The right fabric for the right project
There has been a bit of a debate on the sewing-focused internet world lately regarding what those who sew and create should call themselves. Are we sewers (but it sounds like a waste disposal network!)? Are we seamstresses (so confining, old fashioned, and gendered)? Are we sewists (but it’s a made up word – gasp, shock, horror!)? I’m actually OK with all of them. I tend to use seamstress because, well, I’m an old-fashioned girl. Really though, they are all slight misnomers, because the things that make the biggest difference in the final result of your project often aren’t the seams themselves: they are fabric choice, cutting, and pressing. Pressing is so, so important – I’ll talk more about it later (the most accomplished draper/dressmaker/seamstress/costumier/pattern cutter, whatever you want to call her that I have ever worked with used to say “Never trust a seamstress who doesn’t use her iron more than her sewing machine”), but today I want to talk about fabric choice. Fabric choice can make or break a project. A really, really, …