How to Sew Sheer Fabric

Sheer fabrics can be a little bit intimidating to work with, but with a few tools and techniques, you can successfully sew them. So let's start out by talking about some of the types of sheer fabrics, just so you know what fabric to pick for your project. So sheer fabrics can be divided up into two basic categories of sheer crisp fabrics and sheer soft fabric. So when we're talking about a sheer soft fabric, we're talking about a fabric that has a really soft hand. So gos has a really soft hand and it drapes a lot like chiffon.

This is a synthetic polyester chiffon that has a lot of drape and a really soft hand. And then this is a silk that also has a really soft hand. And so when you use these softer fabrics there's a few little tricks and techniques to use to manage the softness. And then on the other hand, you have the crisp fabrics that are more like organza like this. And you can see that has much less drape and it holds its shape a lot more.

Another one that's crisp would be a voile, or you might hear people say voile. Sometimes in curtain stores they say voile so just be aware that people say both. So voile is a cotton fabric. And it also has a sheer quality to it. It's not quite as transparent as an organza, but it does have that crisper hand that holds its shape more.

So this is a good choice for curtains and for garments as well, that you want a little more coverage than a super sheer fabric like organza. There's also lots of specialty sheer fabrics that might have some shine mixed in. So this is another organza that has a sparkly texture and a little bit more of a pebbled effect on it. So when you're using these types of crisp fabrics that have a shine to them, you always want to follow the width nap instructions on the pattern because sometimes they shine different ways from different directions. So you just want to make sure that all of your pieces that you cut out are shiny in the same way.

So let's also talk about some of the other tools that you want to start with when you're sewing a sheer. So I like to use a padded surface to cut on, and that's because it's not as slippery as your table, or even a cutting mat, a cutting mat still has a little bit more slippery surface. So you can use a padded cutting mat like this. That's also good for pressing on, or you can, if you have one of those inexpensive vinyl tablecloths that has a flannel back to it, you can also put that on your table and that will prevent a slippery fabrics from sliding around on it. So another thing that's great about a padded surface is that you can actually pin into it.

So when you're laying out your pattern, you can actually anchor the pattern pieces in place using a pin instead of having to pin through the layers and cause shifting. So you also want to use a pretty, super fine pin. So these are really narrow pins that don't cause big holes in the fabric because the enemy when you're sewing shares is snagging, because that can just ruin an entire project that you've worked on. If you get one snag and it continues throughout the fabric. So we're going to use very sharp, very fine pins, same thing with if you're using a hand sewing needle, pick a fine sewing needle that's very sharp.

And always test your needles first to make sure they don't have any burrs because even a little snag can cause a big problem in your project. So same with machine needles, don't use a needle that's any thicker than a regular universal needle. In most cases, a standard size universal needle will be okay, but if you're using a really, really delicate fabric, you might want to use something smaller so that it doesn't cause too large of holes in the fabric. And when you're cutting, it's great to have a pair of these big fabric sheers. I like using these kinds of scissors for cutting sheers because they have a long blade.

So I can get a long cut at once. Because the last thing you want is a lot of little choppy cuts when you're cutting a sheer because less movement the better. If you really want to stabilize your fabric, you can place the sheer fabric between two layers of tissue paper. If you have tissue paper and you can see your pattern pieces through it, that's another way that, that just gives you some stability when you're cutting around them. Another thing that's helpful is to use a serrated pair of shears.

So these shears actually have a little serrated, tiny serrated edge, just like a knife. So that grabs the fabric, rather than just sliding through it and distorting it. So those are also very handy. If you don't want to use shears, you could also use a rotary cutter, in which case don't use a padded surface, use the mat that your rotary cutter goes with. But rotary cutters are great for cutting sheers very quickly, because you can get at any angle that you want without having to be moving your scissors through the fabric.

So just always make sure that your blade is very sharp, again, because snagging is the last thing you want when you're cutting out your fabric. So another thing to think about is how you're going to mark your fabric. So think about whether or not your fabric can, how much heat it can take, or if it's okay to put water on it. If you have a water soluble marker, then don't put a water-soluble marker on a fabric that you don't want to get wet. So sometimes some sheers like some silk sheers might get spotting from water.

So don't use that for that. You might want to use a Taylor's chalk or something that you can just brush off. I like these heat removable pens, because in most cases you can iron most sheers, even if it's a fairly cool iron. If there's just a little bit of heat, it'll remove these fine-tip markers. So I like to use those a lot of the time when I'm marking a sheer fabric.

