Tier Ranking Fabrics by Difficulty Level

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Tier Ranking Fabrics by Difficulty Level

Bernadette Banner 18.04.2026 195 730 просмотров 14 822 лайков

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Мастерство выбора и обработки тканей: как подбирать материалы под уровень сложности проекта

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Introduction

I imagine there are a lot of you out there who either sew or would like to start sewing. And half the battle of sewing really is picking your fabric. So, I thought it would be a really great idea to take us on a journey through the most common types of fabric and analyze a bit about their weave, fiber content, a bit about their structure, their body, their drapability, and how easy they are to work with. So, hopefully by the end of this video, you will be able to understand not only what all the different types of fabrics are, but also how they behave, what they're good for, and by placing yourself on the scale of sewing knowledge, you will hopefully be able to better understand which fabrics might be a good choice for you to work with, and which ones might end up fighting you a little bit more than is probably good for you. Look, if you're a complete beginner and you want to try a challenge, at least you'll know it's a challenge going into it. I'm going roughly based on fiber types, so starting with cottons into silks into wools into nets, but there will be a number of items that could be made of a variety of different fiber types. We're

plain weave cotton

going to start off with the first fabric on our list, plain weave cotton. This is going to be your typical cotton print, your quilting cotton, cotton muslin or calico, any cotton fabric that is a one-to-one weave. So, a one-to-one weave is talking about one weft thread, which are the horizontal threads, goes over and under, over and under one warp thread at a time. So, just like a basket, over one, under one, over one, under one. And that's how you end up with a beautiful one-to-one, very simple, very plain weave. And this can be done with any type of fiber pretty much, but with a cotton, cotton is a very sort of sticky fiber, which means it's going to be very stable. There's going to be nothing to sort of throw you a curveball. You have your pretty typical no stretch on the warp, weft, and a little bit of give on the bias. That's just because these threads, when they are weaving like that, if you pull them sideways, they do kind of shift. So, you will get a little bit of stretch on the bias, but you can work with that. It's a pretty standard medium weight, so it's going to be opaque. It's going to be super well-behaved, super easy to work with. So, plain weave cotton is going to go very solidly in very friendly for beginners. So, the next fabric that we have is a

cotton twill

cotton twill, and within this category you might find cotton canvas, cotton duck, cotton drill. These are very hard-wearing, sturdy, durable fabrics that are going to hold up really well. So, twill refers to the sort of weave. So, again, you can get twill in any sort of fiber type, but we're talking about specifically cotton twills. But, the nature of a twill is that instead of going over one, under one, it goes over around three to four strands of the warp instead of over one or over two. And that's how you end up with these diagonal stripes. It's not really a decorative thing, it's just the pattern that emerges when you go over three of the warp threads and then shift slightly and go over three over here and then shift a bit more, you end up with these stripes. So, twill weaves are going to be very hard-wearing. It's going to stay where you put it. There's no moving around, no sort of wiggling and bending out of shape. It's going to be very well-behaved. The only potential tricky bit with working with a twill is that unlike a one-to-one weave, you can't very easily see the warp and the weft. You can't see those straight lines that run up and down along the selvage. So, therefore, you're not going to be able to track the grain line as easy. Grain line is going to be very important when you're sewing because if your grain goes a little bit off, your fabric can swing slightly off and you can get weird wrinkles and things might not behave as well as you want them. So, understanding where your grain is and what grain you're on, if you want to be on the straight grain or bias. But, just knowing where you want to be and being there on purpose is going to be very important. And a twill weave makes it a little bit more difficult to do that. For that reason, for that little bit of extra mental awareness, I'm going to put a twill weave in a moderate intermediate.

cotton lawn, voile, cambric, batiste

So, the next fabric on our list, we're still in the cotton realm. This is going to be your very lightweight one-to-one plain weave cotton. So, we're talking voile, we're talking batiste, we're talking cambric, we're talking lawn. This is your very wispy, very white, transparent sort of cotton. These are very beautiful. They're still relatively easy to work with because you can very easily see the grain line. It is very possible to cut things perfectly on grain because you can just cut along or draw a thread and then cut along that gap. So, if you are a beginner and you want to make something a little bit more transparent, that's going to be your best bet. — For that reason, I think I'll put this in beginner. This isn't typically the case with sheer fabrics. Sheer fabrics tend to be a nightmare, but I think the lawns are like definitely going to be the easiest sheer fabric that you will come across. Oh, we got a heater on. So, the next fabric that we have is

