There’s nothing quite like a good pair of denim jeans, is there? It’s such a versatile fabric which only improves with age and wear. We have the French to thank for denim, originally woven in the town of Nîmes for overalls and sailcloth it was known as “serge de Nîmes” which got shortened to “de Nîmes” and the name was born. Denim is a strong and durable twill woven fabric made from 100% cotton. Traditionally the warp yarns are dyed an indigo colour and the weft yarn is left undyed which is why true denim fabric is different colours on either side (for real fabric geeks, if your denim is the same colour on both sides it’s actually jean fabric, not denim!) We have recently started stocking denim, you can see our collection here and we carry a wide range of weights (including fat quarters) and colours. We also have stretch denim which is particularly great for clothing makes.
Uses for Denim Jean Fabric
Denim is super versatile. As it’s 100% cotton it’s great for casual wear clothing such as jeans, skirts, jackets, shorts, children’s clothes, workwear overalls and protective clothing. As denim is very hardwearing it would also be great for home wear items such as oven gloves, cushions, decorative upholstery and bags.
A Guide to Denim Weights
Denim comes in a vast array of weights and one of our most frequently asked questions is whether a denim classes as light, medium or heavy weight.
Lightweight – or under 12 Oz.
Mid-weight – or from 12 Oz. – 16 Oz.
Heavyweight – anything above 16 Oz.
The rule is the heavier the denim, the better it will age and fade *but* heavier weight denim will be very stiff to start off with and take time to wear in and soften. The most common denims used, and the easiest to handle, are the light and medium weight.
Sewing With Denim
Denim is a rough and tough fabric and the main problem is poses for sewing is the thickness of the fabric, as such you need to right kit for the job to ensure success. 1) Use a denim needle which are stronger than “normal” needles and have a sharper point both of which will help you sew through a heavier fabric. 2) Use denim thread, it’s stronger and especially important on stress seams. 3) Go slowly! Those layers of denim might leave your machine struggling, if that’s the case then slow down and use your hand wheel. 4) Reduce bulk. Some machines will glide through layers of denim with no issues, others might not have the wellie needed to cope. If this is the case then reduce bulk where you can by pressing seams out flat or by using thinner fabrics as facings of linings which is not only practical, but will also add some pretty design features to your work. You can also trim seams right back to your stitching line (being careful not to cut your stitches of course) 5) Use a longer stitch length, about 3-3.5 should do it. Have you made anything lately with denim? I’d love to see photos if you have!
Plush, minky, cuddlefabric… whatever you like to call it! (For an update on why we don’t call the fabric “minky” in the UK like the rest of the world does see this post) There’s no mistaking the lusciousness that started me on the road to ouronline shop.The trouble is (for us) the last 50cm-75cm of every bolt we have can only be sold as afabric remnant. The pile near to the centre of the bolt gets brushed up the wrong way and crushed when the weight of the rest of the fabric piles on top of it. Then it’s stored by the manufacturer for a while and in that time unfortunately the pile goes a bit wayward and no amount of stroking it puts it back to it’s former glory. The fabric isn’t permanently like this as the pile isn’t damaged per se, it’s just got a bit of bed hair so needs a little coaxing to restore it.
We finish a lot of plush bolts each week which means we have a lot of remnants being created all of the time, in fact we are drowning in the stuff. We have a whole corner of our warehouse dedicated to plush remnants! There are just too many for us to list for sale individually so we alsosell bundlesat a reduced price. I thought I’d share this quick guide on how to breathe the life back in to the end of roll plush fabric. It’s perfectly good, and a bargain too so it’s worth considering having a go at this if you are a plush lover.
Everything I’d ever read about plush or minky fabric told meneverto iron the fabric, not surprising when you think that it’s 100% polyester so liable to melt! I first discovered this technique completely by accident, I was experimenting with some plush remnants to see if I could iron onBondawebto the reverse of the fabric and run it through our die cutter machine to make some plush appliqué shapes. Low and behold, not only did the Bondaweb stick, and I could, but the pile on the plush was completely restored.
Restoring Smooth Plush (Smooth Minky Fabric)
1) Set your iron to low and turn off the steam and iron the reverse of the fabric
Often that’s all you need to do! It very much depends on the extent of the issue and will vary each time.
2) If you find this hasn’t worked try increasing the heat slightly. I’d recommend never getting any higher that the wool setting on your iron, any higher and you risk melting the fabric.
3) Sometimes the higher heat still doesn’t fully do the job and some bed hair remains, if that’s the case then flip your fabric over and iron the right side, making sure that the iron passes in the same direction as the pile.
How to Restore Dimple Plush (Dimple Minky Fabric)
Now dimple is a different beast, whatever you dodon’tgo ironing dimple as otherwise the dimples will disappear. For ages I didn’t think anything could be done to restore dimple without a wash but then I had a brain wave and had another little experiment… and it worked!
Here’s a before picture…
All you need to do is pop your dimple plush in the tumble dryer for 10 minutes (mine was on the highest setting). Don’t leave it sitting in there to cool or it will crease more. Remove it and smooth the pile down
And here’s the finished result, perfect!
Most cuts will restore as good as new using these methods, but some are stubborn and just won’t completely disappear this way, but the pile will always restore after a launder in the washing machine as these bad hair days are not a permanent thing.
If you have discovered a different method then I’d love to hear it.
