Fun with Fleece Session 3: Shopping Tips

The number one tip I can give you for when you go shopping is that there is a huge difference in quality between fleece. You truly get what you pay for, so my best advice to you is don't scrimp when it comes to fleece. Buy the best quality you can find. It comes on bolts. You'll see it folded, flat folded in the fabric store.

How do you know what's good quality fleece? It's very confusing. There's all different types of labels and brands. Well, the number one thing is go for the feel. You want something that's plush.

If you can see your hand indentation in it, that's a good indication of just how plush it is. You want to literally feel with your hands. And when you pick up fabric and you're doing this motion with the fabric between your fingers and your thumb, and you rub your thumb over, that's called feeling for the hand of the fabric. The hand of the fabric is several things. It's one, the drapeability.

How, how nicely does it fold and drape for how it will be on your body? It also is feeling for softness, silkiness, plushness, thickness. What does it feel like? Does it feel good when you touch it? Do you want it next to your body?

Do you think you could wrap up in it and be cozy and happy on a cold winter day? That's the biggest test in my mind for fleece. Go for the hand. The next thing is your eyes. Your eyes don't deceive.

And if you think back to the last session, I told you how fleece was made and how the yarns are twisted, knitted, and then sheared to get this plush feeling that we have here. This is almost the lure like feel. Well, with that becomes a big indicator of quality. If you can look through the nap, if you can kind of move it back and you're seeing individual threads, that's not a good quality fleece. You should not see any threads at all.

You should just see nice, wonderful plush fabric. The next test comes with prints. Your eyes do not deceive. So look at the print. And you want to make sure that the design, all the different elements in the design, and this is a real good one because you have the star here with the points.

Is it sharp? Is it clear? Now it's not going to be crisp, crisp because of the nap that is going to brush over the design. But is the design itself relatively sharp? Words are another good area to look at.

Are they sharp? Are they legible? Are the lines straight? And more importantly, you want to take and look at the fabric, open it up across the bolt, and look. You can't see quite all the way here, but you're going to look across this bolt.

And what you're looking for is is the fabric printed straight? As you can see, this one is very straight. I was able to cut it right on the lines. And it's even, and it's straight. If it's veering off as it goes toward your edges or toward the selvage in particular, if it's veering off it is not printed with the grain.

And if you cut with the grain, your print is going to be crooked on the body. If you cut with the pattern, it'll never hang right because you're going against the grain. You aren't being true to the grain. So really look at how the fabric is printed. If it's, if it's printed off grain, I would not buy it.

And it's probably not a very good quality of fleece. Now you need to know the right from the wrong side. And we're going to use both of these fabrics for the example. It's important to know what's the right side, okay. This one, it looks the same.

It feels the same. Who cares? You can't use both sides. The reason is the finishes are applied to the right side because that's the side that's out there for wear and tear. Whether it's the flame-retardant, the wicking finish, or the anti pill, you really want to make sure they're on the outside.

So the problem is, fleece, for whatever reason, is not always rolled onto the bolt with the right side out like most fabrics are. Sometimes it's rolled with the right sides in to protect it and to make sure that there's not a lot of rubbing and pilling on it. A lot of manufacturers will roll it the opposite way. Some bolts are literally rolled in the store and the employees do it. So there's just no rhyme or reason.

So how do you know which is the right side? The first test is come along the selvage. The selvage is this edge that looks, it usually has little dots in it. And that's from the fabric being on the weaving machines the way it's attached. The selvage is always woven tighter.

And so when you're working with it, you always want to cut off the selvages, you want to eliminate those. But they are your friend when you're shopping, and when you're getting ready to lay out your pattern. If you stretch the selvage edge, it should roll to the right side, should roll. So like in this case, it's rolling in. So this was one where it was folded to the opposite side.

If you aren't getting a good feel on your selvage, come over to your crosswise grain and pull, and it is going to go to the wrong side. So I think this one, we determined it was coming in. Let's see if we get a roll. so you can see it's, this one rolled into the right side. This one rolled the opposite way to the wrong site.

Let's try that test again with our print see if we, we have a, the same response. Now in this case, my selvage is a little bit wider so I'm gonna pull on it and you can see it immediately rolls that way. And if I come here, it's rolling in, which is exactly right because this is my inside. Look at my two helmets. Do you see the difference in the sharpness?

Let's turn it around so it's maybe facing toward each other. This, this helmet, the face mask is a little bit clearer. The star is definitely clearer. Here, it's a little blurry. So that's a really good test for determining the right side from the wrong side.

Now, remember, when you're shopping for fleece that it has a nap. So it is automatically going to be a directional fabric. When you look on the back of your pattern, it will tell you measurements for yardage based on directional and non-directional fabric. And it includes the extra that you will need for your layout. If it doesn't have it on there, you will want to allow extra, to buy some extra fabric.

The other thing that you need to know is that if you have a directional print, or if such as this, you're going to need to buy a little bit of extra fabric to match the print. So look at how often it repeats and buy, you know, take a measure of that and buy that much extra fabric so you're able to match plaid, stripes, maybe a large like this, a large block print, you're going to want to have it going evenly across the body and make sure your side seams are matching. So you would want to buy a little extra. In this case, my repeat is approximately six inches. I'd have to measure it, but just looking at it, it looks like about a six inch repeat.

So I'd probably buy an extra quarter of a yard when I was shopping for this particular print. After you've found your fabric, well you probably needed to go pattern shopping. So what kind of patterns work well with fleece? The best ones are the ones that are designed for fleece. This particular one was for a pullover jacket, and it' got the little ear warmer there or head band.