Another consideration is what type of thread to use. So you probably don't want to use just your basic all-purpose thread for most sheer fabrics, again because they're so delicate that a big regular size all purpose thread might be too bulky for it, or cause snags. You want something that glides through the fabric really nicely and has it has a very smooth texture to it. So it just smoothly sows. So I often use an all-purpose thread.

That's an extra fine thread. So you can find that most of the time at the fabric store, they have a section for fine or extra fine all purpose threads. So that's polyester thread. And that works well also because it's very strong. So if you don't want to use a synthetic thread, you could also use a cotton thread and just make sure that it's a fine weight.

And that also that has been treated with the process, mercerization process, because that smooth out the thread. So this is a Mercerized cotton thread that has a nice smooth texture. A lot of the time people use Mercerized cotton thread for quilting again, cause it just slides through so nicely. Lastly, you can use a silk thread, and a silk thread again is great, because it has such a smooth texture. It might be a little less strong than using polyester, but it can be beautiful to use silk thread for silk fabric.

So if you're using a silk chiffon, you might want to use a silk thread just because that'll be very compatible with that fabric. Another thing you want to think about is interfacing. So the last thing again, that you want with a sheer garment is for the interfacing to show through from the front. And especially using a fusible interfacing, you don't want to use that because it will pucker. Any little pucker will show much more on a sheer fabric than it would on a basic, opaque fabric.

So the best choice usually is to use this fabric itself as you're interfacing. So if you're using organza fabric to create a garment, use organza for the interfacing, just add another layer, and hand stitch it in. If you must use a fusible, then just make sure you pick a very lightweight fusible that's very soft. And won't take away from that pretty texture and pretty transparent quality of your sheer fabric. So this is a very lightweight fusible, and this is another, this is a knit fusible that can work well for sheers or for semi sheer fabrics because it's not heavy.

It doesn't have that crispy, hard texture like your basic interfacing has. When you're using interfacing to stabilize the sheer fabric, also always be sure to pre-shrink it. Because again, any pucker, if you wash the garment, and the interfacing shrinks on its own, it'll show, it'll pucker and it'll pull away from the fabric and show 10 times worse than it would on a regular fabric. So think of that before you start your garment, and then try and think about when you're choosing a pattern, a pattern that will lend itself well to the type of fabric that you're using. So you don't want to choose something that has a lot of interior details like darts or zippers because you'll see them on the outside of the garment.

So try to pick, like looser styles that have fewer construction details, because then you're taking advantage of the transparent quality without fighting against it. So there's this swimsuit cover up here that's a great example of a pattern to use for making a sheer garment because it has fairly few seams and it has just a loose, pretty shape to it that allows the sheer fabric to be the star of the of the show. So, try and think of patterns like that and don't fight against the fabric, instead just try to work with it. So on that note, let's practice sewing a little bit with sheers. I've got a couple of little tips for working with soft sheers.

One of which is if you have ever tried to sew a sheer fabric and the sewing machine swallowed it up into the needle hole because it couldn't get started. Then you can look and see if your machine manufacturer carries a single whole needle plate. And that has just one tiny hole so it doesn't allow the fabric to get eaten up and sucked in by the feed dogs. So look and see if your manufacturer carries one of those. If they don't or if you don't have one, there are a few other tricks that you can use.

So I have an example here of this very soft chiffon fabric that I've sewn just using the basic settings on the machine. And even though I tried my best, it still showed up puckery and it's still started to slip because of the textures slipping against each other, no matter how much you pin, sometimes, those fabrics are just so wavy and so slippery that they don't want to stay together. So you can see that my end to my seam didn't line up and I've got this puckering here just from all of that movement. So something you can do to prevent that is to use water soluble stabilizer, again, think about whether or not your fabric can be washed, or if you can get it wet because you don't want to use a water soluble stabilizer where you won't be able to dissolve the stabilizer after you've used it. So in this case, this is just a polyester fabric, so it's okay to get it wet.

So I've just placed a piece of water-soluble stabilizer just a strip, a scrap from my roll here. And I've just placed it underneath my seam so that it gives it just that extra little bit of stability as I'm sewing to prevent it from distorting. So you can already see that it's nicer and less puckery than the one that I sewed without it. And it also allows the sewing machine to get a good bite and a good start on the fabric and doesn't try and swallow it down and get pushed down by the needle. It gives it a nice surface for the needle to poke into.

