 Let's talk about interfacing. I know that it is one of those things that you think to yourself, oh, do I really need to do this? Can't I skip this little step? And I'm here to tell you no. Interfacing is a game changer when it comes to garment sewing. There is no way getting around it. You must use interfacing when a pattern calls for it. And sometimes when the pattern doesn't even call for it, you need to start adding interfacing to all of your projects if you aren't already. Now, I also know that the world of interfacing is vastly confusing. There are so many different types and they're not always super clear as to what type is best for whatever project you're working on. So I reached out to the folks at ThermoWeb and told them that I was interested in doing a video, kind of exploring the different types of interfacing and they responded. They sent me swatches of their selection of interfacing along with little cards that explain what it's good for, where you can use it like within a garment, what it's made from. I mean, there is a ton of information in these swatches that they sent me. So we are gonna be doing an interfacing swatch video and I hope that what this does for you is kind of demystify interfacing and kind of helps you see, like literally see the different types of interfacing, how they're woven, how sheer they are and those kinds of things. So that next time you're going to make a project, it's a little bit more instinctual for you to say, oh, I know what kind of interfacing I need. You can choose the right interfacing for the type of fabric that you're using and also the type of project that you're working on. So that's where we're gonna start. I have a lot more of ideas planned for kind of helping you guys understand and navigate interfacing. But for today, we're starting with basics and we're gonna go over the different types of interfacing that exist. So meet me at the cutting table, where we're swatching it. All right, how beautiful are these nice big swatches that they sent me? I've got things kind of separated into categories here to kind of help you understand the different types of interfacing and then the types within the types. So basically you have different types of interfacing and then within those categories, you have different weights. Same thing with fabrics. Whenever you go look at cotton fabrics, for example, you will run the gamut from everything from lightweight cotton chambray, for example, all the way up to like heavyweight denim. And the same applies to interfacing. So first up, we have the non-woven fusible. This one comes in white and black. You can see that the interfacing is 20 inches wide and that's how the, on your patterns, whenever fabric requirements are listed for interfacing, it's usually based off of a 20 inch width. So that's really good. These are 100% polyester. I think, yeah, all the non-woven fusibles are 20 inches wide and 100% polyester. So all of these are gonna be really good for collars, buttons, cuffs, plackets, and seams. All of them are gonna be good for interfacing all those areas of a garment. Really it boils down to what type of fabric you're using. So the feather weight is going to be best for a fabric that is really lightweight and a non-woven fusible versus a woven fusible, which we will talk about here in a second. The non-woven fusible is more like a bunch of compressed fibers. Like think about the lint that comes out of your dryer after you're done. It's kind of like that, but spread really thin and then glue added to the back. So this is gonna act a lot more like paper, whereas the woven fusible, I'll show you here in a second, is gonna act a lot more like fabric. So in terms of stabilizing, if you want a really crisp stabilizer, something that is going to make your, wherever you're applying it, super, super, super crisp, then you're gonna want to use the non-woven fusible. So again, we've got feather weight, which is really nice, lightweight. And then we move up to lightweight, which also comes in white and black. And you can see the weight of this here. Whoa, they're sticking. Blah, blah. Which you can see here, a little less drape on that one. And then you can imagine as we go up to the medium weight and then to the shirt weight, which only comes in white, we have even heavier, stiffer sort of interfacing here. So this is the medium weight. You can see a lot less drape there, and this is the shirt weight. So if you are looking, let's just look at all of these white ones. If you are looking at each of these and sort of trying to decide which weight do I need, I know what kind of fabric I have, you're not gonna be able to tell a huge difference between feather weight and lightweight. You will be able to tell a difference though between feather weight and the shirt weight for sure. So you need to think about your fabrics and it's not like a precise science, but if you are using lightweight drapey fabrics and you want a crisp stabilizer, use the feather weight. If you're using kind of like a lightweight cotton or like rayon poplens or anything like that, you're gonna wanna go somewhere in the middle road here. And then if you're using shirtings and you're trying to make like a crisp like button down shirt or shirt dress, then you're gonna wanna go with the shirt weight non-woven fusible. So again, it's not like you're gonna make a mistake choosing feather weight over lightweight, but choosing shirt weight over feather weight, that will be a very, very big difference. Something for you to kind of keep in mind when you're picking weights. It's got to apply, it's gotta be relative to the fabric that you're using it on. Then we move into our woven fusibles. We have ultra soft woven fusible that comes in white and black. And then we also have soft woven fusible. And you can see that the woven fusibles, like I said, are gonna act a lot more like a