth is very versatile in the kitchen as well. Use it for dishcloths and towels, as well as for clean up rags and bar towels; using cloth instead of paper is economical and environmentally friendly.

You can even use terry cloth to make a cover for the many types of mops which are available with disposable heads Fold the cloth around the mop and tack in place by taking a few hand stitches at the corners; you can also make a mop cover that fastens with Velcro. After use, toss the cover in the washer and you’ll have a clean mop for the next clean up.

Book Review – The Colette Sewing Handbook: Inspired Styles and Classic Techniques for the New Seamstress

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If you are new to sewing and you want to learn how to sew stylish, well-fitting garments The Colette Sewing Handbook: Inspired Styles and Classic Techniques for the New Seamstress is an ideal place to start. Written by Sari Mitnick, designer and founder of Colette Patterns, this book launches you immediately into the world of fashion sewing with styles that are simple and classic.

While many beginning sewing books start you off with quick projects, this book is strikingly different. First, Mitnick concentrates on organization, detailing all the tools you will need to get started sewing. Next, she speaks of planning your project, and from there she guides the reader into the details of getting a perfect fit.

Chapter three explains the details of preparing your fabric and laying out your pattern. It includes skirt pattern.

Chapter four includes detailed instructions on making a fitting muslin. Learning how to correctly make and fit a muslin to your unique proportions is the key to sewing patterms of any size or figure. This chapter includes a stylish dress pattern and there are two more dress patterns and a blouse pattern included in the book.

Mitnick doesn’t stop with a lesson on fitting. She explains the fine details of choosing the perfect fabric for your project and then goes on to explain the intricacies of seam finishing.

Irish linen would be great for some of the fitted styles in this book. This lovely linen is available in twelve fashionable colors, including these two, which go nicely with Pantone’s spring fashion recommendations.

Irish Linen Avocado
Irish Linen Cinnamon

Fabric Wall Decor is Cool

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An assortment of Amy Butler fabrics.

Speaking of vintage, fabric wall décor periodically makes a comeback. These attractive Peace and Love Amy Butler wall hangings look like they stepped out of the 1960s, yet they are fresh, and oh so cool!

They are easy to make using this free PDF pattern from Amy Butler. What a great way to use beautiful Amy Butler prints.

These bold signs are made by making a frame of wooden stretcher strips and stretching fabric across  them. Because Amy Butler prints are lightweight woven cotton, they are too sheer to be used by themselves, so cotton canvas or duck is first attached across the stretcher frame strips to create the base of these wall hangings.  The patterns for each letter are printed out on sheets of computer paper; twenty sheets of paper are needed.

You will also need scissors, glue, all purpose thread, a craft knife, and a ruler.  Also, gather together a hammer and staple gun to assemble the frame and attach the fabric to the wood.  Ordinary household tools or crafts tools will do this job, but upholstery tools would be even better.

To assure a successful, pleasurable project, be sure to thoroughly read the PDF instructions before beginning.  Amy Butler and her team of creative designers have taken great pains to make sure that the pattern is accurate and easy to complete.  No previous experience is really needed.

This is such a fascinating project, you may wind up making other designs.  Fabric wall decor is popular and inexpensive.

Book Review–Sew Retro: A Stylish History of the Sewing Revolution

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If you love vintage sewing, Judi Ketteler’s Sew Retro:25 Vintage-Inspired Projects for the Modern Girl & A Stylish History of the Sewing Revolution is for you.

The book traces the history of sewing from the 1800s to today and features twenty-five vintage projects you are sure to love. The projects are all small and do-able for most, even beginning sewers. Included are a Victorian shawl and sewing basket, a flapper apron, cozy patchwork items inspired by the 1930s and 1940s, a 1950s inspired hostess apron, and a 1960s inspired not-so-mini mini skirt.

Classic Seersucker

When re-creating vintage looks you can choose classic fabrics such as seersucker, cotton lawn, poplin, batiste, and broadcloth. These classics now come in an amazing array of colors that seamstresses of past generations could only dream of.  The classic fabrics are easier to care for than ever, and they look fresh and stylish no matter which style you choose.

Scrumptious lawn makes lovely vintage fashions.

If you are re-creating fashions from the 1960s, you can choose modern knits or cotton classics. Cotton gauze is perfect for airy summer garments and gives 1960s looks a contemporary flare.  When working with gauze, use a #11 machine needle. Changing to a straight stitch needle plate is helpful, since this delicate cotton fabric can jam in the feed dogs if the needle hole in the machine plate is large.  If you don’t have a straight stitch plate, place tape over the front and back of the needle hole in the machine bed to make it smaller.

