How to Choose The Right Fabric

In the world of fashion, apart from meeting design, we will meet fabric! Yup, this fabric is definitely needed for any fashion product you make. Good bags, clothes, shoes and others. Fabric itself has various types and uses as well as its own advantages in each type of fashion product. This time we will go deeper into the fabric in clothes.

Why Fabric Matters When You Make Clothing

The most important component of a garment is the fabric. Do you agree? Because, no matter how good the product design is, using the wrong and inappropriate fabric will also worsen the end result of the product. It doesn’t matter how well the garment is sewn, if the garment is made from the wrong fabric, it is not true to design and will look like a disaster.

You can imagine. You have an amazing idea, you sketch it, and turn it into a sewing pattern. The next step is to make it, but to do this you will need the fabric. So you have to be careful in choosing the right fabric for you. But you don’t need to worry, because we’re going to tell you a tip to make fabric shopping easier!

Choosing the Right Fabric for Your Clothes

Excited to shop for fabrics! Prepare yourself mentally, and walk into the shop with an image of your design in your mind (or hands). You have to be conscious of the color you want and have a very specific idea of ​​how you want your final outfit to look.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount and variety of fabrics available on display, but if you start your fabric expedition with these factors in mind, it will simplify the time you spend selecting fabrics:

1. Consider the Weight of the Fabric

Fabric weight is measured in GSM (grams per square meter) and determines how heavy or light the fabric is. Don’t worry, you don’t need to measure the weight of the fabric in the store. Measuring fabric weight is a way of measuring the thickness of a material, and differentiates between light, medium, or heavy fabrics. Actually, in order to know the weight of this cloth, it will affect the design of the product you are making. It would feel weird if you used a thin material for a jacket right? Therefore, the weight of the cloth also affects the end result of the product you make.

Below are some fabrics broken down by category (these categories may change depending on how the fabric is treated, dyeing and printing may affect the weight of the fabric).

2. Examine the Fabric Drape

The drape determines how the fabric flows. In other words, stiff fabrics have less drape, and tpisi fabrics have more. Easy! But be careful with this term. Drapes are often confused with weight, but the two are different factors that affect the appearance of a garment.

Fabrics with more drape will make the skirt float away from your body, as opposed to fabrics with softer drapes that will keep the pleats close to your body. For example, if you want a skirt that flows, you should choose a thin, well draped fabric, but if you want a more structured skirt, choose a fabric that is stiff and thick.

Here is a chart showing some of the fabrics defined by weight and drape:

3. Fabric Stretch Test

Stretch is how much your fabric stretches. Fabrics have different elasticities (the ability of textile fibers to “bounce back” when stretched). When you choose a fabric with stretch, you need to be sure that it fits your pattern, as it can change the way the final product conforms to the body. You also have to be careful when sewing and cutting patterns on stretch fabrics because there may be a change in size in the final product, most of the time it can be too small.

To measure the stretch of the fabric, stretch the fabric 5 inches above the ruler, holding one end at the zero mark and stretching the other end until you feel resistance, then divide that number by the initial length of the fabric. For example: if your fabric is stretched to 7.5″, it will be stretched 2.5″ past its original length. This is a 50% stretch.

Calculation: 2.5 (amount stretched) / 5 (original length) = 0.5 x 100 = 50%.

After knowing how to choose the right fabric for fashion clothing products, of course you also have to know about choosing fabric for bag accessories. because bags are items that compliment people’s style and at the moment many people like them! Read on to find out more!