Making a Men's Shirt: Choosing Fabrics

Video Transcript

" Hi! I’m Stephany from Stephany’s Simply Sewing on behalf of expertvillage.com. I’d like to talk to you a little bit about choosing fabrics for a pattern. I would like to make my husband a shirt, and as I discussed earlier, you check the back of your pattern. This pattern back indicates that I can use flannel, gingham, laundered cottons, batiks, broadcloths, calico, chambray, lightweight denim, and a few others. Obviously, for this pattern, when I look at the styling I notice that it’s rather simply styled, so I want to have fabric that will allow me to do that. Some examples of some fabric that will work will be this fabric. This is a very lightweight fabric that is suitable for a men’s dress shirt. This one I would probably take into account for the season, it’s a little bit heavier and would use this one for a cooler season. This fabric will also work. It too is a very lightweight fabric; however, I would want to use this fabric for making a shirt that would be used during the warmer months. This fabric also would work. It is almost the weight and texture of the common sheet; however, it is regular dress making fabric. Some examples of some fabrics that would not work. I would not like to use this satin for obvious reasons. This is a dress shirt; he’s going to be wearing it to work. The other fabric I might not want to use will be this fabric. The reason why I wouldn’t want to use this fabric is it’s called a bottom weight. It is quite a bit heavier, and as you can tell it just doesn’t hand quite as nicely as these fabrics do. This a little stiff for a dress shirt. So there are a few considerations that I make when choosing fabric. In addition, you may want to consider your person you’re making for their color choices. My husband happens to enjoy wearing greens, beiges, and browns and they will fit in very well with his wardrobe. There are a few ideas for you to consider when choosing fabric for a pattern that you would like to make."