cotton sateen

cotton sateen. This is a cotton, but it's made using a satin weave. Although many fabrics are called satins, satin is called satin because of the weave. So, once again, instead of your warp thread going over one, under one, or over three, under one, a satin weave travels over at least four warp threads. When this is a silk thread that's very lustrous and very shiny, you end up with this very shiny material because that thread is traveling in a very uninterrupted path across those warp threads, and you just get plain uninterrupted shine from those silk filaments. With a cotton, we don't necessarily have as much shine as we do with a silk satin, but we still do have those long float threads. So, with a cotton sateen, you're going to get a lustrous finish to the surface of the material. The thing with a satin weave though is that it is a lot weaker. Because you are traveling over more threads, it makes the surface of the fabric more prone to snagging and snapping and damaging. Again, this is more of a problem with silks than cottons, which tend to be sturdier. Cotton satins are very often used in bed sheets, in pillow cases. It's very useful for all sorts of garments that you want to have a more luxurious, lustrous finish, but still have the benefit of working with a cotton, which is going to be very easy to work with. This is definitely going to be a very good bet. Cotton sateen is going to be very well-behaved. It's not going to like move around and warp around. Where you put it, it's going to stay. Again, the thing with satin weaves is that you're not going to be able to see the grain line very easy. So, you are going to have to measure very carefully for this. So, once again, going to be very well-behaved and easy to work with, but you might require a little bit of extra knowledge in terms of the construction, the measuring out, the laying out, and the cutting out. So, for that reason, I'm going to put this in a low intermediate.

denim

Next, we have denims. This is perhaps falsely a different category because it is essentially kind of the same thing as your other cotton twills. It is just a twill woven cotton. Denim just specifically has been dyed traditionally with indigo, although nowadays tends to be chemical dyes. It's a very sturdy, hard-wearing fabric. It's again one of those fabrics that isn't going to have too much warp and too much wiggleness. It is going to stay where you put it. It's going to be very easy to sew, and it's not going to fray too much. You'll probably get a little bit of fraying in the beginning, but as with most cottons, especially the cotton twills and one-to-one weaves, tend to just fray to a point and then just stop fraying. So, you can very easily just pink the edges and like in theory, that will kind of just be fine. So, for this reason, I'm going to put denims right next to the cotton twills in that again, going to be a very well-behaved fabric, but just having that extra knowledge of grain line and how to find your grain line is going to be very important when working with denim. So, the next fabric we have on our list

stretch cotton

is going to be still cotton, but this is with the caveat that this cotton is infused with a little bit of stretch. And you will find these all over the place, especially nowadays it's becoming more and more popular to have like 5% elastane woven into your cotton. So, if you're shopping for a cotton and you want a plain weave cotton, always be sure to test it for a little bit of stretch because sometimes, and in fact most of the times when you're fabric shopping these days, they will be infused with a bit of stretch. And if you don't want that, that's going to be very important to make sure that that's not there. — Adding a bit of stretch into your cotton can be great if you want to be more malleable with fit, if you want your garment to be more expandable slightly, but especially if you're working with historical projects, you want to avoid that stretch wherever possible. The other thing about stretch is that it is going to make your job a little bit harder. When you're sewing your fabric, you can't pull it too taut, otherwise you're going to end up with wild wrinkling and warping in your fabric. So, again, it's going to require a bit of knowledge of how to work with stretches, not as much knowledge as say some of the more deliberately stretchy materials that we'll get to later, but having that little bit of okay, we have to account for this, we have to prepare for this, I'm going to put this in intermediate.

coutil

Our next cotton is cotton coutil. This is going to be a very densely woven cotton, like the densest you can possibly weave a cotton. And as a result, it you're going to end up with this very thick, very stiff, very unstretchable material. It will stretch again a little bit on the bias, but on your straight grains and on your cross grains, you're going to get no stretch in this. This is going to be really great if you're making foundation wear, shapewear. This is very popular in corsets. It's a great interlining material if you want to stiffen a fabric without using a fusible interfacing. This is going to be very useful for that. It's not a huge frayer. It's not going to move around on you. It's pretty much just going to stay where you put it. The weaves of cotton coutils can be a little all over the place. There are some that are woven in beautiful patterns. This coutil that I have in particular is a herringbone weave. So, I can use these stripes to gauge where my straight grain is, and be sure that if I'm creating a foundation layer like a corset that has to be very rigid on one grain, but maybe have a little bit of stretch where it's going down across the waist, grain is going to be so important for that. If you have a coutil with a straight grain on it, then you're set. Beginners going to be fine working with this. The only possible caveat I will put towards a coutil is that because it is so densely woven, you might have a bit of difficulty getting a needle through this. So, if you have any hand sewing processes going into this, just be prepared that you're probably going to have to use a thimble and a very thin needle, the thinnest needle you can possibly get your thread through. So, with those caveats, I think I'm also going to put this up in beginner. You'll have a fine time with

jersey, knit

this. Next up, we have knit, also called jersey knit or just jersey. Typically, these are made from cotton, but they can also be made from silks, they can be made from wools. Effectively, we are referring to the {quote} "weave", although it's not woven, it's knit. It's a completely different process, but the nature of knit is because it's done in interlocking loops, the entire piece of fabric is going to be very stretchy. This is, in more common terms, probably known as t-shirt fabric. A cotton t-shirt is going to be made out of this. It's going to be a knit, very stretchy, soft. There's generally no stretch infused into this, although in many modern cotton knit garments, there is like 5% elastane, again, just to make it super stretchy. As soon as you put these in the dryer, they just the elastic starts disintegrating, and you know, planned obsolescence, etc., etc. 100% cotton knit, that's where it's at. So, the great thing about knits is that they are going to be very forgiving in terms of cut, they don't fray. In fact, if you have cut up a t-shirt before, you probably know they just kind of roll up on themselves, and then they just stay there. The big caveat though is that because it is a stretch, you will not be able to just sew this like a normal seam with a non-stretch thread. You will have to use a zigzag stitch, so a stitch that kind of zigzags and will be able to flex a little bit. So, entirely different sewing process required for this, and for that reason, I think we have our first hard mode.

