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Fabric FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions

We are major “fabric-holics” at Haberman Fabrics, knowledgeable and passionate about the look, feel and use of beautiful fabrics. So shopping at Haberman Fabrics can also be a bit of a textile and sewing education as well as a design fantasy. We love this stuff! Sometimes we just can’t stop ourselves from enthusiastically sharing information with you.

As a more informed consumer, your fabric shopping will be easier and more enjoyable. So please read on as we answer a few common fabric questions.

Questions

Answers

1. How do I choose the right fabric for my pattern or design?

Read the fabric suggestions on pattern envelopes. They are helpful, but are only suggestions, not rules. Don’t think your garment must look exactly like the pattern’s picture. You sew because you’re creative. If you want a different appearance, choose other fabrics.

Look at a photo or drawing of the garment to see how the material hangs and how much detail or gathering the garment has. That should help you determine the weave you need. Then ask yourself questions like: Do you want the garment to hang the way it’s shown in the picture or do you prefer the garment to hang more softly or to have more shape? Fabrics with a lot of body will define garment shape. Great for coats or for full ball skirts; lousy for slinky dresses.

Do you want the garment to be drapey or crisp, heavy or light, shiny or matte, hard-finished or soft and textured, dressy or tailored? Hard finished wool gabardines make great suits and pants but are less forgiving for beginning sewers when constructing tailored details. Softer wools like flannels and novelty textures are more forgiving and easier to shape.

Combining different fabrics in one garment? Remember to select fabrics of similar weight and drape. Select plain fabrics to show off construction design details; busy designs or textures will hide them. If you fall in love with a fabulously textured or beautifully printed fabric, pair it with a simple pattern. The more spectacular the fabric, the simpler the garment’s design should be. Let the fabric do the work for you.

Check to see if your pattern requires knits or stretch fabrics only. That means the garment is cut smaller and probably without shaping darts. Haberman Fabrics has a very good selection of knits and stretch lycra-blended wovens. For some patterns you may be able to substitute a woven fabric cut on the bias to give it stretch.

Now feel the fabric. You don’t have to be an expert seamstress or know the precise name for a fabric to know how it feels. That’s called the "hand". You’ve decided how your garment’s fabric should feel. Try it. Does it your fabric pass the hand test? That’s all there is to it.

2. What does the fiber mean?

Yarn is used to weave or knit fabrics. What the yarn is made of is its fiber content. Each fiber has its own characteristics for "hand", breathability, durability, wrinkle resistance, shrinkage, dye absorption and color retention, and washability.

If it’s a natural fiber it may be silk, cotton, wool, linen, or rayon. Synthetic fibers may be polyester, acetate, nylon, spandex, acrylic, polyethylene, or new varieties of any of these. Also, the yarns may be blends of the different fibers to produce a fabric with traits of each.

3. So what is ‘satin’?

Satin is not a FIBER. It describes the style or pattern of how the yarn is woven. Many people confuse a style of WEAVE with the fiber content. Here’s the difference: FIBER is the actual chemical composition of the yarn. A fabric may be woven or knit of all one fiber or a blend of many fibers. WEAVE explains the pattern into which the yarn is woven.

4. What’s the difference between a $50.00 per yard satin and a $8.98 one?

The type of fiber, quality of the yarn and of the weaving, weight, width, and country of origin. The greatest difference is fiber content.

For example: A silk satin will hang and move better, have smoother seams, press easier, and be more comfortable because the fiber breathes. A polyester satin will be more wrinkle resistant, but can’t match silk’s traits. An acetate satin is the least expensive. It is shiny, but is a weaker fabric that will wrinkle and stain easily. All three types can be heavy-, mid- or light-weight, depending on the weight of the yarn and density of the weave.

5. How can gabardine be silk?

Gabardine is a style of weave. It has a fine diagonal "twill" style of weave. Silk gabardine is woven with silk yarn. Pure silk yarn can be woven into many, many styles of fabric from heavy bridal satin, delicate chiffon, crisp taffeta, and "slubby" dupioni, to classic gabardine or coarse burlap—all depending on the weight, texture and type of the silk yarn used and the pattern of the weave.

Remember to specify the fiber content of the style fabric you want. Silk, wool, polyester, rayon, cotton, or blends of them, can all be gabardine. Choose the appearance, care, durability and hand of the fiber you like.

6. What is a Microfiber?

These are simply fabrics, generally polyester, created of yarns spun into an extremely low denier (a measure of thickness).

7. What is Tencel®?

Tencel® is the brand name (like Kleenex® is to tissues) for a relatively new fiber called Lyocell®. Think cellulose; tree pulp. If this sounds like rayon to you, you’re right. It is. But this is a new derivation. This is not your grandmother’s rayon. Early rayon was scratchy and weak. Modern rayons are much softer, though generally not a strong fiber when wet. Lyocell® can be used alone. When blended into fibers like cotton, it allows a softer hand and more drape. You may be familiar with linen-rayon blends created to soften the fabric. Some Tencel® fabrics are pre-washed also to give a sueded appearance and additional drape.

8. Why do I get so warm in my silk blouse?

Is it 100% pure silk or does it just feel silky? When looking for a silk fabric, don’t confuse it with just any "silky" or lightweight, smooth-feeling fabric. That fabric might be made of silk, polyester, rayon or acetate. Each will handle and wear differently. Because silk "breathes" more than polyester, it is more comfortable for most people to wear.

9. Is silk always good fabric?

Not necessarily. The type of fiber alone does not always reflect fabric quality. There are differences of weight, yarn quality, weaving standards, design, dyeing, printing, and finishing in all types of fabrics. There are poor silks and gorgeous rayons and vice versa.

10. What is a jacquard?

A "jacquard" is any textile woven on a jacquard loom. These looms can weave complex floral or geometric patterns with single or multiple colors of yarn of any fiber content. There are a variety of different types of jacquards based on depth, surface texture, weight and pattern. Brocade, matelassé, damask and cloqué are all jacquards. A jacquard can be a simple tone-on tone "damask" table cloth, an elegant multicolored, metallic "brocade" evening jacket, or a luxurious upholstery "matelassé".

11. How can I tell if a design is a woven pattern or a print?

To avoid confusing a printed fabric with one whose pattern has been woven (or knitted) using different colors and/or textured yarns, look at the wrong side of the fabric.

Prints are usually much lighter on the wrong side. A high quality print usually bleeds through from the right to the wrong side. Sometimes prints don’t bleed through at all. Woven designs appear on both sides of the fabric, although the colors or pattern may look different on each side.

A yarn-dyed fabric simply means that the patterns you see are woven into the fabric with colored yarn, they are not printed on it. That often means it’s a better fabric than a printed one.

You are now graduates of Fabric FAQ’s 101!

Please take out your paper and pencils. Number 1 to 10. We’re going to have a quiz. Just kidding!

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