Buying Fabric Online Series
It is important to know what fabric charactistics are when choosing fabric. Most patterns have a list of suggested or recommended fabrics. Choosing a fabric from that list will help ensure that your finished project will look similarly to the pictures on the pattern envelope. If, however, the fabric chosen is very different from those on the suggested list, your finished project will have a different look and feel. The differences aren’t necessarly bad, but they can be disappointing if you were aiming for a look similar to the pattern envelope. By understanding three important characteristics of fabric: drape, hand, and stretch, you can make better decisions when purchasing fabric online.
Drape
Drape tells us how fabric falls. To test this, pick up a corner of a piece of fabric and let it hang. Does the fabric fall in soft, graceful folds, or is it stiff? Test this on both the straight and crossgrain of the fabric.
A brocade, like the jacket above, will have a stiff drape, but this slinky nylon tricot below will have a much softer drape.
Hand
Hand is the feel of the fabric. Words that describe tactile quailities like crisp, firm, stiff, smooth, bumpy, etc, are very helpful to consider when choosing fabric for a particular project. This minky looks warm and soft.
Stretch
Stretch is the amount of give a fabric has in both the crosswise and lenghtwise directions. How much stretch a fabric has depends on the typs of fabric it is, whether is is a knit or woven, and how much elastic fiber it has. Two-way stretch refers to fabric that gives only in the crosswise direction. Four-way stretch refers to fabrics that give in both crosswise and lengthwise directions.
It is fairly easy to adapt knit fabrics to patterns designed for wovens. To adapt woven fabrics to patterns for knit fabrics requires more effort. Patterns designed for knit fabrics have much less ease, and can even have negative ease (for example, a pattern for a swimsuit), to capitalize on the stretch fabric characteristics. Using a woven in the place of a knit without making adjustments can result in a finished garment that is too small.