plain weave linen

We're going to move on to additional plant fibers. First up on that list has to be a plain weave, again, one-to-one linen. Linen is slightly different from cotton in that it is a bit springier, it has a lot more body and bounce to it. It also wrinkles as soon as you breathe on it. So, there's that, you will be pressing it for the rest of your life. Plain weave linen is fantastic for grain. If you're working with a garment that is just squares and rectangles, like if you're doing historical projects and you're making shirts or shifts, you're going to have a fantastic time with this. It's going to be very easy to see that grain line and to cut exactly on grain. That being said, you will have to cut this exactly on grain because the minute that linen starts to go slightly off grain, you will start to get all sorts of wild things going on in your drape. Because it's got such body to it, it will start to have a mind of its own. If that's part of your design, fabulous, work with it. But, if you're trying to make a straight grain garment, definitely be aware of that. If, however, you need to start cutting curves or angles with your linen, things start to get a lot more difficult because linen does tend to shift. The minute you try and rub a pencil on it, it just all the fibers just move over here, and then it just goes whoop. It just like it just wants to just be all over the place. — So, if you're not cutting this on grain and following one grain line, you might have a bit more difficult time working with linen. And for that reason, we're going to put it in intermediate. But again, with the caveat that if you are working with straight on grain clear-cut linen, beginners will have no problem.

linen twill

Next, we have a linen twill, which is again, a linen that's woven in a twill weave, so passing over two, three, four threads at a time. So, twill linen tends to be a bit sturdier, a bit heftier, a bit more durable, but you also lose the grain line. And they also, once again, according to the quality of the linen fiber, have a lot more bounce and a lot more body to them. And for that reason, linen twill is also going to go in intermediate because not only do we have the challenge of working with linen, but we also now don't have the benefit of that grain line. So, you have to be very careful to measure off of your selvage to be sure that you're getting on grain, but also be careful that your linen hasn't slightly shifted out of place because it will tend to do that.

hessian, burlap

Now, we have Hessian cloth, otherwise known as burlap in North America. This is often made of jute fibers, it's very rough, sort of the outer vegetable husk of the jute fiber. So, this is a very stiff, kind of industrial fabric. It's I mean, this is potato sack. It's very loosely woven, so it's going to fray like the minute you breathe on it, and it will just continue to fray until you do something about the raw edges. You cannot leave this unbound if you have any hope of wanting your garment to last, or your potato sack, for that matter. The grain is very easy to see because it is very thick, very rough spun, and very loosely woven. But, you will require a lot of fabric treatment and hem finishing like pretty much as soon as you cut out your garment. And for that reason, this is also going to go in intermediate.

taffeta

So, we have a taffeta, which is a one-to-one woven silk. It could also be polyester, but originally made from silk, and therefore, when it's synthetic, it is being made to emulate the properties of silk. So, the taffeta yarns are very finely spun, you get really, really tiny little threads and very densely packed. So, we don't have a whole lot of shine to this. I mean, we do have a bit of luster, but we don't have the shine of satin because those threads are very busy going up and down and up and down over and under those warp threads. So, that light reflection is getting very frequently interrupted. But, that means that taffeta is very well-behaved. It stays where you put it, it's very it doesn't move all over the place and want to do a little dance and escape from you. It will be easy enough to follow the grain, although it will be quite fine. Taffeta, like any silk, is going to be fairly prone to fraying just because of it is the nature of the more slippery silks. However, because of the denseness of the weave, you can on occasion get away with just pinking the edges, and it will be fine. So, because of the relative ease of working with this, I'm going to put this up in beginner. Beginners, you have fun working with your taffetas. If you want a silk, work with your taffetas.

duchesse satin

So, the next silk we have is a silk duchess satin. Sometimes you can get polyester duchess satins, they're not going to be as good. So, you can tell there is silk involved, if not 100% silk, if it starts curling up on itself. These silk duchess satins, they will want to do nothing but just go have a little nap in their little burritos. And honestly, I respect that. Duchess satins are very thick, they're very sturdy, so they're great for, again, foundation materials like corsets or very structural gowns. There's lots of wedding gowns made out of duchess satins. Again, going back to satin weave, this is a silk woven as a satin. So, these silk filaments, especially when they're 100% silk, they they've got high luster, they're very shiny, and when you're passing over three, four, five more of those warp threads, then you end up with a really lovely shiny material like this. However, again, that does mean that the surface of a duchess satin is going to be slightly more delicate than, say, the surface of a taffeta, which is a one-to-one weave. So, definitely going to require, as a garment, a bit more careful handling. But, in terms of satins, this is going to be the easiest to work with. It's very stable. However, there is no easy grain line on this. The minute you start to go off grain, you start to get more stretch, which can introduce some strange behavior and some wrinkling, especially if you're trying to make a tight-fitting garment. So, again, going to be a fairly friendly enough fabric to work with, although again, will require some knowledge of weave and pattern cutting and grain line. So, we're going to put this, again, in intermediate. And you'll just curl up again. That's fine, we'll just know it's you. So, the

