The other day I talked with a friend who had just finished a dress. While she didn’t classify it as a wadder, she wasn’t satisfied with the way it turned out, and I understood her issue. She’s a really good sewist, and her work is generally impeccable. She was frustrated and concerned that she had constructed it wrong. But the problem, I gently pointed out to her, was not with her sewing, but with the fabric she chose to use for it. She used a fabric recommended on the pattern’s envelope, but it was a heavier, stiffer weave than was optimal, and it ended up looking less flattering than she would like.
But how was she to know that? The pattern envelope tells the fabric type to use, but it doesn’t specify ‘use a denim that is less than 5 oz.’ or ‘use a stretch woven with no more than 2% Lycra’. The Big Four pattern companies are never going to do that, I’ll put money on it. And the smaller indy companies are not likely to get that specific. While some sewing enthusiasts would find it helpful, many, especially newbies, might find that to be too much information and very confusing. StyleArc comes the closest. When you buy one of their patterns, they send you a small swatch of a fabric to use as a guide in your fabric purchasing for that pattern.
Believe me, I’ve had my share of fabric fails. Many of them were because I just didn’t know any better. When I was a teenager, I wanted to make a Vogue dress, designed by Jerry Silverman if I recall correctly. The pattern called for velvet or similar drapey fabrics. But me? I fell in love with an ice blue satin and made it up in that. What should have been a soft dress that gently skimmed my body was instead a stiff, costumey aberration that sat unloved and unworn in my closet until I finally consigned it to Goodwill. Then in college, when I was broke, my then-boyfriend (whom I found out was two-timing me) came into town to take me out to dinner. I decided to make a super sexy f*ck-you-and-the-horse-you-rode-in-on breakup dress to wear that night. Of course it had to be silk! Of course, I was a broke college student, so the only silk I could afford was habotai. But it was silk! In 20-20 hindsight, I probably looked like I was wearing a negligée. It did the trick, though, when I left him standing slack jawed at the bottom of the 700 Comm. Ave. escalator at the end of the evening, with a “thank you very much have a nice life” handshake and ran up the stairs. Nowadays I think back on both those dresses and cringe at my naiveté.
And those aren’t the only two! No, more recently I made a jacket that ended up looking like this:
Yeah…no
It was a great pattern, one that got tons of glowing reviews. The problem? My fabric. The pattern called for wovens and stretch wovens. This was a stretch woven. But it was a stretch woven with about 6% Lycra in it. It was really stretchy. It just would not behave. I was most of the way through when I realized the fabric was not going to work. It seemed like a good idea when I was planning the garment, but as I sewed it, the fabric showed its true, unpleasant nature. I cut my losses and threw it out.
So, how do you know when a fabric will work with a pattern? Well that’s the $64,000 question. Here’s the answer that most people are not going to want to hear. Experience. The fact is that, even after a millenium of sewing, I still sometimes make the wrong fabric choices. Not often, but occasionally. When I do, I file in my mind what didn’t work in the choice, and I move on to the next project. These days, I tend to buy fabrics without a set purpose or pattern in mind. I’ll buy enough to make a type of garment, and then I’ll match the pattern to the fabric. If you work better in the other direction, i.e. buying a pattern and then searching for the fabric, I advise letting your fingers do the talking. Get a swatch or feel the fabric in person before committing it to the project. And even then, don’t get upset if the fabric doesn’t work out. Chalk it up to experience and learn from it. I can tell you that I won’t use super stretchy fabrics for a jacket again, and I’ll bet my friend will learn from her experience, too. Wadders and fabric fails, while they sting, are great learning experiences.
