Fabric 101: episode 1

Hello Fabric Friends!

Here is your first fabric mini lesson! This will help you when ordering fabric online! Wether you are a beginner or advanced sewist/seamstress/crafter/maker/textile collector...

First thing to know! The biggest fabric groups:

1. Wovens   2. Knits   3. Non-wovens

1. Wovens: A woven fabric is a fabric that is made by weaving one fiber with another in a criss-cross pattern. Woven fabrics are typically not stretchy, but if spandex was added to the fabric it will have a certain amount of stretch. (Think extra stretchy denim jeans, they have added spandex to the cotton fabric!) Examples of wovens are: quilting cotton, shirting, challis, chiffon, georgette, the list goes on! Woven fabrics are mostly sewn with a straight stitch machine.

2. Knits: Knits are stretchy fabrics that are made by looping together long lengths of a single yarn. Think t-shirts, leggings, baby onesies, socks, there are many examples! Not all knits are created equal, some are stretchier than others and they have different percentages of stretch, but we will get into that in the next blog post! Knit fabrics are sewn with an Overlock machine, or Serger, you can however sew knits on a straight stitch machine but it needs to have the zig zag stitch setting. 

3. Non-woven: It’s not a knit, it’s not a woven, so what is it? A non-woven is made up of fibres that have been either felted or bonded together either through adhesive, heat or a chemical process. Some examples are Felt, certain interfacings, medical fabric, certain mesh, etc.