Cotton gauze makes cool vintage fashions.

 

Sewing with Vintage Patterns

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A vintage style from the 1960s

Collecting and using vintage sewing patterns has become very popular in recent years. Imagine wearing 1950s full feminine skirts or 1960s tailored looks. If you are yearning to make classic styles from designers such as Chanel, Lanvin, and more, checkout vintage patterns.

Many vintage patterns are available in like-new condition. They are an interesting adventure for the experienced sewer, since the instructions call for older fashioned sewing techniques. Sewers with experience can replace these methods with more modern, quicker methods suited for today’s busy lifestyle. However, many lovers of vintage patterns also love the vintage sewing techniques.

Many modern fabrics are excellent for vintage patterns.

Some vintage sewing techniques, such as self-facings, give garments a very professional look.  Couture techniques such as french seams and pinked edge finishes are also popular vintage techniques.  These techniques take time to learn and take more time to use than modern, stream-lined sewing methods, but they are an exciting challenge.

Using self-facings is often necessary for modern special occasion styles, especially those that use delicate fabrics.  Thin fabrics must be faced with thin material in order to maintain their light, airy look.  Because it is slightly crisp, standard organza is an excellent fabric for self-facings and you will encounter it frequently in vintage sewing.

Polyester Chiffon. Self-facing is ideal for sheer fabric such as chiffon.

Using self-facing is not one of the more difficult techniques to learn.  It simply takes more patience than using modern fusible interfacing.  Self-facings must be sewn in by hand, using a slip stitch, rather than being fused in with a quick pressing. Many people shy away from hand-sewing, but learning basics like the slip-stitch will make you a more accomplished sewer.  You will be surprised at how quickly hand sewing can go once you get the hang of it.   Whether you sew vintage or contemporary styles, hand sewing is always useful.

Learn to Sew–Making Pleats

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Knife pleats on a bridesmaid's dress.

Does making pleats strike you as difficult or time-consuming? While it does take a little extra time to add pleats to a garment, pleats are actually easy to make.

The key to perfect pleats is precise marking and folding. Ready-made garment patterns that feature pleats have the pleats marked on the pattern, which can be carefully transferred to your fabric.

There are a variety of ways of marking fabric;  tailor’s chalk and marking pencils are excellent. My favorite method is tracing paper.

I like to slip a piece of tracing paper under the pattern after I cut it, but while it is still pinned in place to the fabric. Then I use my tracing wheel and a ruler to carefully mark the pleats. When marking two pieces or sides of fabric in this way, you can slide another piece of tracing paper under the two layers of fabric, making sure that the inked side is facing the fabric. This way you can make all the markings at the same time. You can also use basting or bar tacks to make your pleat markings.

tracing paperOnce you have the fabric marked, carefully fold it on the designated lines and baste in place if the instructions tell you to do so. Pressed pleats fall in crisp lines and in most cases should be pressed before being sewn; the pattern will give you further details on when and how to press. Unpressed pleats are designed to fall in soft flowing lines; they should not be pressed, except perhaps where they are attached to the waistband or bodice.  Again, your ready-made pattern should give you further instructions about this.

Do you have a favorite way of marking pleats? Please share it with our readers.

 

 

Things to Make Life Easier for Sewers

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Gingher Knife Edge Dressmaker Shears

People who sew deserve high quality tools.  Quality notions can help you sew more effectively and make the experience more enjoyable.

Dritz Threader and Magnifier is a great help when threading either hand sewing needles or machine sewing needles. A standard threader and a small magnifying glass will help you thread any needle more easily.

Spare your eyes.

Dritz Seam Ripper and Threader is a convenient combination.   Like it or not there are times when we simply must rip out a seam; it is handy to also have a threader with the ripper.

Dritz Fray Check Liquid Seam Sealant is perfect for fabrics that ravel easily.  Simply apply a drop or two to prevent the edge of fabric from raveling.

Stitch Witchery Fusible Bonding Web comes in three different weights and is ideal when you need to fuse something together instead of sewing it. It is also excellent for fuse basting   before sewing.

Quality scissors are a must for ease of cutting. If you do a lot of sewing a more expensive pair of sewing shears can be well worth the investment.  Save your best pair of shears for cutting out the fabric and trimming it. Use a less expensive pair for cutting thread and other small tasks.  Pinking shears are another must have if you do a lot of garment sewing.  Pinking the edge of seam allowances is a classic, professional looking edge-finish that prevents raveling and is easy to do.