I see posts all the time in the Facebook sewing world about using different types of knits for a pattern. Patterns usually include information on how much stretch a knit should have for a given pattern. Some patterns will also list what types of knits will work for a specific pattern. But let's be honest here - they cannot possibly list an exhaustive list. There are so many types of knits out there and it seems like more are coming out every day. Below is the same top made in 10 different fabrics!
I'm going to be honest with you - I never intended to write this blog post. It just kind of happened. It all started when I made these fun
Purple Cactus Flower Tactel pants.
These pants are so BOLD! I made this
Bella Sunshine Designs Ladies Sophia to wear with them with matching brushed nylon. Both of the fabrics above are from
Zenith & Quasar. I can't just have 1 or 2 tops that match my pants - they wouldn't ever get worn. So, I looked through my stash of fabrics looking for a few prints that would look great with these bold pants. My summer wardrobe is severely lacking. I know - shocking! I couldn't see myself wearing these pants outside of Spring/Summer or on a cruise, so I decided that I would make a few loose fitting tanks to wear with them.
One of my favorite loose tanks is the
Sinclair Patterns Shelby. It was way easier than I could have imagined to find prints to match my pants and before I knew it, I had 5
Shelby's cut out and ready to sew. As I looked at my pile, I realized that each one was a different type of knit. I then went through a mental list of the major types of knit that I was missing and decided to grab a few more. I then decided I would show how each type of knit looked on the same pattern.
First up is this super cool jellyfish print on cotton lycra. This fabric is from
Jumping June Textiles it's an Ernst Textil from Europe and is out of stock.
Wanderlust Designs Custom Fabrics also ordered this print as a retail only print and will have it available for purchase mid August. I've made a few
Shelby's in cotton lycra before and while it works - this is not an ideal fabric for this top. The cotton lycra tends to give a boxier appearance since it does not have as much drape.
This cotton lycra has 95% organic cotton, 5% elastane/spandex, and weighs 220 gsm. It has 4-way stretch.
What is Drape? According to the dictionary -
The drape of fabric or material is the way it looks — the shape it takes — when it's hanging. What this means for the cotton lycra, is that it tends to keep its shape when hanging, versus laying flatter against my body and taking my shape.
I also made a dary blue/charcoal color pair of
Patterns for Pirates Palazzo Pants and they paired very nicely with many of my tops, so I'll show them with a few as well. So while my top still looks great and will get a lot of wear, it would probably look even better if it had been a different type of fabric.
Next is this beautiful Butterfly print Athletic Brushed Poly (ABP) from Zenith & Quasar fabric. The ABP prints from Zenith & Quasar are printed on a heavyweight base, but the printing process does smoosh it a bit and makes it feel lighter and over time the fabric fluffs up and gets softer with each wash. It's an athletic knit and touted by the manufacturer to be breathable, moisture wicking, and antimicrobial. I love wearing this fabric year round and can attest that it keeps me cool and dry in the 100 degree heat! The ABP is 87% polyester and 13%spandex, and weighs 265gsm. It has 4-way stretch.
It has more drape than cotton lycra, but not quite as much as some lighter weight knits. This makes it a very versatile fabric. It also matches my green
New Horizons Portlander Pants that I made last year. I pulled them out to see how they looked with one top in particular, and also loved them with a few others.
One of my favorite fabrics is Bamboo Lycra. It has the most drape. If you use a Rayon Spandex Jersey or a Modal - they will also have drape very similar to this bamboo lycra. This print is called
Sea Swirl and is from
Wonderground Fabrics. This bamboo lycra is 95% bamboo and 5% spandex, and weighs 230gsm. It has 4-way stretch.
The
Sea Swirl has so many colors in it, that I could probably wear it with any pants. They also look great with my green pants.
One thing to take into account with bamboo lycra and rayon spandex is that it does shrink. Some more than others. So always buy more than a pattern calls for to account for shrinkage.
Next is a poly spandex jersey. This was a remnant I picked up at Wherehouse Fabrics. This was actually one of the smaller remnants that I have found there as it was under a yard. I barely had enough for my top and the bands. The content and weight are unknown, but this knit has 2-way stretch.
Most poly spandex jerseys have good drape. However some can be a bit clingy and staticy. This one is a bit clingy feeling, but the Tactel doesn't stick to it. This top also looks great with the
Palazzo pants.