Following on fromthis post,this is the second part of making a child’s skirt. I’ve not split these up as it’s an arduous task making this skirt, just simply because there are a few techniques I’ve used that are very transferable outside of little girl’s skirts so I figured it’d be an easy way to to take the bits you needed.
1) Use a foot with a bar
I often get comments about how neat my topstitching is and people often wonder how I can get a row of stitching so close to the edge of a garment and it be so straight! Well let me share my secret, I always use a foot to help achieve those dead straight lines. I have several “go to” feet for top stitching depending on where it is on a garment and how close to the edge I want to be. All these feet have the same thing in common – they all have a little bar that your fabric butts up against and you can use as a guide.
These are the three I use most often but if you have any other type of foot with a bar it will work too.You can achieve different widths by moving your needle position left and right(look carefully where you needle will come down so you don’t hit a bar!). The one that gives the narrowest results is the edge joining foot pictured on the right. I’ve never used this foot for edge joining, I *think* it’s supposed to be for attaching lace to garments but I cant be 100% sure and it was the first one I used to help me top stitch. Then when I started quilting I got a few more feet, and they had bars too – yay! The 1/4 inch foot gives you a wider top stitch and the stitch in the ditch is great when top stitching where 2 fabric meet, like here in between the piping and the skirt.
2) Increase your stitch length
When top stitching you’re often going through several layers of fabric, especially if you consider you’re often sewing through both the seams as well as the fabric. To give your topstitching the best chance of looking neat it’s a good idea to increase your stitch length. I generally increase from 2.5mm to 3mm, sometimes more if fabrics are thick, or there are more layers.
For my skirt I used a stitch in the ditch foot and set my needle position to the left and the guide nestled in the ditch between the two fabrics and left me with a beautiful, even and neat top stitch.
I recently ordered some rather drab mouse mats from our stationery supplier, they are made of recycled car tyres so I felt rather virtuous purchasing recycled and all that, but they were *so* boring and not the least bit pretty so I decided to get busy and cover them with some of our *very* pretty fabric. It was the simplest thing and literally took less than 10 minutes to complete and you don’t even need the sewing machine.
You will need:
Cotton fabric of your choice. You’ll easily get 4 out of a fat quarter (mouse mat size dependant of course!) and it needs to be cotton as you’re going to iron it.
Here’s how to make it. If you put the kettle on now you will be finished before it boils!
1) Cut out your Bondaweb and fabric a little larger than your mousemat.
2) Iron the Bondaweb on to the reverse side of the fabric. I always flip and iron the other side to make sure the adhesive is well and truly stuck.
3) Wait a few minutes for the Bondaweb and fabric to cool to ensure the glue is firmly adhered to the fabric. Remove the Bondaweb backing paper by scoring with a pin and then peel away.
4) Place the mousemat on to the now sticky side of your fabric ensuring the edge of the mousemat runs parallel to any pattern on your fabric to ensure it’s straight. Flip over and iron your fabric to the mousemat so the Bondaweb adheres, make sure you give it a good press.
5) Trim around the edges of the fabric with a rotary cutter using the mouse mat as a guide for your blade.
6) Dab some Fray Stoppa all the way around the edge of the fabric with your finger, brushing in the direction of the fabric threads. Viola! Time to make your cup of tea 🙂
We recently took delivery of somecotton elastane rib knitat Plush Towers and I’m a little bit in love with it. It’s such a great alternative to elastic and I think it looks much more professional.It can be used for waistbands, cuffs, t-shirt necklines etc.
I decided to make another skirt followingthistutorial fromDanamadeit.comand customised the waistband to use the rib knit. It took under an hour (it was actually closer to 30 mins!) I thought I’d share how I pimped the waistband:
1) Work out the amount of fabric you need to make the skirt by following the instructions onthistutorial.
2) Decide how high you would like the rib knit waist band to be and deduct this amount from the length of the main skirt fabric.
3) Measure your child’s waist and cut a length of rib knit according to this measurement plus one inch and twice the height you’d like the waistband to be. I cut mine 3″ high, then fold in half giving me a 1.5″ wasitband. Press the waistband whilst folded along the length.
4) Sew the 2 short ends together to make a circular waist band. Use an overlocker, or an equivalent stitch on your sewing machine if you don’t have an overlocker.
5) Fold in half along the pressed fold. This is your finished waistband.
6) Make the skirt by sewing the 2 short ends of your fabric together to make a tube.
7) Prepare the hem by folding up about half an inch of the hem, and them half an inch again so as to hide the raw edge. You can adjust the exact hem length later.
8) Gather the waistband by basting 2 lines of stitching along the top of the skirt, leave long threads at either end.
9) Pull the threads tight and gather the skirt.
10) Put the skirt inside the waistband with right sides together and ease out the gathering on the skirt fabric so it matches the waistband and the gathers are evenly spread. Pin, or make it easier with Wonder Clips
11) Sew the waistband in place with your normal machine very close the the fabric edge. Once secured and you are happy the gathers are even secure with an overlocker, or overlock type stitch. Stitching in place first makes it easier to correct any gathers, should you need to.
12) Check the length of your skirt on your child and hem accordingly by pressing half an inch, then folding over again to hide the raw edge
13) You’re done! Easy peasy rib knit waistband is attached.
My next project with rib knit is this jacket. I’m going to use red double sided cuddle fleeceand use Scarlet rib knitat the cuffs and waistband (instead of the ruffle). That’s the plan anyway! I might need to finish some UFOs first 🙂
