Some Of The Many Items You Can Get That Are Made With Fleece
If you want an easy sewing project, use polar fleece. Polar fleece is an excellent material for any beginner. You can use it to create blankets, hats, mittens, jackets, scarves, pants, pullovers, and more. There is little to worry about when working with fleece providing you have chosen a polar fleece of good quality.
Polar fleece comes in three weights: light weight, medium weight, and heavy weight. The fabric weight that you choose determines the type of product that can be created.
Heavyweight fleece is best used for blankets and coats. Often there are high quality waterproof fleeces that are perfect for outdoor wear. Heavyweight fleece is excellent for winter clothing. Skiers love it because it is light weight but incredibly warm.
For mittens, hats, scarves, and fall jackets, purchase a medium weight polar fleece. Again, more expensive versions of this fleece will be water resistant. Medium weight fleece provides enough protection from fall weather.
Lightweight or micro fleece is perfect for pullovers, pants, and glove linings. As is true of the heavyweight and medium weight fleece fabrics, there are more costly versions of micro fleece that offer water resistant qualities. Lightweight fleece provides some warmth, but not an excessive amount. It is perfect for cool spring days.
Look for fleece with a tight weave and resistance to pilling (shedding small clumps of fuzz.) One good way to understand the difference between a high quality fleece and a lower quality one is to go to a sports shop. Examine and feel the fleece they use in their outwear. This is top quality fleece and the type you will want to use. Now go to a cheaper department store and examine and feel their inexpensive gloves and scarves, this is the fleece to avoid.
The Internet is an excellent place to look for fleece. Many websites will provide you with small fabric samples if requested, some for free and others ask for enough money to cover shipping. Because of the number of online fabric stores, you are guaranteed to find competitive prices. Typically, high quality fleece will cost less than $25 per yard.
Once you have purchased your material, you need to be sure you have the other supplies on hand. For any project you should have a pattern, needle, thread, sewing machine, pinking shears, rotary shears, and access to the Internet for additional tips and answers to any questions that may pop up.
Do not rush any sewing project. Taking your time ensures quality. Do not expect your first go to be perfect. Even experts make mistakes. Therefore, demanding perfection of yourself on the first time out is an unnecessary waste of your time. After all, practice is the key to perfection.
Source: Free Articles
Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Beach Florida. Find more about this as well as personalized baby blanket at http://www.shop4blankets.com
Some Of The Many Items You Can Get That Are Made With Fleece
If you want an easy sewing project, use polar fleece. Polar fleece is an excellent material for any beginner. You can use it to create blankets, hats, mittens, jackets, scarves, pants, pullovers, and more. There is little to worry about when working with fleece providing you have chosen a polar fleece of good quality.
Polar fleece comes in three weights: light weight, medium weight, and heavy weight. The fabric weight that you choose determines the type of product that can be created.
Heavyweight fleece is best used for blankets and coats. Often there are high quality waterproof fleeces that are perfect for outdoor wear. Heavyweight fleece is excellent for winter clothing. Skiers love it because it is light weight but incredibly warm.
For mittens, hats, scarves, and fall jackets, purchase a medium weight polar fleece. Again, more expensive versions of this fleece will be water resistant. Medium weight fleece provides enough protection from fall weather.
Lightweight or micro fleece is perfect for pullovers, pants, and glove linings. As is true of the heavyweight and medium weight fleece fabrics, there are more costly versions of micro fleece that offer water resistant qualities. Lightweight fleece provides some warmth, but not an excessive amount. It is perfect for cool spring days.
Look for fleece with a tight weave and resistance to pilling (shedding small clumps of fuzz.) One good way to understand the difference between a high quality fleece and a lower quality one is to go to a sports shop. Examine and feel the fleece they use in their outwear. This is top quality fleece and the type you will want to use. Now go to a cheaper department store and examine and feel their inexpensive gloves and scarves, this is the fleece to avoid.
The Internet is an excellent place to look for fleece. Many websites will provide you with small fabric samples if requested, some for free and others ask for enough money to cover shipping. Because of the number of online fabric stores, you are guaranteed to find competitive prices. Typically, high quality fleece will cost less than $25 per yard.
Once you have purchased your material, you need to be sure you have the other supplies on hand. For any project you should have a pattern, needle, thread, sewing machine, pinking shears, rotary shears, and access to the Internet for additional tips and answers to any questions that may pop up.
Do not rush any sewing project. Taking your time ensures quality. Do not expect your first go to be perfect. Even experts make mistakes. Therefore, demanding perfection of yourself on the first time out is an unnecessary waste of your time. After all, practice is the key to perfection.
Source: Free Articles
Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Beach Florida. Find more about this as well as personalized baby blanket at http://www.shop4blankets.com
Sewing Tips for Fleece
Even though fleece is easy to sew, there are two sewing tricks that can make your fleece experience much more pleasant!
First, you want to use a longer stitch length when you sew fleece. Rather than your normal setting of 2 or so, you may want to go up to a 4 or a 5. Some people even suggest a basting stitch for fleece!
The reason is that fleece stitches can pull through the fabric if the stitch length is too short. Longer is better when you sew fleece. The plus side of this is that it makes your sewing much faster!
Next, you want to make sure of your "right-side/wrong-side" when you sew fleece. Some people are surprised to find that fleece has a right/wrong side -- the print usually appears the same from both sides. Solid colors have the same color depth regardless of the side. How can right/wrong side come into play?
The catch is that fleece will always curl to one side or the other. The side it curls towards is the "wrong" side! When you cut a piece of fleece, you'll not the cut edge will always curl in a certain direction. Take careful note of this when you assemble fleece garments or projects; match your right/wrong sides carefully to up the quality of your finished product!
To make this a little confusing, the selvedge edge of fleece doesn't folow this rule! The selvedge edge normally curls towards the "right" side! For best results, don't leave your selvedge edges raw -- trim them instead. After all, fleece edges won't unravel, so there's no real need to keep the selvedge edge.
Keep these two tricks in mind when sewing fleece and you'll find your sewing experience much more pleasant -- and the results more enjoyable!
Joey Robichaux operates Sewing Machines and Sewing Projects -- offering free sewing projects and reviews of older mechanical sewing machines -- as well as Sewing Stash, an extensive sewing and crafts directory.
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