crepe back satin

next fabric that we have is a crepe-back satin. Once again, this can also be made from polyesters, viscoses, rayons, various synthetics that are manufactured to mimic the properties of a silk satin. So, again, this is woven with a satin weave, which means we're going to have a slightly more delicate surface. We're also going to have no visible grain line. Satins especially tend to be very prone to fraying just because of the amount of floats in the weave, they're not as securely anchored into that weave. You will probably have to fully finish your seams. A crepe-back satin is going to be a lot floppier, a lot drapier than a duchess satin, which is very tightly, firmly woven. But, what defines a crepe back is that it's got this very matte, often crepey backing to it. It's not a double-faced satin. Because of the drapey nature of these, they are going to be a little bit less well-behaved, they will kind of want to do some dancing and just want to kind of wiggle away from your pencil. So, these will be a lot harder to mark out, they control, a lot harder to identify the grain. For this reason, this is going to go in hard mode.

"lining" fabric (habutai, china silk, crepe de chine, poly lining)

represent the general category of {quote} "lining fabrics". These very lightweight, sort of tissuey fabrics traditionally were made of silk, so China silk, habutai, crepe de chine, but nowadays, they tend to be made out of polyesters, viscose, again, synthetic fabrics mimicking the properties of these lightweight tissue silks. They could also not be linings, like anything can be possible. I think, of all the fiber types, silks tend to be the most difficult to work with just because they are a bit more slippery. And the lighter the weight of the silk tends to be the more difficult to work with. These tend to be one-to-one woven, so, you know, pretty standard weave, we can tell the grain line very easily, which is going to be good because these are very difficult to work with. They're very floaty, they're very lightweight, again, they're going to try and wiggle all over the place and run away from your pencil. So, being able to see that grain line is going to be pretty important. And because we can see that grain line, this one's only going to go in hard mode.

charmeuse

So, next we have charmeuse, which is again a satin weave, so you will have this beautiful shiny, almost liquidy type fabric. And it's made of very fine yarns. So, again, it's got no structural integrity to it. You know, it's just going to kind of drape very beautifully. And because again we are working with a satin weave here, we have no indication of where the grain is. The drapiness does mean that paying attention to your grain will be important here. Where is that grain? Who knows? You can measure and you can mark, but the fabric will immediately want to just dance right out of the way. It does not stay where you put it. You breathe on it wrong and all of a sudden it's 5 in away from where you wanted it to be. It also frays like nobody's business. This fabric expert mode. Work with that at your peril. It has no right to be that beautiful and that stupid to work with.

chiffon

So, next we have chiffons, which again, traditionally made of silk, but nowadays can be made of viscose, of rayon, of all your sorts of polyesters. So, a chiffon is made from, again, very finely woven yarns. So, it's going to be very light, very delicate. It's going to drape very well and it is woven very loosely. So, you're going to end up with a lot of transference from behind. It's going to be very transparent, very translucent. We do, thankfully, have a one-to-one weave on this. So, we can find grain a little more easily, although the fibers really are just so thin that following a grain line is going to be basically impossible. Once again, this the sort of fabric that will just want to sort of move away from wherever you've put it. It's not going to behave well. It's going to fray like nobody's business. It's not going to be as much of a nightmare as charmeuse, but I'm still going to put chiffon down here in expert mode.

organza

Next, we have organza, which is traditionally made from silk, but nowadays tends to be made from polyesters, synthetics that can mimic the properties. So, what differentiates an organza from, say, a chiffon is that the weave is very stiff. An organza has a lot of body, a lot of spring, and a lot of structural integrity. So, it is slightly easier to work with than, say, a chiffon, which just has no bones. An organza at least will have some structure, although it will still have a tendency to shift, especially with the pressure of, say, a pencil or a ruler. You will have a little bit of give and shifting in that weave. So, definitely something that you'll have to pay attention to whilst you're cutting. For that reason, this will only go in hard mode.

moiré/faille/grosgrain

Moire or faille, which I'm kind of going to put in the same category, although they are slightly different fabrics. The main property of these is that they have this ribbing, this sort of grosgrain like texture to them. A moire will have a very distinct water pressed pattern to it, so it will have this sort of wood grainy, kind of watery treatment to the surface of it. But because it's got these ribs in it, thankfully, this stabilizes the fabric a lot. This is going to be a lot easier to work with. It will have a little bit of give and want to wooge a little bit, but it's not going to be as unwieldy as a lot of other silks in this category. It is really going to fray, so you will have to be very conscious of controlling your edges. But, I might actually give a moire or a faille a beginner. I think these this wouldn't be the worst for a beginner to work with.