So after you've sown your seam that way, you can then just dissolve the water-soluble stabilizer according to the manufacturer's instructions. And I've got this very nice clean tidy seam that doesn't have that puckering and it doesn't mis-align when I'm sewing it. So when you're using a soft fabric, that's a great way to stabilize it. So let's talk a little bit about the types of seams to use when you're sewing a sheer. The most important thing to think about when you're sewing a sheer is that your seams are going to show.

The seam allowances will show from the outside of the garment. So you want to, if you can, you want to enclose those seam allowances. So it looks pretty from the outside as well. So there's several different types of seams that work well for that. And one of the most common and easy to construct is a French seam, and a French seam is entirely enclosed.

So I'm just going to show you an example quickly of that. So with the French seam, you end up with this nice completely enclosed edge. And as you can see from the outside of the fabric, it's pretty inconspicuous and it's all enclosed. Also sheer fabrics have a tendency to ravel a little bit more, especially something like organza. So having an enclosed seam keeps them, protects that seam allowance, and it's also very strong, so the delicate fabric doesn't slip along that seam.

So let's take a look at how to sew a French seam. And it just takes one more step than a normal seam. So it's pretty easy to do. So you're going to start, if you have a 5/8ths-inch seam allowance, always check your pattern to make sure what the seam allowance is, but since 5/8ths is pretty common, these instructions will work for that. So you're going to start out by sewing your fabrics with wrong sides together.

So that's counter-intuitive because most seams, you always are sewing right sides together, but line up your fabrics so that they're wrong sides together. So you can see I've put these two wrong sides together and then you're going to stitch your seam first using a 3/8ths-inch seam allowance. So I've done that here. I've just gone ahead and stitched a seam using a 3/8ths-inch seam allowance. The next thing that you want to do is press the seam toward, so you're going to fold.

Actually first you want to trim it. So you're going to trim away up to about an eighth of the seam. So I'm just trimming close and parallel to that seam. So now I just have an eighth of an inch left. So we've trimmed that away and now we'll press it.

So we're going to press it this time so the wrong sides are facing out. So you just want to get a really nice, crisp edge pressed there. So just press right along the seam you've just sewn. And sometimes when I'm doing really close work like this, I have a little heat protective sock that goes on my pointer finger, so I don't burn myself. So if you're doing sheer fabrics, look for that.

You can find those at most fabric stores, it's a little heat resistant knit protector for your fingers, so. Now we've pressed it. So you can see we've pressed right along the seam we just sewed and I have that done here, and trimmed. So the next thing I'm going to do is stitch with wrong sides out, I'm going to stitch it using a quarter-inch seam allowance so that we end up using the correct 5/8ths-inch total. So I'll just go ahead and stitch that.

And that will actually enclose the entire raw edge. So this is how the seam ends up looking from the right side of the fabric. It just looks like a standard seam. And give it a little press to set the stitches. I'm using my super-fine thread in this case, again just because this is that voile fabric that's pretty, pretty fine.

So from the outside, you just have what looks like a regular seam. You usually just press it to one side, press the seam allowance to one side. And then from the inside of the garment, it's very in conspicuous and it's all enclosed. So that's a great way to construct a sheer garment, is to use French seams. If you have a very sheer fabric that is very see-through and that would even be too bulky for that, those instructions, you can also make a narrower one.

So again, if you're using the 5/8ths-inch seam allowance, then you're going to align your fabrics with the right side facing out. So you can see that I've marked mine because on these fabrics that don't have a print on the outside. I always try and save myself the accident of getting mixed up which side is which. So I've marked both of my fabrics with the removable marker to say right side. And then I've lined them up.

And in this case, I'm going to stitch first using a half-inch seam allowance. So I did a half inch seam allowance here, and then I'm going to come along again and trim it. So in this case, I'm going to trim it really small. So probably more like a 16th of an inch. So I'll just come along and be really careful.

Again, it's really nice to have these serrated blades that don't slip around as you're cutting a slippery fabric. So I've trimmed it there to a 16th of an inch. And then I would follow the same process of folding it along the seam I just sewed. But this time I'm going to use an eighth of an inch seam allowance to sew the remaining step, so that it just ends up much narrower. So you can see that that is a little bit less bulky than the seam I sewed in the voile.

So just change up the widths that you use for a smaller for a more sheer fabric. Finally, sometimes those French seams are tricky to stitch around curved edges, especially something very curved like an arm sigh. So for that, you can use an alternate seam that is still, it's still protects the fabric. It isn't all the way in closed, but it does keep the fabric from raveling and it does look nice from the outside of the garment. So for that, I just went ahead and stitched my seam using the seam allowance that's provided on the pattern and then stitched again an eighth of an inch away from it.

