Tips for Interchanging Knits and Woven Patterns

The majority of commercial sewing patterns are written for either knit or woven fabric, however Nicki LaFoille gives tips on how the two fabric types can be combined or interchanged as well as gives tips on how to sew different fabrics together.

How to Sew Different Fabrics Together

Nicki begins by showing examples of different commercial sewing patterns and explains how a pattern will offer fabric suggestions. While this can be as simple as a knit or woven fabric, most patterns will take it a step further and off a variety of different fabric possibilities. If a pattern does not offer fabric suggestions, Nicki explains that by looking at the garment type you can generally tell if you should use a knit or woven fabric.

If the garment has some kind of closure, either buttons, a zipper, or another method, it is generally made for woven fabrics. If there isn’t a closure, that implies that stretch might be required and the pattern is most likely for knit fabrics.

Nicki then explains that if you plan to interchange the fabric types, it is important to take into account the amount of ease a pattern has. If the pattern was written for woven fabric, it will have more ease added in to allow the garment to fit.

If you plan to make the garment from a knit fabric instead, you can remove some of that ease, or make the garment a size smaller. If you plan to go the opposite direction and make a garment from woven fabric that was intended for a knit, you will need to add in ease and/or add a closure method.

Doing a straight substitution of one fabric type for another can be tricky, so Nicki also gives tips for mixing and matching sewing fabrics within the same project.

Once you learn about these basic fabric types and gets tips on how to sew different fabrics together, learn how to work with other fun fabric and get tips for sewing with sequin fabric.