dupioni/shantung/raw silk

Dupion, dupioni is a type of fabric that has been around in Eastern cultures in Southeast Asia for quite a few hundred years. It is kind of similar to a taffeta in that it is a one-to-one plain woven silk. It is often slightly lighter weight, slightly more tissuey, slightly less crisp than a taffeta. However, the unevenness of the yarn and the huge slubs incorporated in the weave of this material was really not favored in Western historical dress. For the same reason that in historical linens and silks that were favored, we tend to have very even weaves. The practice of spinning in, especially, European textiles tends to really focus a lot of quality on evenness of the yarn and of the weave. So, a dupioni that includes huge slubs of raw silk is not going to be seen as the most high quality silk from a Western perspective. I'm not a scholar of Eastern dress history, so I don't quite know the extent to which dupioni was viewed within the culture. However, I can tell you, if you are doing Western European historical dress reconstruction, this is going to be a heavy avoid. Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox. It is beginner friendly. I just have a vendetta against it.

lamé

So, we have lame, which is kind of in the same family as a chiffon. In fact, like structurally, it kind of is. It's just defining characteristics is that it is woven with a metallic weft. Historically, this could be done with actual metallic threads, but most of the lames these days are just made of plastic tinsel. This is going to have a lot of the unfortunate properties of a chiffon in that it is going to be very movable. It's very temperamental. It's very hard to control. It drapes beautifully and has like the most beautiful shine you will ever see, probably, in a fabric. However, because we have this very clear cross grain, it's not the worst to work with. We don't always have a straight grain, which tends to be the more useful grain, although you're not going to be as wild in the dark as a lot of these expert modes. But, I will still put this in kind of a low hard mode, like almost expert mode. So, now we have a crepe.

crepe

There are many silk crepes out there. There are also many wool crepes out there. You can make a crepe of all sorts of materials. The nature of a crepe is that it has this sort of creepy, really crimped yarn that makes up a very creepy surface in the weave. Crepes are going to fray quite substantially. They are quite loosely woven. They do have some really nice body to them because they've got this texture. However, the looseness of the weave does mean that they're going to be a little bit more difficult to control. Again, we have all this texture going on the surface, so we're not always going to be able to confirm 100% what our grain line is. For that reason, I'm going to put crepe in hard mode.

chiffon (soft) velvet

Moving on to our velvets. First up, we have a chiffon velvet or a lightweight velvet. Once again, most velvets are not made of silk these days. They tend to be blended with rayon or nylon. These lighter weight velvets that have a lot more drape in them, they tend to be backed on a chiffon or a georgette or something very, very lightweight, so that you get this very drapey material. Not only is velvet a nightmare to work with because when you cut it, there's just fuzz everywhere. You can't press this because as soon as you press it, the pile, the little fluffy bits of the velvet will just get crushed and then you end up with crushed velvet, which is great if you're going for like 90s renfair, but if you're not going for that, then you have to use a needle board, which is where you put the velvet face down on some needles in order to press every aspect of this garment. It's difficult to work with and when you're working with these very chiffony velvets, you also have the nightmare of all the properties of chiffon, which means it's not going to stay where you put it. It's going to want to move at the slightest touch. So, if you're trying to mark it out, good luck staying on grain. If you're putting two pieces of velvet pile side together, so you've got fluffy bit and fluffy bit, the minute you try and smoosh them down to sew them, they will shift. They will shift to flatten that pile, which means it will not be where you've pinned it and you will who knows where you've ended up on your seam line. And for that reason, soft velvet has to go in expert mode.

stiff velvet

On the other hand, we have stiff velvet. The stiff velvets tend almost always these days to be backed on a really heavy synthetic or rayon or polyester or something. Historically, this would have been a silk backing. Stiff velvets are a lot friendlier to work with. The lighter weight the velvet, the more difficult it is to work with. These velvets, they don't fray as much. They're a lot more easy to control. You will still have that issue of if you've got pile on pile trying to stitch things together right sides together, you will have some shifting still going on there. But, this is going to be a lot friendlier to work with and therefore, I'm actually going to put stiff velvet in intermediate. Cotton velvet is the same process of

cotton velvet

creating a velvet as you would for a silk. So, basically, the pile is woven onto the ground fabric and then it's cut so that you're left with this little tiny fuzzy pile on the top that's woven into the fabric itself. However, instead of doing that out of silk or polyesters that are made to mimic silks, cotton velvet is all done with cotton. So, this fluffy bit is all cotton. Is a lot more well-behaved. It's very sturdy. It stays where you put it. Again, you will have the challenges of working with velvet in that you can't put an iron directly on it. You have to use a needle board with this, as with the stiff velvet. And you will also have some pile shifting if you try and sew right side to right side. So, this cotton velvet is going to go right up here next to the stiff velvet in intermediate. Next, we have a corduroy, which is kind

corduroy

of basically the same thing as a cotton velvet, although corduroy can be made of other things like wool, polyester, like everything these days. The great thing about corduroy, though, is that there's a very strong grain line. You can really tell when you're on grain with a corduroy because that corduroy got those grain stripes in it. So, that makes things quite easy to work with. Again, because it's got this either cotton or wool backing to it, it's very well-behaved. It's very stable. But again, will require those velvet stitching techniques. So, this is going right here again with intermediate. Should we move these here? Let's move these here. Okay. There we go.

stiff net (tulle)