And it, on the back it on, as you look for, at the very top of your pattern, it will tell you what types of knits or fabrics. And right at the top, it says misses and men's tops and headband for stretch knits only. And then as you go through, it actually lists fleece as one of the fabrics. So of course this would be a good one. Another one, so this McCall 7311 is a good pattern.

Simplicity, 7356. Two hours sewing. Gotta love that. This one's got a vest. It's got mittens, and it's got, I think six different hats for this particular pattern.

Again, these were designed specifically for fleece. Another one is Simplicity 7854, and I will have all of these pattern numbers on a PDF for you. You don't have to write them down. This one's got some zip-up jackets, one with the hood, one without. It's also got the sport pants, and or sweat pants, and a couple of different hats.

Another good one. So again, the nicest ones are the ones that are specifically developed for fleece. Another of my favorites is the one that we're going to use for the bonus project for the one piece PJ pants. This is a pajama pattern. It has three different versions of pajamas.

It's also got a bathrobe. Oh bathrooms are wonderful in fleece. And they're so easy to make. So this is another good pattern. But as you look at the fabrics, it's got flannel and some knits and some other ones listed.

Just look on the back and make sure that it's for a knit or a stretchy fabric. That's one thing you want to, want to look for. Another thing, if you notice on these different patterns, and you can see it when you open up the pattern sheet. When you're in the store, don't be afraid to go in and pull out the direction sheet. Oops.

If you've been sewing for a while, you can probably tell just by looking at the pattern. But if you, if you're new to sewing, I recommend that you open up the instruction sheet. And the reason I want you to do this is because on the very front page of an instruction sheet, it shows you all the pattern pieces. And you can go in and find out exactly which pieces you need for your garment for what you're going to make. And you can see that for instance, on this jacket, it looks like a I'm going to have a yolk.

I'm going to have the lower part. I'm going to have a back yoke, the lower back, and then obviously a sleeve, and the front facings, and my parts, if I'm going to do a hood or not. So I can start counting up and seeing how many pieces. We want to have minimal amount of pieces when we work with fleece. We want to have simple lines, and that's because fleece is bulky.

So you don't want to have a lot of seams. A big area that I want you to look for or is you want to look for what we call a dropped sleeve. This one, a set in sleeve is right up on your shoulder and it has a higher sleeve cap. And I'm going to show you a good example in just a second. We want to have the dropped seam where the seam is not on the shoulder.

It's down lower, just like it is here on the pajamas. It's off the shoulder. The reason is it's a little bit wider piece. Fleece is almost impossible to gather. And for set in sleeve, you have together the sleeve cap.

So you either want a Raglan sleeve, which is where it comes up from the underarm. And it will come right up into the neck and be part of the neck line. And I don't have an example with me. You just have to trust my description here where it's going to come up and be part of the neck line. Or the Raglan sleeve is wonderful for fleece.

Or the drop sleeve. So let me show you the difference. Let's start with a regular one. This is a regular sleeve, the pattern. And this is the part that we have to normally gather that goes up into the shoulder and to the arm hole.

And you can see that it's very tight and you have to gather all of this fabric in to make it work. A drop sleeve, on the other hand, this is the top of the sleeve. And you can see it's much more gradual and that's going to ease in a lot smoother for you than trying to do the traditional sleeve. So again, you can look on the pattern instruction sheet. You don't have to fold out the pattern in the pattern store.

You can look on the instruction sheet and it will show you exactly what kind of sleeve that you're getting. Now, when it comes to closures on a garment, let me show you real good example. This, this is a jacket that I made oh, years ago. It was one of my first efforts with fleece, actually. It was kind of fun to make and you can see that it's a, it's been worn quite a bit.

You can see where it's been pilling. You can see that it's one of those fun, fun prints to wear. And I combine the two, two fabrics together, a print with a solid. And did some embroidery on it. I'd gotten a new embroidery machine and this was a practice piece for it.

Fleece embroiders beautifully. It will take it very, very nicely. Just make sure you using a stabilizer underneath. It takes quilting very, very nicely. It shows up quite well.

Top stitching, you name it. It's a great fabric to work with. I really like it. But for closures, I try it to avoid buttonholes. They're a little bit difficult, and we'll talk about these in the next session.

They do work. There's a lot of tricks that you have to do with them. What I prefer are snaps. Snaps go in very well. They look very professional.

You'll be happy with the look. I also tend to like to use cording and use a a grommet, metal grommet to run your cords through. This protects the fleece from stretching out. If you try to do a stitched islet around there, it will stretch in time. The metal holds.

It also looks similar to what you would find in a commercial garment. And it's just going to wear very, very well. This, I can't tell you how old this garment is. It's probably going on a good 15 years, believe it or not. It's one of those ratty garments that my husband just won't get rid of.

It's the shovel the driveway when it's snowing, it's the chop would kind of go to garment. So it's had some love. With the cord, you're going to want to use the cord locks. And they're very easy to apply. That one isn't as easy for me to move.

But they slide up and down, and they anchor, and you just put it on the end of your cord. Make sure you knot your cord. And you're going to want to either put some fray check fabric glue on it, or just burn the edges. And you have a very, very nice finish. Another option that's very popular are sport zippers.

They're a little thicker. I don't have an example with me, but they're usually thicker, they're plastic. They can be metal. And they have a bolder look to them, but they're more durable for outerwear. And they're very good, especially the plastic ones, for snow, ice and rain.

They stand up to the moisture. So I highly recommend using those. If you want to use buttons, I suggest using bigger ones and using loops, either cording or elastic. It, it's just going to be a little bit easier. It's going to be a little more professional look.

But it's going to give you some things to think about of working with this versatile fabric and saying, hmm, what's going to be the right look and have some fun when you go shopping looking for those wonderful closures. So in the next session, I'm going to get you started on some pattern layout tips and get you sewing.