fabric and less like a paper. And the soft woven is made from 100% cotton, whereas the ultra soft is actually made from polyester and some version of natural fibers. So bamboo, rayon, cotton, things like that. And then again, it's good to use the stabilizer in the area of a garment where it needs obviously the extra stabilization, but this one actually calls out the uses specifically for the fabrics. So this one is flowy silks, lightweight, and silk doesn't always, silk isn't always lightweight. Lightweight linens, light woven cottons, and then also for all those places that we've been going over, cuffs, cotton collars, button plackets, all of that kind of stuff. So you've got the white and the black, soft woven fusible, it's really, really nice. It is actually soft to the touch, which is nice as well, but it's got a little bit of weight to it and it's not super, super drapey. So you're gonna wanna make sure that if you're using the woven fusible, rather than it being a crisp stabilizer, it's gonna be more like a, rather than let's try and use an analogy of zigzag versus curved, okay? So if you wanna zigzag sharp edges, right? Then you're gonna go for the non-woven fusibles. If you want something a little bit smoother, a little bit softer, kind of flows like the fabric flows, then you're gonna wanna go for woven fusible. The lighter weight version of the soft woven is the ultra soft woven. This is super, super lightweight, super, super drapey. I mean, it doesn't get much more drapey than that. So again, it's gonna be like a fluid sort of stabilizer. It's not gonna produce something super, super crisp. It's gonna act almost as if you just have like a lining there, you know? Something to just kind of add another extra little lightweight layer to keep things, you know, nice and full without heavy, without it being heavy. And that is the ultra soft woven fusible. Isn't that nice? Oh, dreamy. Okay, now we're gonna move on to the Trico fusibles. So we've got shear weight. We've got all bias, which I guess I'm thinking you probably know that's for. And we've got the medium weight, all right? So the Trico fusibles are warp knit fabric, okay? Polyester warp knit fabric, again with a 20 inch wide width. It works great on lots of different fabrics. Great for garment construction, tailoring, more support for lightweight fabrics or minimal support for heavyweight fabrics. This is the medium weight one. Whereas the shear weight one is great for very loose weave fabrics. Like, you know, when you're looking at a linen and it's almost like opaque, it's not because it's made from like super thin fibers. It's just the fibers are looser when they're woven together. They're looser woven rather than super, super tight like this, and that's why you can see through them. So the shear weight Trico is gonna be great for that. It's just gonna add a little bit, something to kind of just, you know, keep those fibers, you don't wanna stay together, right? Y'all wanna stay like this and not stretch out more. That is what the Trico fusible is gonna be really great for. I love Trico fusible specifically for waistbands. I think it does a great job on waistbands because again, it works really well on lots of different fabrics, behaves more like a fabric does, but just adds that extra little support you need in a waistband. In a waistband, you don't want a crisp, you know, zigzag interfacing, you know what I mean? You don't even want the super soft non-woven. You want something that is like whisper that's just, that's there and you know it's there because it's giving you the support, but it's not adding anything else to it. It's not adding any more weight, any more thickness, not even a ton of structure. It's just adding like another layer and that's what the Trico is going to do. So let's look at them, the drape on these. Both of these come in black and white. So you can see it's a beautiful, even drape, not super, super drapey like the soft, the ultra soft, but certainly not like paper either. It's a lot more like a fabric. So that's sheer weight and then we have the medium weight. All right. And again, you're not gonna be able to tell a huge, huge difference between sheer weight and medium weight, but if you just think of it as loosely woven fabrics or lightweight fabrics and then your medium to heavy weight fabrics, you are gonna be just fine. I love a Trico fusible, love, love, love. They also have a Trico fusible that's all bias. So use your noggin and tell me what you think that means. That is right. It stretches all ways, four-way stretch. So perfect for anything, any woven garment that has a lot of bias to it, like an armhole or a neckline or even your knit fabrics. If you're making a knit dress and it has a surplus bodice and you've got that band that you want to go all the way around and they ask you to interface it, again, you don't want something super, super crisp. You don't even want anything super heavy. You just need to add something in there that's gonna stretch with the fabric, stretch around your body and they make an interfacing just for that. Can you believe it? So this is the soft stretch all bias Trico fusible, really, really nice. Again, soft flexible shaping versus crisp firm shaping for armholes, necklines, hems, no stretch limitations offering plenty of give in all directions and it drapes with the fabric as the fabric drapes. So that's your Trico section. So now we're getting into sort of specialty interfacings, whereas the all bias Trico is great for knits and it's a good all around one for stretch all around. The medium weight weft fusible is gonna do the exact opposite. If you have a stretch fabric that you don't want to stretch anymore or if you've got something that is cut on the bias that you do not want it to stretch out, the medium weight weft fusible is going to be the way to go. So 20 inches in width, it's