We've got a couple different qualities of net. This is stiff net or tulle, if you will. It can be made of silk. cotton. It can be made of nylon. This is the stiffer quality, so it's going to be very crunchy. Has a lot of body to it. These nets don't really fray, they're very easy to cut, to control. The only thing about nets is that when you're working with a net, you tend to be working with masses of it. — Which is just like a logistical nightmare. Like if you're making a big tulle skirt, it's just like a lot to work with, but it's not all that difficult to work with as a material. Sure, a stiff net, you can go in beginner. Next we have a bobbinet, which tends to

bobbinet

be made of cotton. All nets and tulles are distinct in that they are twisted together essentially through a kind of the same technique as bobbin lace making, and it's distinct in that it has a lot of stretch in one direction and not a whole lot of stretch in the other direction. Bobbinet is really great because you have this combination of stretch with the durability of the twist, but you also have some stability in the other direction. So, bobbinet is often used for things like foundation garments that you want to have a lot of movement to them. In the 1950s, this becomes really prevalent to use for corselettes, for the foundations of sculpted gowns. And the trick with working with bobbinet is that you double layer it. So, one layer has no stretch this way and way, and then you end up with this really cool stable garment that still has a lot of give. It's a really cool fabric, it doesn't fray a lot, but you will need to be conscious of grain on this. And grain isn't super easy to spot on this, you're going to have to sort of keep your eye out. So, I'm going to put bobbinet in intermediate.

soft net (tulle)

intermediate. So then we have a soft net. This is a net that's got a lot less structural integrity than our stiff tulle. It's going to be a lot drapier, a lot softer. Again, doesn't fray, but it's not going to be as strong as a bobbinet will be. This will tear a lot more easy than a bobbinet, which can be used as a foundation garment. Wouldn't do the same for something like a soft net. This probably will require a little bit more handling than say a stiff tulle, which can kind of just be laid where it wants to be sewn, and it will just sit there. This will have to be sort of maneuvered into place. However, it's not going to be that difficult to figure out. So, we'll put this in intermediate.

brocade

Brocades are fabrics where the pattern is woven into the fabric. Traditionally, they are made from silks. Nowadays, a lot of them tend to be made with tinsels and polyesters and rayons and all sorts of wild things. They're very dimensional. They've got a sort of structure to the surface of the fabric. They are often double-sided, although not always, but inherently, it's not a print, the pattern is woven into the fabric itself. Brocades are very tightly woven and very stable and tend to really just stay where you put them. The only question is on some brocades, you won't be able to see the grain line. Although in many cases with brocade, because of the way that it's woven, there will be a weave pattern of, you know, one motif goes up and down along the grain line. So, you kind of can orientate yourself a little bit as to where you are on the fabric. — Brocades really will fray though, especially when you've got really complex things with satin weaves, but you know, as long as you're controlling the edges of your fabric, I don't hate putting this in beginner.

jacquard (computer history)

As opposed to jacquards, which are very similar to brocades, but they tend to be a lot lighter weight. The jacquard is kind of like a champagne in that like it has to be woven on a jacquard loom, which is a very complex piece of machinery. I think it's developed in the 18th century, and because the weave is so complex in them, they were operated with punch cards to tell the machine where to do the weaving when. And that is actually the inspiration behind modern computing. So, you can thank the jacquard loom and jacquard weaves and jacquard fabric for the computer that you are probably watching this video on today. I love textile history, it's very important. Anyway, jacquard fabrics are a nightmare. It's a beautiful fabric, but you essentially have like silk charmeuse level quality and behavior and warp-ability, pretty much often no indication of where the grain is. You've got a very lightweight fabric that is not going to be very well-behaved, and for that reason, jacquard has to go in expert mode, just like coding, in fact, at least to me.

tapestry

— So, next we have tapestry, which is sort of similar to a brocade in that the pattern is woven into the fabric. Tapestry involves multiple layers of weaving, like weaving upon weaving in order to get those patterns to come through. As a result, tapestries tend not to be double-sided as some brocades are. But tapestries are going to be very thick. So, these, you know, you're probably not going to make a very drapey gown out of these. You often see tapestries hanging on the walls for that reason. But you know, you could make bodices out of these, you could make jackets out of tapestry. It's a fairly easy fabric to work with, the grain's not that impossible to see. It's going to be a very thick fabric, so very hard-wearing. Again, you're going to need a thimble to sew through it by hand, probably. It's usually made from cotton or wool, so it's very well-behaved. There's no warping, there's no like moving. I'm going to put this in beginner.

mattelassé

Next we have a matelassé, which kind of is in the brocade category. This is a weird sort of fabric that is woven to look like it's quilted, but it's not quilted. These can be made of all sorts of wild different things, polyesters, viscoses, rayon, generally silk. They tend to be a bit springier than brocades. They tend to fray quite a bit, and we don't necessarily know where grain line is. I might just put this in intermediate just to be safe.

