 Hey guys welcome back to week three of our beginner series. Today we're here talking to you about fabric. Probably the most fun part. Yes. At least for me. It's the best. Yes. The best part for sure. Yes. So if you're a beginner like us you probably started with quilters weight cotton. It's kind of the go-to. Easily able to find any local fabric shop they're gonna have your quilters weight cotton. Well as you grow you're gonna want to start moving away from that quilters weight cotton because there's lots better things out there that are still easy to sew. Slightly more challenging. We have a few things for here for you that are a little more challenging but really not that much more. No. And a lot of them you'll find are still cotton. So it'll be familiar to you but it won't be that weight and it won't be that repeating pattern necessarily. Which results in the weight results in a boxier garment. Yeah. You'll be able to make things that are more similar to what you would find in the store. And I think that as you develop your sewing skills that's kind of where everyone ends up going. Yeah. Yes. Definitely. Alright so first up we have a cotton lawn. This one's been cut a little bit. So excuse that. This is a gorgeous Liberty cotton lawn. They are a little more pricey but that's just livery. There's lots of cotton lawns you can find out there that aren't in their price range but they just have the beautiful prints. So it is lighter than a quilting weight cotton. Probably can't see the the sunshine through. Yeah. But they are more sheer. The most ones I've seen are more sheer. Have you ever run across one that's not quite as see-through? Well, I mean it probably depends on the background. Yeah. That's true. It depends on the print. Yeah. Yeah. So they are a little more drapey a little more flowy and light not that stiff boxy feel of the quilter's weight cotton. A cotton lawn. So it's the same as quilter's cotton. Yeah. Really no difference there. It's just kind of it's a finer weave. Yeah. So it's got a little more of a sheen to it. Yeah. So cotton lawns are great. Really easy fabric. Yeah. Step up from the quilter's cotton. And you're going to be able to make you know a lot of those beginner patterns that we talked about with a lawn with really any of these woven that we're talking about. Yeah. So when you think of lawn think of something as just like one step lighter than quilter's weight cotton. We'll go even lighter than that when we talk about voile but lawn is just like one step lighter than quilter's cotton is how I would describe it. Yeah. Let's do the voile next then so we can kind of stay on the same. Okay. Voile. Voile is probably the first thing I sewed after quilter's cotton. It's a voile. Gosh, I don't know if I remember. Yeah. Definitely to think of a voile. Voile? Oh, I'll have to we'll have to try to find a link. There's an exact description of what voile is. I believe didn't Annemarie Horner develop it. Pretty sure. Pretty sure I read that summer when I was first starting looking at the voile. We should have researched that for you guys. But we'll look it up. I'm pretty sure that she developed voile. If not, that's a good rumor. I really think that you are. I don't know. I'm pretty sure. But voile is even lighter than lawn, really silkier. It has more of a sheen than lawn. But I think it's almost as easy as lawn. It's hard to think back to when you're a beginner to think how easy something is. I remember just feeling voile for the first time. It feels buttery. You think to yourself, oh, this is just cotton, but it doesn't. I mean, it feels so much better. It feels so nice. And there are lots of voile options out there. I remember when I first started sewing, there wasn't as many, but now you really see it a lot. Art Gallery has great voile options. There's a lot out there. So you can even go pick a more flowy garment with this. Looks great in skirts. You can do glasses out of voile. Lawn wouldn't want to do a flowy bow. Blows out of lawn. It's a little too stiff. But voile is would make a really nice blouse. Yeah. Anything that has any billowing or draping or gathering or pleading would be good. Yes. Okay. I'm not seeing where Annemarie Horner created voile. I imagine it probably goes back in time. I don't know. We'll let you know. I'm gonna do a little research. I'm really interested to see the term comes from French and means veil. So that can help you remember kind of the sheerness and the lightness. If I'm wrong, I don't know how I would have, where would I have gotten that from? I'm not sure. But yeah, Wigapedia doesn't have a ton of information that definitely does not say anything about Annemarie Horner at all. I might have just given her big props. Yes. Maybe. That's interesting. That's one of those swimming rumors that you know, you kind of hear like the same of the scissors that we talked about in the previous video. Anyways, next up is Seer Sucker. A Southern girls like uniform. Yes. We live in the south. So it's very popular where we live. Yeah. Seer Sucker actually is the first dress I made. This is the first thing I sewed with. Okay. Yeah. So I didn't start with quilters cotton. I started with Seer Sucker. Yeah, I picked out Seer Sucker and I made the hazel dress. Of course, I was in a class, so I had a little more support with me. But really Seer Sucker, so it was just like quilting cotton. Very nice. And of course, it's more apparel looking because you're seeing it in the stores, especially down here, lots of skirts. Shirt dresses are great out of Seer Sucker. So really great option. Yeah. A-line skirts are really good. It is a little bit more on the sturdy side. Yeah, definitely. Not nearly as drapey as that. And it's, you know, obviously most recognized for the stripes that it has. And it's not just cotton with stripes printed on it. No. It's the way, yeah, the way that it's actually woven together is what makes it technically a Seer Sucker. But you can get Seer Sucker in tons of colors. You can even get it embroidered with little crabs or sailboats. All there's a lot of really