To Dye or Not To Dye…
Debbie mentioned in my last post that she still thinks of me as a redhead. That’s so funny – I’ve been thinking a lot lately about whether I want to go back to dying my hair. After it grew back in, I’ve left it natural(read, “white”). I still have most of my redhead clothing, and thanks to the color of my eyes (green hazel) they still look good. I admit, I like the lower cost and maintenance of leaving it as is, but every once in a while I hear the siren call of Redken or Clairol. I also do kind of like the fact that I have a wider variety of colors that I can wear, and my makeup palate has shifted slightly. The downside of au naturel? I have to keep makeup on or I look washed out. In a way I wish I hadn’t donated all my wigs (except the pink, of course) back to the Breast Care Center. Ah well. Maybe I’ll see when Wigs.com is having their next big sale and indulge. Or maybe not. We’ll see.
Speaking of Pink Wigs…
It’s more than halfway through Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and if you are a woman over age 40, please, please PLEASE make sure you get a mammogram every year! And if you are a woman of any age, do a breast self-exam every month. They save lives. Do it for yourself; do it for your loved ones. Just do it.
And remember, Gorgeous Fabrics will donate 10% of all cut fabric sales during October (except muslin) to the Winchester Hospital Breast Care Center. So feel good while you look Gorgeous! Let’s make this a wildly successful effort, and know that your fabric purchases will help women who need it. Thank you so much and…
Happy sewing!
You are sooooo right about fabric being the final test on whether a garment will work or not. You’re also right when you say that the answer to the question is experience…and even experienced sewists have fabric mishaps! I have had several this year myself. It’s part of the process. Great post!
Great post indeed. I was just mentioning this to a blogger friend recently. I have the additional problem that is I buy my fabric mostly online, and thus depend heavily on the vendor’s explanation on what the fabric make up is. And of course different vendors do it differently… some are less informative… And then for a beginner like me who doesn’t understand fabric yet beyond that it is cotton, or silk, and so on, but have no clue re what crepe is like, or faille or taffeta and even rayon… i wonder if i can get hold of a fabric swatch encyclopedia
u know, like the strips of color cards for paints, but its for fabric, and instead of showing different color swatches, it listed and showing different types of fabric instead. so u can feel and see each type and have a clue. This would be the perfect accompaniment to the fabric savvy book i have…
Far, if you want an encyclopedic resource, with swatches to help you identify the fabric, I highly recommend Julie Parker’s All About Silk/All About Wool/All About Cotton books. They are fantastic references! You can buy them directly from her: Rain City Publishing. They are not cheap, but they are worth every single penny, IMO.
Oh wow!!! thank you very much for the info. Never thought such a book exists, let alone 3… Kinda pricey, but one at a time maybe….
THANKS!!
One thing you can do is to do a search on Google for the fabric you’re curious about. For instance, I was thinking about buying rayon faille recently, to make up a specific pattern. I know what rayon faille is like, but for this particular project, I wanted to get an idea of what it looked like in different types of garments – especially designs that were similar to my pattern. Also, the seller didn’t describe the fabric weight very well, so I wanted to see what a heavy faille would look like, versus a lighter, finer faille. So, I searched on Google Images and on Etsy. I used basic search terms (“rayon faille”), and others related to my project (e.g. “rayon faille coat/dress/blouse/etc.”) and was able to find enough pictures to let me make a decision. Which, of course, was to buy the fabric.
It isn’t a foolproof method, especially when comparing vintage fabrics/clothes to modern (vintage fabrics can be finer), but I’ve found it helpful. Caveat: avoid most things bridal, especially the international custom-made gown sites; they seem to be notorious for mislabeling fabrics. Also approach Etsy and Ebay listings with caution, unless the seller seems to really know their stuff. On the plus side, listings will often have the best close-up fabric shots.
Good luck!
I’m much more knowledgeable about fabrics now than I used to be, but I remember that this was one of my biggest frustrations when I started sewing.
I’m working on a dress now from a knit. As soon as I started sewing, I realized it was going to be way to thick for what the pattern calls for. You’re right. We don’t always get all the information. And muslining can be hard too because the muslin may not be the same feel as the fashion fabric.
As for your hair. I love it both ways! If you remember, I even asked you what color it was so I could ask my stylist
You know, Far, what you can do in your situation, where you can only order fabric online but don’t have a very good feel for different types of fabric, would be to buy the fabric first, see what it’s like, then find a pattern that suits it well. If you wanted, you could make a plan for yourself, like a checklist of different types of fabrics you want to try making projects in.