tweed

So, next we have tweed. This is generally a wool fabric, although nowadays it could be made of acetate or whatever sort of polyester blend. A tweed is generally made from woollen spun yarns. So, I guess we need to go into the difference between different spinnings of wool. This will be important, I promise, and will explain why so many people hate wool unjustly. But wool is either spun as a woollen yarn, which means it is thicker, it is rougher spun, it's using the shorter staple, that like the shorter fibers, which means it's thicker, it's fluffier, it's easier to felt, but it's also scratchier. As opposed to worsted wool yarns, which are spun a lot finer, made from the longer staple wool fibers, which makes them a lot softer. But we'll get to the worsted wools a bit later because tweeds tend to be made from woollen wool yarns. So, they tend to be very fluffy, very thick, and therefore used a lot as outerwear. But they do tend to be plain woven, either one to one or two to one. You can kind of get some really interesting weaves, such as tartans and checks, houndstooths, windowpanes in tweeds. Tweed refers to the woollen weave wool, not the tartan or the whatever sort of pattern is going on, you can have plain tweeds. This is a tweed. Anyway, uh tweeds are great to work with, they don't really fray a whole lot, again because of these woollen yarns, the fibers tend to felt together, especially over time, which is why we're really not supposed to wash these, because as soon as you wash them, you really start to felt the fibers and it shrinks, it's a nightmare. Uh wool is very stable, it's very easy to work with, it's very clean. So, when you put one thing on top of another and pin it together, it stays where you put it, which is fantastic. I'm going to put tweed in beginner. Where is there room? Right there, right there. So, in contrast to tweeds, which are

gabardine

made of woollen yarns, we have wool gabardine, which is a lighter weight wool. It's a lot drapier. This is what you usually see, like suits, sport coats, trousers are usually made of this. It's made from a worsted wool yarn, which means once again, the yarns are very finely spun, and this is very soft wool. This is not going to have the issue of being scratchy against your skin, it's going to be very soft, very comfortable to wear. Because the fibers of the wool are a lot more controlled, we don't have as much felting going on, which does make these easier to wash. However, it also does not control the fray as well. So, you will have to be conscious of fraying going on here. You will still have a little bit of woozing, and especially when you're marking out or pinning or cutting, things can try and shift out of place ever so slightly. So, the wool gabardines, I'm going to put this in intermediate.

felt

Wool felts are a really interesting case because they are non-woven, which means we don't have any sort of one-to-one weave, it's not a knit, there are no loops looping the fabric together. It is purely relying on the wool fibers being matted together so closely and so compactly that it creates a piece of material. You might probably be familiar with like craft felt, which is not wool felt. I mean, very similar concept, but if you're thinking, "Oh, why would you make a garment out of felt? It's going to look like a craft project. " You're thinking of like the synthetic like acetate felts that are sold for like 50p in a craft shop. Wool felts, which are used for garments, are made from woollen fibers, which means that it is going to be a very nice, beautiful, finished piece of cloth that is not woven. So, that means we don't have any issues of grain here, we're not going to have to worry about bias, straight grain, there's going to be no fraying. So, for that reason, wool felt goes in beginner. Next we have a

flannel

flannel. This can be made from either wool or a cotton or nowadays like all sorts of synthetics. But a flannel is different from a felt in that it is a woven fabric, so you do have that usually one-to-one weave, but the cloth has then been brushed. So, you end up loosening a lot of those fibers and creating this really soft nap to the surface of the material. If you look very closely, you can see under all the fuzzy stuff, you will see a very slight weave going on in there. Typically, flannels, especially these days, are woven with tartan patterns, check patterns, plaid. This is printed. So, that's actually going to tell you nothing about your grain. But, if you do have a flannel that is woven as a tartan or a check, then you will have really great grain indication there, which is going to be really great for cutting out. Flannel is going to be very stable. It's very sticky. So, when you put one on top of the other, just sew it together, it's going to stay there. It's not going to move. Flannel is going to go in beginner. So, if you're looking for your first sewing project and want to make a nice pair of pajama pants, I think that's what a lot of people start with. You're good with flannel. Next, we have

fleece

fleece. Traditionally, it's wool fleece, but a lot of fleeces today tend to be synthetic. A lot of the time, fleece fleeces are made on knitted backings, — which are going to make them very easy to cut out, very easy to work with, very not prone to fraying. If you don't intend to have the garment be a stretch garment, like a fitted shirt or anything, then it's going to be a very easy thing to work with. It's not going to fray. It's going to be very easy to control, and it's going to stay where you put it. I would put fleece in beginner. So, again, for your nice set of beginner's pajamas, you're good with your fleeces, flannels, you're good with your felts. Enjoy being comfy. We have a bit of our

fur

wildcard category now. These are materials that I didn't really know where else to put. For example, fur. False fur is faux furs, which are made of petroleum-based fibers, so plastics, — polyesters. This stuff is an absolute nightmare. Like, my condolences to all the furries out there. Like, it's 100% plastic. It's so sweaty. The fluffy bits are going to get absolutely everywhere. Because this is a petroleum fiber, it's a you know, it's a plastic fiber. You're inhaling this. It's terrible for your lungs. Please wear your like respiratory protection if you're ever working with this stuff. They tend to be mounted on either a knitted or some sort of stiffened backing. They require a bit of technique to cut them. If you cut them with a pair of scissors, you're going to cut the fluffy bits as well. It tends to be the general consensus that working with razor blades and just barely cutting through the ground fabric and not cutting all the way through to the fur is the way to go with this. There's a technique to this and making it look natural. Cleanup is a nightmare. This has got to be hard mode. Like, you've got to really want to do this to like subject yourself to this.