cute ones out there. And it's really affordable. Yeah. This was, I think this was less than $10 a yard. It was really quite quality. Yeah, for sure. So Seer Sucker makes something really cute for sure. Yeah. So next is another one that you see everywhere in stores, especially this summer. I feel like it just blew everywhere. Shambray. There's lots of different kinds of Shambray. This is definitely a heavier one. It is the same type of Shambray I made my older shirt dress out of. So it's a little heavier. They do sell some lighter ones. That would be a little trickier because they're a lighter weight. But this one is so easy to sew. It's so easy to cut. Press is great. I mean trickier, like the lighter Shambray would be trickier, but not difficult. Not difficult. No, I'm just trying to categorize if I can at all. It would be the weight of these others that we've already talked about. So if you wanted to make a shirt dress, a heavier one would be good. But if you're wanting to make a Shambray blouse or something billowing or gathered, don't let that deter you. Like it's not going to be hard or undoable. Just different. Just different. Yeah, definitely. So yeah, Shambray is great. And again, everything that we've mentioned so far is still 100% cotton. There aren't any other materials. No polyester, no rayon, none of that. It's still 100% cotton. And I think that as we move away from 100% cotton, yes. Just keep in mind that anything that you find that's 100% cotton is probably going to be a safe bet. The only question mark is going to be the weight of that material. How light or drapey it's going to be versus structured and like more boxy. Yeah. So cotton is always a go-to for anything. All right. So next up, we have my favorite fabric to sew with. Is it your favorite too? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's rayon shawly. It is just amazing. My top is rayon shawly. Supercheapfinalfabric.com. I think this costs me like $8 to make. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. It looks much more expensive than that. Yeah, right? Yeah. No, no, no. I am so sorry. That is completely wrong. I got this $25. No, it was still super cheap. It probably was $8. I got this on Stylemaker Fabric. She has a selvedge yard section where she gets like the bolt end of designer fabrics. So there's, it's very limited yardage and you have to buy woods. Yep, you have to buy a couple of them are like you can either buy two yards or four yards or one yard or three yards. So there are some different quantities. This, there was a yard left. Gotcha. So I bought it. Perfect amount for the top. So yes, check out that section. Pretty good find. Yeah. Anyway, so here's a couple other swatches. These are also from Stylemaker Fabric. She's got a lot of rayon shally. Yeah. Really nice options. Rayon shally is trickier. Lindsey just did a post for Kali fabrics. Yes. For our Kali fabrics collaboration this summer, we did 15 tips for sewing with rayon shally. And you can find that, the link to that blog in my video with the same title. So I did that mint green maxi dress. If you've been watching our videos, that was rayon shally. And it's hard to explain exactly why rayon shally isn't difficult to sew with because you would think the feel of it, the weight of it, it would be hard. It would be difficult. It would be shifty. It would move around a lot, which it, it does, but not in a way that you can't overcome. Like there are some like polyesters or silks or things like that, that no matter how precise and slowly and meticulously you do it, it still doesn't come out right. And I don't feel like that's how rayon shally is at all. Yeah. And I feel like even if, you know, it wasn't perfect as you cut it or as you sewed it, the item you're sewing is probably a flowy drapey to begin with. Pretty forgiving. Really forgiving. You're not going to notice something just a teensy bit off with a gathered skirt, for example. Exactly. Yeah. So I think there's a lot of room for, for a little bit of error in there with rayon shally, but I can sew with this today. I love everything about it. Yeah, it feels good. It washes well. It does wrinkle a little bit with wear depending. It's been so few years that I haven't even noticed everything you just do that out. Yeah, it's true. But but so yeah, I would check out that post if you're interested in trying something with rayon shally, it would be, you know, you have to pay attention to what you're doing. You can just like willy nilly cut it out and yeah, sew it together with a cotton. But it a beginner can can achieve a beautiful looking garment with rayon shally, more so than a silk or a polyester or anything chiffon, anything, any of those kind of you get the silky ish kind of feel without all that fuss. Yes, definitely. So okay, we'll link that below. Yeah. So moving away from our woven. Yes. Nits. Your first knit garment. Don't go online and by the cheapest fabric you see oh $5 a yard. This is so cheap. Gonna do it. It'll be a nightmare. I did it. I did it. Yeah. And actually, I did it with like a tutorial like Maxi skirt tutorial where you just you see it with the flip over the flip over way. I can't even when I went in the trash. I don't even know if I made it to the waistband. Oh, it was awful. It's not wearable. I was bad too. Yeah. And I scratched off this for a while after that I was kind of scared away. But there are some really great options out there for nits that aren't scary. The first one up and it's really a specific to the brand art gallery nits are very stable. They're cotton with a little bit of Lycra, I believe they're just a really stable knit. They were not going to shift around when you're cutting it when you're sewing it. They just so really, really nicely and they wear really nicely too. Yeah. So I think they're a great place to start. They are a little more pricey, but they're really worth it. And when with nits, you don't need as much guarded usually like a top. I mean, you can go with under a yard sometimes tag top. So you really don't need as much guarded with a knit