polyester and 20% rayon weft knit. So it's kind of like a blend of the nonwoven fusible with the Trico fusible, kind of sort of blended together, dry cleanable. So not necessarily ideal for your wash and dry at home, but it does limit the stretch on both grain and cross grain for a very stable support, stretches a little bit on the bias, the overall significant support for fabric year after year. So you can see the bias stretch here. I mean, it's almost impossible to not have bias stretch, but whenever we're going this way, no stretch whatsoever, none whatsoever. So if you have somewhere on your garment that is prone to stretching out and you don't want it to stretch out, add the medium weight weft to that. Again, this is nice for waistbands as well, but only waistbands that sit super high on your waist. If you're working with a curved waistband and you know you're gonna be sitting down and you need the extra ease to be able to like, you know how your stomach gets bigger when you sit down, you would not want this at all. You're gonna want something that stretches out a little bit, but in areas like the shoulder seams in surplus neck bands, in areas like that where you do not want it to stretch ever, this is the way to go. The weight of it is a little bit lighter weight than medium weight would indicate. It's just a little bit, it is medium weight, it's just a little bit draper than you might imagine. And I think that just has more to do with the rayon than anything else, but the fact that this limits stretch is the exact opposite of the all bias tree coat, right? That's what you need to know. Anywhere that you want to limit stretch, you're gonna go for this. And again, available in white and black. Now we're getting into some like crafting type of interface things. I don't use these too, too much, but if you're making belts, bag handles, tote straps, hat brims, and even some garment applications, then you're gonna want to try out some of these craft ones. So, firm, non-woven fusible, needle-punched fusible fleece. We've got extra firm, non-woven. We've got this woven hair canvas. You can also use it with leather, canvas, denim, corduroy, and other heavier fabrics. Great for tailoring coats and jackets. You're gonna see this a lot. If you ever go to make like a truly tailored blazer, you'll see this sew in canvas a lot. We have extra firm. I mean, this is like straight up like craft paper. We have pattern material, okay? So, let's move away from all of this. You guys know what fusible fleece and the non-woven fusible. I think this firm is what I used in the brim of my hat for the Sew Together in July. So something to really help keep that brim nice and stiff. Also great for bags, same for the extra firm. Bags, bags, bags, tailoring. All right, home decor, frames, bowls, placemats. So again, this is moving into a little bit more of a craft section, but I mean, that's like straight up like paper. All right, so we have this pattern material, right? This is 58 and a half inches wide, 100% polyester, clothing, craft, home decor, and quilts similar to muslin, but offers a greater value as creating new patterns and resizing existing ones is easy and affordable. Trace patterns or print directly onto this can also be used as a lightweight Sew In interfacing. This is like a tracing paper that can be sewn, right? It can be, it's like tissue fitting, but actually better because it's moldable to your body, whereas tissue paper is so crisp, this is crisp, yes, but not nearly as much as tissue paper is. I'm gonna try and show you drape. It doesn't have a ton, but you can see that it's easily moldable. So you can trace your pattern pieces onto this, cut around them like with a lot of excess, then put them on a dress form and tissue fit them that way so that you can pin and add and take away and do all the things you need to do right here from this one material, rather than trying to do that on tissue paper and you know how that stuff rips. This stuff is pretty indestructible. I mean, that was a really decent tug. Certainly more of a tug than tissue paper would be. So that's a really cool thing that I didn't even know that they had and that comes from the Stitch and Sew brand. We also have a firm non-woven Sew In. So they're saying Blazers jean jackets with defined shoulders, French cuffs, costumes, I mean, this stuff, I don't know that I can think of a single garment that I would put this in unless I wanted it to be purposely like over the top stiff. You know what I mean? Like I don't think this is meant for like an everyday kind of garment. This is definitely something a little bit more special, but there is that. Okay, so lots of information there. I know I get it. Hopefully you took some notes. You do not need all of these interfacings. You know what kind of projects you like to make. Those are the kind of interfacings that you should start with. Start with the projects and the fabric that you know and love and the interfacing that works well with that. Start incorporating interfacing into your sewing construction. See how it works, see how it responds, fall in love with it, see how much better your garments are and all of that and then start sort of expanding out from there. I've got links in the description box for you guys if you wanna check out these ThermoWeb interfacings. You can find them in like Joanne and Hobby Lobby, Michaels, places like that in the pre-packaged interfacing, but some of the more specialty interfacings you can only get from ThermoWeb's website. So check the description box for links to that and that'll do it. Let me know what questions you have. If I don't know the answer to them, I can reach out to ThermoWeb. They have been so, so, so, so wonderful working on this video together. So let me know what questions you have. If any, in the comment section, otherwise I will see you all back here very soon. Bye.