How to… Sew woven fabrics
Woven fabrics can a bit easier to cut and sew than stretchy knit fabrics, making many of them ideal for beginners.
Woven fabrics include cottons, denim, twills, satins, crepes, chiffons, velvets, taffeta, corduroy, upholstery fabrics and jacquards to name but a few!
Our All the Cute Skirts and Everyday Amazing Shift Dress and Top Patterns are designed for woven fabrics and are both great choices for new sewists.
Choosing your fabric is super exciting, there is such a wonderful variety of dressmaking fabrics available to home dressmakers now. However, do try not to be swayed by a pretty print in favour of choosing the correct fabric type for the style. We suggest for your first go, to follow the fabric suggestions as detailed on the back of all our patterns as these are a guide to what fabric to use to achieve the drape and fit of the garment as shown on the pattern envelope front.
As you gain confidence with a pattern and make it up a second, third or even fourth time, you may wish to experiment with many different fabrics. I plan to try making the cosy jersey dress out of a drapey woven crepe this summer as a fun experiment!
Edge finishing
The edges of woven fabrics will fray so you need to finish them. See our post on finishing fabric edges for details.
What stitches to use for joining your seams
When sewing woven fabrics, use a straight stitch with a length setting of approx. 2.5mm - this is the default on most modern machines. Backstitch to reinforce at the start and end when joining any seams. sometimes you might be asked to use a basting stitch to temporarily join fabrics. To do this elongate the stitch length to the longest it will go to on your machine - usually 5mm. This creates a stitch which can be easily removed.
Seam Allowances are 1.5cm for all MHW patterns – we like to keep things simple!
The easiest way to work out what a 1.5cm seam allowance looks like is to measure from the needle out to 1.5cm and mark this on your needle plate with some pretty washi tape.
Choose your thread wisely
We always suggest using good quality polyester thread for making garments or anything which will be washed regularly, as this is stronger than cotton and has some stretch. Why jeopardise all that hard work you’ve put into making your garment with cheap, brittle thread?
We love Mettler Seralon thread for all general sewing and use this on our machines at home and in the Crafty Sew&So Workshop
The Everyday Amazing Top
This simple pattern with lots of variations will help you build your confidence working with a variety of materials.
