Sewing with Homespun Fabric

If you love wearing blue jeans and denim, then you're definitely gonna love wearing homespun fabrics. I absolutely love homespun fabrics. They just have that soft comfortable cozy feel. So what exactly is homespun fabric? Well, it's a modern 100% cotton fabric.

It has a primitive look and that's what gives it the cozy feel. The fabric actually is designed to mimic the fabric that the pioneer women used to weave at home for the clothing for their families out on the Prairie's. It gets softer the more you wash it, that's part of the beauty of homespun. It just gets softer and softer and just has a rich patina of its own. Another thing that I really like about it is you can see it particularly well on this grey piece is it has little slugs and imperfections to it.

And those imperfections are what really give it its character in its beauty. It just has a richness that you can't duplicate with a printed fabric. That's because the designs are made by the threads. The color goes all the way through it's woven it's not printed on. So each thread has the dye all the way through it.

And then it's woven to make this reversible fabric. There really isn't a right or wrong side to homespuns. Now always you will find homespun in one of three things. It will either be a solid, it will be a plaid or it will be a stripe. That's it, that's the name of the game with homespuns but there are some concerns you need to be aware of as you work with this wonderful fabric.

First of all if it's a plaid it's gonna require matching you will need to match your plaids. Now, not all plaids are the same as you look here this is what you would call a non-directional plaid. That's because it is symmetrical. There's a stripe in the center. And then there's an equal number on either side of the center stripe.

And they're the same colors. It doesn't matter if it's a two color plaid such as that one with the large plaid or if it has multiple colors again, in this one solid line for the center in dark blue, there's a rusty red on either side of that followed by another blue one. So this is what we call directional. It will be very very easy to match. Then you have your non-directional plaids or rather a directional plaid pardon.

A directional plaid means it always has to go one way. In this case, the cream stripe is always to the left of the blue, or I guess if you're turning it upside down it's to the right, but it's in the same place. So when you cut your fabric you cannot reverse for instance, on this one as long as I matched my notch up at the same point I can flip my pattern so that it's going 180 degrees different and maximize my fabric on this one I would have to have them both going in the same direction. I can't flip that pattern piece. It has to go in the same direction for my plaids to match.

And that's the secret to success with homespun plaids or stripes. You want to match them. So they look like they are professionally swoon and not just a homemade garment. You also need to buy extra fabric. If you matching plaids on something like this it's repeating about every less than a quarter of an inch.

So you don't have to buy extra fabric. This one it's only an inch, but if you get bigger one you may need to buy just a little more extra fabric. Sometimes all it takes is an extra quarter yard to be safe but it is something that you will need to keep in mind. You also may have to buy a little extra fabric because these wonderful fabrics have a very high shrinkage rate. It is a hundred percent cotton but cotton can shrink at the rate of easily three to 10%.

This tends to be on the higher end. So you always wanna pre shrink your fabric especially if you're making garments because you don't wanna get it made. And then have it be too small the first time you wear it, the color may run. It's not as prevalent with our more modern fabrics but occasionally you will get homespun where especially if it's a dark blue or a deep red or even a black, you're very very vivid colors. It may run just to be safe get yourself some shout color catchers.

You'll find them in the laundry aisle at your grocery store. They are a thick feels like paper that is treated. You throw this in the washer and it catches the dye while your fabric is washing and now you won't have any more pink underwear from somebody tossing in the red sock, these work wonderfully well, I can attest that they really do what they say and you can safely put whites in the laundry and not have to worry about it. And I find it through these in anytime I've got a new piece of homespun, just make a habit of it. It's a very loosely woven fabric.

I think you can see how much it's ravelling here depends on the piece, but we do get quite a bit of ravelling with homespuns. So it frays very easily. That means that you need to stay stitch any curves around your neck line, around your sleeve cap around the arm hole opening anywhere there's a curve you're gonna want to stay stitch it to keep it from ravelling. You will also want to finish all of your seams on your garments when you're working with homespun whether it's with a surger or whether it's with a seam finish on your sewing machine take the extra time and finish those seams. You'll be very very glad that you did.

Homespun's tend to be a little stretchy, depends on the piece. Some are more stretchy than others. They're very lightweight fabric. But what I recommend is before you cut out your garment go ahead and you start your spray sizing on it. Just to give it a little bit more firmness and stability.

The best patterns for homespun are those with very simple lines. Think simple fabric, primitive fabric If you will, simple times back on the Prairie. So you want simple lines perfect for shirts boxer shorts. Oh, they're so comfortable when they're they're washed for any kind of like a pajama bottoms unlined valances that they give a very homey look to your kitchen or anywhere in your home. If you use homespun for valances they look really great in log homes or log cabins they're wonderful for frayed napkins, just do a line of stitching a waist back and then just sit there and start fraying it.

And pretty soon you'll have beautiful fringe on your napkins. The other thing because it is so stretchy is you're going to want to use or interfacing in your garments particularly on your plackets on your button hole side in your buttons side, to keep it from getting distorted. So a lightweight interfacing is all you need. It doesn't have to be real heavy, but you put that in now you have just a little bit more body. You'll need to use it on the edges of pockets, your collars, your cuffs, anything that you want to look crisp and sharp.

Handle it gently because of these characteristics. I highly recommend that you pin pin and then pin some more so that it not only that help the plaid stay matched, but also that your garment comes out even at the end because of the shifting of this particular fabric is a shorter stitch length just a little bit go with about a two maybe about a 12 to 14 inch. If you're using the other types of sewing machines just tighten it up. Just that just a touch. Not too much 'cause if you need to rip it out, it's gonna be tough and this does not rip very easily.

You wanna guide when you're stitching and you definitely want to press your garment. You don't want to iron it again. Ironing can distort, just press it gently. If you're having problems with the fabric getting caught in the needle hole because of its lightweight characteristic go ahead and switch to a single hole needle plate. As you can see, the hole is very small.

Normally on a zigzag, the plate is a large oval. This is tinier, some machines it's even smaller than that. That means that the fabric can't get caught down or pulled into the hole by the needle. This is a very very worthwhile accessory for your machine. If yours doesn't have it.

The other thing you can do is use a leader strip, just take a piece of fabric folded in half, started in the machine. And after you've sewed for a little bit then you're going to put your next piece right next to it. And the needle goes right into it. You won't have any more problem with the fabric pulling down in to hole. The leader strip is a wonderful low tech, low cost solution to having your fabric end up inside your needle plate.

So give homespun a try. I think you're gonna have a lot of fun and you'll really enjoy working with them.