[theknittinganxiety]

Hi,

This may seem a stupid question but I started sewing this spring and where I live I dont have a local shop for fabric. I will buy fabric on-line for the 1st time but on-line I cannot feel the fabric so what I want to know is what is best for sewing a top and a dress (after school top and apple picking dress) , flannel or fleece?

What is the best fabric to work with? I really dont know what fleece is, I thought that fleece were flannel, now I’m afraid to buy flannel and the pieces seem like a pijama, I dont want that to happend.

[Jennifer1568]

Fleece is the more heavily piled stuff that is used in outerwear. I have fleece vests and jackets that we wear in cool but not cold weather. It is sort of soft and fuzzy. It is synthetic. Flannel is woven and it is like brushed cotton- like a flannel shirt and PJ’s are made of flannel. You can do a Google search and Wikipedia will describe them. I would not make a dress from fleece. Flannel is a fabric that I use for winter.

[theknittinganxiety]

Thank you very much Jennifer, that helped me a lot. What I want is flannel for sure.

Rita

[Tamara]

Hi Rita,

Do you live near clothing stores at all? A good way to find out about fabrics is to go shopping – literally – but you can window shop. Just walk around and get a good feel for what fabrics are used for jackets and vests and tshirts etc. This will help you associate the fabric with the garments you want to make.

Claire Schaeffer has a fabulous book about fabrics. If you look up her name on Amazon you will find the book and a preview of what is in it. This will also help you get to know the fabrics and what they can be used for. Something that is really important for someone new to sewing.

Hope this helps

Tamara

[theknittinganxiety]

Tamara,

I feel like I live in the end of the world. I live in a small village in Portugal, we have a local store (a very small one) but dont have fabric, have threads, buttons, ric rac, other things that we use but not fabric. I use to buy fabric on a market that only happend on the 1st wednesday of every month except for October and November. This month I wanted to buy fabric for fall and winter but I did not found nothing.

I bought a sewing book that explains fabric, but it is hard to understand it without feeling it.

It is hard to belive but that is true. I think that the Portuguese people just get used to buy everything made, as people did not buy fabric the shops started to close.

My baby is the only baby in her kindergarden that has home made clothes, and I am very proud of that.

Rita

[bren5kids]

Rita, you do not have to live in a small town in Portugal to not have any local fabric shop 🙂 I used to live in a medium sized town in eastern Oregon that had no fabric shop. So I know how unhandy that is.

Sewing for ourselves and children is so rewarding, isn’t it? Even if we have to go to great lengths to obtain our fabric!

Brenda

[Tamara]

Rita I completely understand what you mean by having the need to see it and feel it and it is unfortunate that you don’t live close to somewhere where you could go and educate yourself in what different fabrics feel like. I live on the edge of the desert (well it seems like it sometimes) and have to travel to get to my local fabric shop. Books about fabric are helpful but they are especially helpful when you are able to see the fabric also.

Fabric.com is a good place online to order fabric as it describes what it can be used for. The quality is very good as I have found that alot of apparel fabrics have been replaced with quilting cottons. This is really good to start off with when making things for your little one but I do see that you want things for warmth also. This place has apparel fabrics like corduroy and wool and lots of other things that will help you to tell the difference AND they can send swatches so you don’t have to commit to buying a heap of fabric and be disappointed when it turns up because it wasn’t what was expected.

I encourage you to give them a try in order to help you find good quality affordable fabrics to keep you sewing nice clothes.

We all like to shop local but when there is nothing local then we have the choice to reach further a field. All I can say is I hope the exchange rate is reasonable too as this place is in the U.S – I’m in Australia and at the moment am enjoying a great currency exchange rate. They are great though so I encourage you to give them a try.

Tamara

[with love Heidi]

If you do order form somewhere like fabric.com, maybe you could order some swatches of the types of material (fabric) you are unsure about? A swatch is a small square of fabric about 10cmx10cm (depends on the place), then you could build up and library to refer to.

[Tamara]

Thanks for expanding – early mornings and explanations don’t mix and I have forgotten that some people may not understand what a swatch is.

We are here to help Rita.

Tamara

[with love Heidi]

Tamara, it was me that didn’t read carefully! I only realised you mentioned swatches now, when I went back and reread your comment. 🙂

[theknittinganxiety]

I’m going to purchase fabric on-line for the 1st time, and it is from fabric.com. I already did my math and what I’m going to pay for freight will be less than if I would go to Lisbon to a fabric store, and the price per yard is much less than any shop that I can find in Portugal.

Oh, I can not wait to do the apple picking dress and a after school top in flannel to my baby! I think it will be very confortable.

Thank you for you to suggest me to order swatches, it is really a great idea, I will do that for sure.

Rita