You can see in this view that the poly spandex jersey drapes very nicely. The great thing about poly spandex knits is that they do not shrink.
Next up is a double brushed poly (DBP). This feather print was from
Smoogie Fabrics. The DBP is 93% polyester and 7% spandex, weight is 210-230gsm. It has 4-way stretch.
DBP tends to have excellent drape. However it can be very clingy and staticy. It can also be very hot. I tend to only use it for very loose tops, sleeveless tops, or for winter wear.
Next is a Liverpool. What is Liverpool you ask? Well, basically it's the new double knit of the 70's. It's a polyester knit, but the "new" version has spandex in it. It's typically textured, thicker than your average cotton lycra, has some drape, but also enough body to give items a bit of structure. There is a huge variety as far as stretch, weight, and thickness goes. This one below is on the lighter end of the spectrum. I found this remnant at Super Textiles and it was barely enough for my top. I had to do a binding instead of bands on it - that's how little I had!
This one has about the same drape as the ABP. This one looks great with my
palazzo pants.
This one is probably my favorite. But that might be because it's one of my designs on
Spoonflower. This is the
Spoonflower Modern Jersey. This is my favorite base to buy from
Spoonflower to make drapey tops with. It's 95% polyester and 5% spandex, and weighs 210gsm.
The
Modern Jersey is a poly spandex knit - like the one above. However, this base has a very nice cottony feel and never clings or gets staticy. It also keeps colors very well and they stay crisp and vibrant a very long time. This print is available in my
Spoonflower Shop. It's
Variscite - it's based on a photograph I took of a Variscite Specimen at the Smithsonian Gem & Mineral Collection. It looks great with my green pants. This is the top that I pulled my green pants out for.
Next is sweater knit. Now sweater knit comes in a huge variety of types as well and can be made of all kinds of fibers. I love using sweater knits and find them to give a more polished look to an otherwise ordinary knit top. This one is of an unknown content. I'm not positive where it came from, but there's a good chance it came from
Sincerely Rylee. Darcy has an amazing selection of all kinds of knits at great prices. I've been known to buy her sweater knit mystery boxes - and I think this is from one of them.
This sweater knit has 2-way stretch and is a medium weight and fairly stable. Some sweater knits can have a looser weave and can be a bit more difficult to sew. But using a serger, lots of clip, and going slow and making sure you and the machine are not pulling the fabric as it is being sewn - will ensure fabulous results. This one doesn't really match the pants I had handy, but I'll likely wear this one with black pants.
Next up is another fabric from
Sincerely Rylee. This is the
Nala french terry. The French Terry from
Sincerely Rylee is 87% polyester, 10% rayon, and 3% spandex. This gives a super soft french terry with more drape than most french terry. The day I decided to take these photos I wore my
Nala top with these leggings I made with distressed jegging knit from
Mily Mae. These leggings also look great with some of the other tops I made, but it was 100 and I was too hot and sweaty to want to put these back on after I did all the other photos.
My
Nala top also looks great with my
Palazzo Pants!
I purchased this
Nala fabric flawed last year - it was flawed because the background on the french terry was a bit more heathered than it was intended to be. But honestly - I love it more than the non-flawed version.
Finally we have Brushed Nylon from
Zenith & Quasar. This fabric is currently out of stock. I personally love brushed nylon and wich I had it in a million colors. It is like ABP and swim knit had a baby. It's super soft and fluffy on one side and slinky smooth like swim on the other. It has 4-way stretch and amazing drape. It has 80% nylon and 20% lycra and 200gsm weight.
It looks great with my Purple Cactus Flower pants - and can be worn really with any color pants.
If you think my
Shelby's look different, some I did cut a little bit longer - maybe 1 or 2 inches, and some may look longer due to using a drapier fabric with a lot of vertical stretch. I hope these photos help you to see how the fabric type can affect the way a garment looks when worn. Knowing how a fabric drapes and how much stretch (and if it has vertical and horizontal stretch) can help you make a more informed decision on what patterns are best for it. There are many more kinds of fabrics that I did not use for this post - velvet, thermal, rib, and many others. I really enjoyed making this post and being able to fill my closet with some much needed pieces. I think I may do this again, but with a cardigan pattern - it's another item I have been intending to make more of and I could use a few to wear over all these
Shelby's I made for when I wear them to work.
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