So, especially in a matching thread, it's very in conspicuous. And then I just went along and trimmed as close as I possibly could to the second row of stitching just to make sure that you don't cut through the stitching, but that just ends up also looking pretty inconspicuous from the outside. And it's just much easier because you don't have to fold up the additional bulk around those curves. So last, let's talk about hems because hems also you have a few extra considerations when you're sewing a sheer. Again, because you can see the hem allowance from the outside of the garment.

And also because you don't want to distort or ruin the nice flowy texture that you have. So you want to think of something, usually something narrow. So you can always use a narrow rolled hem, if your serger has that setting, you can set it to a narrow rolled hem and use a matching thread and that sometimes works really well. Especially just for something like a scarf, that would be a great finish for that, because it just creates that little tiny edge. But if you have something that's a little bit more substantial, you can make a rolled hem.

A rolled hem, you can do using this specialty foot. A specialty foot usually has a little coil in the front of it that actually folds the fabric for you so you don't have to get in there with the iron and trickily have to fold it with your fingers. This will actually guide it as you go. If you're using a soft, very soft fabric, sometimes these can be hard to keep them in the coil. I also have a narrow seam that I like to use that doesn't require a special foot.

It just requires a couple of extra steps, but it ends up with a very nice narrow finish that looks great on most sheer fabrics. So for that, you're just going to start out with your hem allowance. And so I've done my hem allowance and then I've trimmed it to a quarter inch. And then the next step is to just press that along the seam that you've just sewn. So just fold and press it exactly on that edge.

So just exactly along the stitching. So that you end up right along that stitching edge, so that you have the hem allowance that you're then going to tuck in. So the next step with that is to trim that really close. I've got my next sample here. So we're going to actually, the next step is to stitch it.

So you're going to stitch really close to where you just folded and pressed the fabric. So you stitch a second line. So this is how you ended up looking from the outside. So you you'll only see one row stitching from the right side and you'll see the two rows of stitching on the wrong side. So we're going to use a special pair of scissors to trim this allowance.

These are applique scissors and/or a duck bill, sometimes you hear it called that. So we're just going to, these are cool because they protect the lower layer of the fabric when you're cutting. So we only want to cut away the hem allowance. We don't want to cut away the actual garment fabric. So you can see that they just slide along and only cut that upper layer and protect the lower layer.

So I'm going to cut that as close as I can. So it's all trimmed. So once you've trimmed the entire thing, then you can come in and here it is after I've trimmed it. So that's trimmed away. And then I've pressed it again toward the wrong side.

Just really close again, along those first stitching lines just to hide it entirely from the right side of the garment. So on the right side, you see no stitching. The last step is just to stitch directly over your last stitching line that you can see on the outside of the fold. So just sink needle down exactly where that stitching line is, and then you're going to stitch exactly over it. Or as close as possible to it.

And that will enclose all of the edges and you'll only end up seeing the one visible stitching line on the outside. I've stitched really close to my first stitching line. And then on the outside of the garment, as you can see, you just end up with this very, very narrow edge, and just the one stitching line on the outside. So that's a great way to finish a scarf or to finish a blouse. That would be a great way, if you were making a voile blouse or a garment out of a fabric like this, then that's a great hem for it.

Last, I just have a shortcut hem that's great to use for fabric on the bias. So sometimes if you're doing a formal garment out of sheer fabric, that's on the bias, this is a great way to finish that. And it's shorter than using that narrow hem technique. So all I did here was a fold back a half-inch seam allowance. And then I set the machine to a very narrow zigzag to short and narrows zigzag.

And then you can see it's on the bias grain here. And then I stitched it really close to the fold. And then I just use my applique scissors again to come in and trim away that layer that we don't want. So from the outside, it's very inconspicuous and pretty and it has, it allows the bias to hang the right way. So that's another shortcut for more sheer fabrics.

Lastly, I'm just going to show you in case you do any machine embroidery, don't be afraid to embroider on sheers. Just make sure that when you're choosing a machine embroidery design like on this garment here, we've chosen a design that's really fairly open, and doesn't have a lot of dense stitches, and you can use again, a water soluble stabilizer for machine embroidery will work well for that because it completely disappears from the back. So you won't see it from the garment front. So yeah, never be worried to experiment with that. This is on organza, just using a metallic thread.

So, hopefully those have given you some new tricks and tools to use to manage sheer fabrics and use them in your sewing.