How to Choose a Sewing Pattern & Fabric

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Rebecca, and I'm going to talk about, how to pick out a pattern and fabric. The first thing to think about when picking out a pattern is your personal skill level or how much work you feel like putting into this particular garment. If you want something that you don't have to think about much, or if you are a beginner, picking a pattern that's marked as level easy or beginner is a good idea. Once you have a basic knowledge of sewing and a decent skill level for those basics, then you can move onto intermediate patterns, and of course, once you really want to go for it, there are those advanced patterns out there. So, for example, this pattern right here for a fleece vest is an easy pattern, there's not so much to think about, they're not even any sleeves or cuffs and you can cut it out and sew it up in just a couple of hours. A pair of trousers, men's or women's would be an example of a medium project. An example of an advance pattern is a suit jacket for men or for women. Often times the fitting of it and especially the collar can be difficult areas. Now that you've picked out your pattern, it's time to pick out the fabric that goes with it. A few things to think about when picking out fabric. One, fabric weight, another one is the feel of the fabric, is this something I want touching my body or somebody else would want to wear, and the third one is the drape, how does this fabric hang. If it is a loose weave then it would probably hang quite nicely, and if it's a tighter weave it might have some more stiffness to it. So there's a lot of things to think about when picking out a pattern and the fabric to go with it, design the garment you want to make."