Basic Guidelines For Beginners in Selecting Fabric For Their Sewing Project

For the new aspirants who would like to start the sewing project, it will be an exciting experience when they visit the fabric store for the first time for selecting fabrics for their project. They will be confronted with bewildering varieties of colors, patterns, designs and drapes of the fabrics in the market. When the alternatives are many, it becomes a challenge to select the appropriate fabric, especially for the beginners. More and more fabrics with new colors and designs frequently flood the market. It will therefore be helpful if they do some home work and go prepared for shopping. Enjoy your time at the fabric store and look for new fabrics.

Fabric Choices

Among the various fabrics, 100 percent cotton fabric can be used by the beginners to start of the project. This is one of the simplest fabrics to work with because it can be easily managed while stitching, as it sticks to itself without sliding. In case of other fabric like silk, satin or sheers it is difficult to manage as it slips and slides while stitching. Alternatively, cotton blends can be used instead of cotton, as fibers of the cotton blends behaves in the same manner as pure cotton.

Following are the various kinds of fabrics which can be considered for sewing project:

Types of Fabrics

Cotton Fabrics:-

This is readily available with any fabric store in your locality or city. They are available in exciting heavy prints and solids and are very economical. When you visit the fabric store you would come across a section of the store called “Quilter’s end” or “Quilter’s space”. Since Quilters use 100% cotton, it can be found in this section of the store. These stores will have different slots allotted for different colors of fabrics. The variety of prints and solids are huge.

Woven Fabrics:-

Woven Fabrics are next best choice for the beginners to experiment with, for their sewing projects. It is imperative that before working on knits and stretchy fabrics one should have spent enough time practicing with the sewing machine and should be at ease with stitching. With practice your awareness and skill improves and you get a firm understanding of how the sewing machine feeds the fabrics. Any attempt to work with knits without sufficient experience and knowledge would often lead to uneven and wrinkled seam.

There are few more fabrics which can be used to experiment. Polar Fleece is a great fabric which is available in huge variety of prints and solids. The unique feature of this fabric is that they do not fray, so seam finishes are not really required. New prints of Polar Fleece are introduced each year.

Once you hone up your skills in stitching and developed confidence, you can start testing with advanced fabrics like satin, sheers, Lycra which are slippery and super stretchy fabrics. If you are eager to work with these types of fabric, try and get leftover or remnant fabrics from your nearby fabric store. You may get these at bargain price. Practice seams and other techniques with the fabric before you invest in full yardage.

Vital Tips for the Beginners:-

Beginners can start the project with stitching cloths for dolls. This will give them immense experience and expose them to various techniques using remnant fabrics. To practice regular clothing construction, it is best to choose full-size doll clothes, patterns with darts, gathers and closures.