tailor's/horsehair canvas

Tailor's canvas is a very important material if you want to get into tailoring, any sorts of jackets, waistcoats, structured materials, because this is the secret that makes everything look right. This is like the non-fusible interfacing that the professionals use. They call it horsehair canvas or tailor's canvas because traditionally it was woven with a weft that is left to right, horizontally, of horsehair, which is a very springy material. You know, it's what violin bows are made out of. If you're a horse girl, you probably are like, "Yeah, obviously, I know. " It's very springy. And with a warp of linen or cotton or whatever. Nowadays, they tend to use a synthetic horsehair, some sort of like plastic imitation horsehair. But, the great thing about tailor's canvas is that because of the horsehair weft or imitation weft, it gives the horizontal aspect of the fabric this incredible body, this great springiness. So, when you fold it sort of horizontally, the garment's not going to collapse. It's going to hold this really incredibly rounded shape. Whereas, if you're going vertically, because of these linen warp threads, they're not quite as stiff, so therefore the fabric just kind of collapses. So, if you're bending over, it's not restricting your bending over, but it's still holding out a really nice, beautiful round shape across the body. This stuff is magical. You do have to be quite conscious of grain on this. However, because this is not seen, you don't have to be super careful with it. But, it's fairly easy to work with. The surface of it is very grippy, so it will kind of stick to whatever you want to put it on. I will put tailor's canvas in intermediate. Mostly because if you're working with this, you probably are getting into some tailoring, and you will have to really understand how to shape and to sculpt the fabric around the tailor's canvas. It's so worth learning how to do, but for an absolute beginner, you probably want to learn some more basic sewing techniques before you get to the tailor's canvas. We have

tarlatan

tarleton next, which is very familiar to all of us in historical reconstruction, because this stuff is also magical. This is a plain-woven cotton, so again, one to one, it's very loosely woven. It's essentially a gauze. It's a cotton gauze, but it's been stiffened with a glue. Traditionally, it's water-soluble, so this is not to go in washable garments. But, I also know people who have done tests washing their tarletons, and they've come out fine, so do with that what you will. Tarleton is an incredible stiffening agent, but it's extremely lightweight. So, it doesn't add any weight to the garment, but you get that springiness, that body. Historically, this was used absolutely everywhere, especially in the 19th century, as interlinings for skirts to make things stiffer, to give things body, to prevent things wrinkling. It's a very easy to cut out because it's glue, it's a stiffened material. There's no fraying to worry about. You don't have to worry about grain, because again, it's a glue, there's no stretch, there's no warp. It's very easy to work with. So, tarleton, we're putting this in beginner. Beginners, if you ever need to stiffen a garment, cut out some tarleton.

spandex/lycra

tarleton. Okay, next we have spandex or lycra. This is typically a knitted fabric, but made from a specialty synthetic fabric that is specifically meant to produce this spandexy material. I know very little about this material, because I don't think I've ever used this. This is what you're going to use like leggings, shapewear, swimsuits, leotards, dancewear. There's absolutely going to be no fraying going on here. To work with this though, you will really have to have significant knowledge of working with stretch materials, because presumably, if you're using a spandex or lycra, this is a garment that's going to have to take a lot of motion. It's going to have to really stretch, which means we're doing zigzag stitches, we're using stretch threads, we're using I don't know, ballpoint needles, all that sort of very like specific technique stuff. And for that reason, this is going in hard mode.

terrycloth

Terry cloth. Did you know this had a name? This is basically towel material. This is the typically cotton loop type fabric that we know and love as towels today or bathrobes. I've never actually had reason to work with it, but you never know what's out there. This is a cotton. It's fairly well-behaved. It's fairly stable. Going to be fairly comfy. The main thing about terry cloth though is because the surface is so completely concealed by all these loops, both on the front and on the back. It's very difficult to tell when you're on grain. I genuinely don't know how people work with this. I've never done it before. But, it hasn't got that sort of movement that makes working with it difficult. Like, it is very stable. I might put this in intermediate. Like, you're going to have to work a little to find your grain lines, but once you got yourself cut out, I think you're going to have a fairly simple enough time working with it. Anyway, this is our

THE FINAL VERDICT

assessment here. We're going to put some labels on these, so that if you want to screenshot this and take some notes and maybe reference this while you're going out fabric shopping or trying to find some materials that you think will be most appropriate for your skill level, or if you're up for a bit of a challenge. If you're interested in learning more about fabric, and specifically, what your fabric is made of, there's a really great way to tell all of that, and that is by lighting it on fire. Safely, of course. Do it safely. We have a whole other video where we went through all the different fiber types and what to look at, the color of ash, the smell, the burn quality, the speed of burning, all the different criteria you will need to identify what the fiber type of your fabric is made out of. So, go forth. Watch that next if you haven't done so already. If you're ready to take your next step into actually sewing some garments and want some inspiration, we've got a whole playlist of all sorts of garments that we've made right here on this channel. And of course, subscribe for more sewing, fabric, textile education videos, as well as sewing inspiration. — And with that, I shall see you anon.

Другие видео автора — Bernadette Banner

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