[Maggie]

Do you sew the shirts and dresses mostly with quilting cotton? As a quilter, I have a stash of it and am comfortable with it. Since I am new to clothes, I’m still learning about other fabrics.

What do you use? What do you like?

I just bought a remnant of green velveteen to expand my range.

[Maggie]

Oh dear. I’ve posted this in the wrong forum. If anyone can move it, please feel free.

[mle bb]

Maggie, I come to sewing clothing from quilting and I use mainly quilting cotton for sewing kids clothes. I just recently sewed a skort with silk dupioni and loved it! Whatcha planning to sew?

[Jane]

For tops, dresses and some skirts I mostly use quilting cottons. There are so many more cute prints available in quilting cottons.

For pants, skirts, jackets, jumpers I like to use twill or corduroy, or something with a little more weight to it.

I just sewed with wool for the first time and loved it. I also just used crepe backed satin for a dress and it wasn’t too bad to work with.

I’m pretty open to trying any type of fabric. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

Jane

http://www.NotSewPlain.blogspot.com

[Maggie]

I’ve made a couple hopscotch dresses. They are cute, but my sewing with knits is not great. I watched a Craftsy class, so I’m going to try those tips.

I have a bunch of new patterns like the ice cream dress and after school pattern. I have made pjs in flannel and a couple lazy days skirts in quilting cotton.

I’m still learning about lawn, shirting and the like. Quilting cotton is so easy to find and there are so many great patterns, but I wondered if that is what I’m seeing in the Flickr group.

[KellyNYC]

I very rarely sew with quilting cotton. I find it a bit too stiff or thick for my liking and just don’t love the way it drapes. Except the City Weekend line …not sure if that is characterized as quilting weight but it has a very soft hand and beautiful drape. My preferred fabric is lawn or voile for shirts, or thinner cottons like shirting weight . For dresses I love corduroy in the colder weather, and sometimes even use Japanese cotton /linen blends.

The Ice Cream dress would, I think, lend itself nicely to quilting weight since its a more boxy fit anyway.

As for knits… I’m scared of them and haven’t tried yet. Hopefully soon! Does anyone have any links to high quality knit sources?

[Tamara]

I use quilting cottons a lot for my children’s clothes, mainly sketchbook shirts, skirts and tops aswell as dresses. I also use sateen, broadcloth and voile as well as some eyelet and I have used silk dauphinois which is exceptional to sew with

Velveteen, corduroy, denim, drill are mostly used for trousers and skirts but I have used them for dresses also.

For t shirts I use knit fabrics, mainly cotton knit for the children – one in particular is called Stella and I have only seen it in Australia. I have also used knits for leggings and some dresses and pants.

For pyjamas I tend to use quilting cottons for summer and flannel for winter and these can be counted as a quilting fabric.

The patterns generally tell you what you can use for that particular pattern but there is a book by Claire Schaeffer that describes the different fabrics and what they can be used for – Claire Schaeffer’s Fabric sewing guide. It is an inexpensive book that will help you find out about the fabrics you can use other than quilting cottons.

Hope this helps

Tamara

[Nicole]

I think quilting fabric is an excellent choice for learning to sew clothes.

As a quilter you would already have a good eye for what looks good together. Just remember,busy top,subdued bottom or vice versa can look a bit more wearable then busy all over.

Than again,most cuties can get away with anything!

I find quilting cottons wash just fine if you hang them in shade to dry.

Once you are confident with those you can move on to different types of cloth that may be a little more challenging to sew.

Personally,I sew all sorts but I have a love for natural fibres.

~Nicole~

[sayiamyou]

I use quilting weights among others and think they work just fine. There are differences in the weights and feels by the different designers, but you can certainly find soft quilting weights for clothes. The City Weekend line might be one of my favorites but it’s hard to find. Liesl’s other lines are soft as well.

[rastis]

i think liesl designed a lot of the O + S patterns to be suitable for use with quilting cottons? i’m sure i read that somewhere… perhaps liesl can confirm?

i definitely do make some things in quilting cottons (although not all quilting cottons are the same!!) mainly for children who look OK in whatever you put them in!! but for adults prefer the weights/drape of fabrics designed for making clothes with- for tops in particular i love lawns/voiles/some poplins… they are soft to wear and the drape makes them more flattering!

[Tamara]

Lawn! I forgot about lawn! And rayon is good also because of the drape – but better for older people like us!

[Mama_Knowles]

I use the quiltng cotton for my kids play clothes, it hold up very well to wear and washing. With three ondler boys and a toddler that is a must. The new Sarah Jane fabric line, Out to sea, fabric is wonderful to sew with. It’s super soft and lovely almost silky feeling. I love the way ti drapes too. I plan on useing some of this line for the kids summer clothes this next year.

[Sarvi]

I started off with quilting cottons for the reasons mentioned above — easy to sew, lots of options, readily available, relatively inexpensive or can be found on sale. But as I got more into it I started noticing what people mention, the difference between different fabrics all called ‘quilting cotton’. The shot cottons from Kaffe Fassett (sp?) are all very soft, though the Ecru color pills quite a bit; City Weekend is silky, Cloud 9 has two lines and their economy line is stiffish like regular quilting cotton while their nicer line feels more like nice sheets to me. The other consideration for me is that quilting cottons are generally narrower, around 44″ where the shirting I buy is 55″ or 60″. That’s quite a bit more, and I find it makes up for the cost. I like sewing with it better, and I find that the fact that it doesn’t come in cute prints actually is an asset. Have you tried to put a kid’s outfit together when every single bit from the shoes and socks on up has characters or loud colors or frills? It can add up to a lot of look really quickly. There’s something to be said for a beautiful plain white blouse in lovely material. It’ll look nice with any print you put next to it.

[Maggie]

True that pattern on pattern can get to be too much, that is what my 5 year old loves! She will have floral, stripes and dots in the same outfit. I find that a strong print with a solid is frequently a good pairing.

I could make sophisticated clothes, but they would never be worn or only with neon leggings.

Thanks for all the advice.

[with love Heidi]

Use what’s in you stash, especially if your starting. I’ve used some quilting cotton and it seems to be fine. I probably don’t use as much as I might otherwise as it’s not what’s in my stash and it’s easier to get dressmaking fabric and mum taught us not to sew garments with it! But it works and sews up fine.