so you can go up price a little bit. But it also another thing that makes it so tricky is hemming and these hem so nicely with the really thin cheap nits. They're just a nightmare to him. I mean, your machine just tears up. So yeah, give those a try. I am really impressed with their nits. Yeah. For those of you who are sewing with culture cotton, I'm sure you're familiar with art gallery. They make really great culture cottons. And so maybe try and make a shift a lateral shift like that within a brand that you know, you already like like the art gallery cottons, try and knit or the cotton and steel and cotton's try their crayon. Yeah, they make rayon. It's really, really, really great quality. Yeah, a lot of experience. So it's really love it. So typically, if you if you like a quilting cotton brand, they're going to put the same amount of like quality into their other substrates too. So you could be comfortable trying that. Yeah, definitely. And something I've been sewing with a lot and just absolutely love our double knits. I love double knits. I just made a little crop tea out of a double knit. I made two dresses. I just really love them. They're so easy to sew. They're another stable knit. You don't even need to have a serger. You can sew this up on your regular sewing machine. And it's there's going to be no difference between it and a surgeon. Of course, surgery is faster. But they sew beautifully on a regular sewing machine. They hem really nicely. They cut easily. They press easily. They're just fabulous. They're a great gratifying. Yeah, do you think these have cotton in them too? Probably. No, most double knits are really polyester. Yeah, this one's polylike. So I'll make your fabrics. Another one they have a big selection of double knits. Fabric.com also they're really doing a lot better with their fabrics lately. I don't know if they're under ownership, but they're really Amazon bought them. Well, that must be the difference. Amazon bought them. So anytime Amazon makes their footprint on anything. Yeah, I guess I don't know if they have more partnerships or they just it's hard to tell why but yeah, Amazon bought. Yeah, great stuff. I found some really nice stuff on there. It's just it's I just love it. I love everything about it. Yeah. And oh, these are textured. They got texture. Yeah, they almost feel like kind of spongy. Yeah, I tend to say that word because that will definitely put it in a certain cheap category. They're definitely not cheap. They're good quality. But yeah, they're good quality, but they're actually really affordable. Yep. Yeah, they're like in the $10 your price range. Yeah, I think that Stylemaker Cali fabrics that the people that that we love, I think that's why we love them because the fabric is affordable. But when you get it, you're like a little bit pleasantly surprised like, Oh, I can't believe this was only $8. Exactly. You know, whatever. And another thing to mention too. These are swatches. A lot of online shops do swatches. Some are free. Some are cheap as a dollar. So if you're unsure, you just don't know what things feel like. Order a swatch. That's what we were most excited about when we went to New York City. They're like, we hear all these different types of fabric. We don't know what they feel like. So we just felt things. Yeah, we'll see like there's suggested fabrics on the back of like a McCall's pattern. And we're like, what is that? It's still to this day. There's some of them that are on there. But I have no idea what what that is. And you don't want to spend all this time researching Georgia, for example, only to realize that Georgia is too complicated for you. It's too difficult of a fabric for you to use. So yeah, doing that or even going if you have like a Joanne in your area, going there going to the fashion fabric section and just walking through and feeling things and looking to see what they're made of. I think that that that helps me a lot and learn about fabrics and the more that you become familiar with certain types of substrates, the more that it becomes almost common sense as to what you would use for one project versus another project. But so hopefully this has inspired you guys to try sewing with a fashion fabric period. If you've never done that before or if you're brand brand brand new to sewing and having even sewn with a quilter cotton before, maybe you can get off get started off on a different foot than those people, which which would be kind of fun to just have skipped all over because of this video. Yeah, that would be great. But for those experience, so it's out there if you have any suggestions for our viewers as to fabrics that you think are perfect for beginners that we haven't mentioned today, feel free to put those in the comments. And for those beginners out there, if you have any questions, you can leave those in the comments. Like I've said, like we've mentioned our favorites, Stahlmaker fabrics and Kali fabrics, both of them are very responsive with questions that you may have. Yeah, so other than that, just you know, subscribe to our channel if you haven't already and be sure to give this video a thumbs up if you found it to be helpful. Follow us on inside the him on social media on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest. I mean, Google plus if you're into that. Every week you come out with a new one. We're basically anywhere that we can be. We just really only pay attention to the ones that we really love. So that's maybe why other ones pop into it. When we started, we just we got an account everywhere. So I'm just into Instagram. I don't know. Yeah, that's my favorite one too, probably. Anyways, follow us there to keep up with what we are doing in between videos and be sure to tune in next week, where we are going to talk about good resources, good online resources for beginners and we'll link the last two weeks videos, the other videos in the series that was already been published. We'll link those down below too. Is that everything? Good Gord. That was like the longest wrap up ever. Bye guys. Thanks.