That’s true… I seem to buy fabric because I like the look of it (online).. and then hold and touch it a longggg time, before a pattern or a project present itself for that particular fabric… Rather than pattern and then fabric. But still have some misses, but as been said: with experience, hopefully… less “mistakes”
Oh, and the idea to make a checklist of different types of fabric to make projects in is ingenious! I will keep this in mind as i learn
Great post. I have taken up sewing again after many decades away, other than the occasional hemming of family items and one (almost disastrous) attempt a few years ago to make a brocade jacket to wear at my daughter’s wedding (still snagging and unraveling two years later). Since decent fabric stores are not found locally, I have just purchased fabric online for the first time and GF was where I placed my order–two different knits that were just right for an older V pattern I had in mind. And while I really do miss the pleasure of walking down a store aisle and letting the fabric glide over my hand to judge weight/drape/texture, I do appreciate the fabric details you provide on GF, along with the pattern ideas. That information helps give me an idea of of whether the drape/hand of a fabric will work with my pattern choices.
Just last week, when I was watching one of your videos, I thought about how much I like your hair “au naturel” and wondered if you were enjoying it, too. So I had to comment when you mentioned coloring it again. I do think it’s a very becoming silver-grey; you still look very young, so the color is elegant and not aging, and the haircut is youthful, too. I know what you mean about always needing make-up, though. My hair has been white since my middle 40′s, and I find brighter lipstick and more colorful clothes are essential, or I feel rather sick-looking. Hair color is a very personal choice, of course, but yours is very pretty the way it is.
Don’t dye! You look gorgeous! I also stopped dying a few years ago, and yes, I do need to wear makeup more often, but no more tacky roots showing.
I learned an important fabric lesson last week, too. I left for a conference last Saturday. I stayed home part of the day Friday to make a quick pair of denim and linen pants. I had made the pattern before, so I didn’t add the recommended extra inch to the side seams when I cut them out. The fabric had NO stretch. The pants were barely wide enough for my hips. I sewed and zig zagged the 1/4″ seams over and over again. Still, as I sat down in my first educational session, I heard a rip. about 3 inches of one side seam was gone. After the session, I casually carried my free tote bag against my hip and hurried to my room to change.
So true about fabric and knowing what works for patterns! I have just binned a jacket for much the same reason – bad match of fabric and pattern. I find it hard to know how some of the modern fabrics will sew up and have begun to build up a library of fabric samples and how they handle seams and finishing looks. This has been helpful.
As for hair colour both looks are great on you – I have a friend who went streaky grey at 30, she was extremely self concious about it then but her hair stylist gave her some great advice. Hold that head up high and own that look – everybody will think you got it out of a die pot!! And he was right, to this day she has always looked stylish and sensational just like you.
I love your hair white – I think you should go all white (like Carmen Dell’Orefice) and dye the tips black framing your face. That would look really cool
This is a wonderful post. So true about experience. My first real clothing pattern experience was a Vogue Designer pattern which as a teenager seemed like the coolest thing to try ever and I never worried about obstacles. But I completely ignored the fabric suggestions and the results were hilarious. I’m a big fan of swatches now. When I was first learning about silks, for example, I collected swatches of every type of weave I’d read about just so I could have a reference.
This is an excellent post and the point about experience is most valid. One thing that really helps — particularly in this age of Internet fabric shopping — is the details provided by the retailer. Gorgeous Fabrics does a great job of noting the various components of its fabric selections and Ann’s suggested pattern uses for the fabrics are another excellent guidepost on the road to a final decision.
I wish more fabric merchants would do the same thing. Some merchandisers, for example, call a fabric “medium-weight,” which is a pretty subjective term. (One person’s “medium” could easily be another’s “sheer.”) I would much rather have the percentages of components in a fabric provided — far more helpful in decisioin making.