Defining Fashion: Getting to Know Fabric

If you want to sew and design clothing the very first thing to learn, it to get to know your way around a piece of fabric. So let’s break it down and unpack some terminology whilst we go.

Weft & Warp

Most fabric is woven, imagine (or google) a loom - see how there are threads sitting vertically, and another thread running through the fabric horizontally. The base threads sitting horizontally through the fabric are the ‘warp’, the long thread that runs side to side, weaving through the warp are the ‘weft’.

Why does this matter?

Because if you want to cut a piece of fabric to make a garment you’re going to need to align it with the weft & warp properly.

Generally speaking fabric will stretch in the direction of the weft and not of the warp. Try stretching what you’re wearing now in a sideways motion and an up-down motion - see the difference?

Garment makers will need to consider the direction their fabric stretches in as they construct, to make sure that their garment flexes in the same directions the wearer body will need to flex.

So how do you identify the weft & warp?

The Selvage

When you hear a designer refer to the selvage, they are referring to the very end of the roll of fabric, where a border has built up. It will be a different texture or colour to the rest of the fabric, maybe even have a little writing on it, and most importantly it will be woven shut.

In other words it won’t be fraying in the same way that the other parts of your fabric might be where they have been cut from the roll.

The selvage is formed by all those weft threads going round the edge and back in to the fabric, so if you can identify the selvage edge of your fabric that means you’ve also identified a weft edge of your fabric, and the two sides touching our selvage are the ends of the warp direction!

Grainline Arrows

If you’re a beginner garment maker you are probably using patterns to make your clothing. Your patterns will have little symbols on them - grainline arrows.

When you lay your pattern, onto your fabric the grainline arrow indicates how the pattern piece should be sitting with the warp of the fabric. In other words your grainline arrow should be parallel with your selvage.

If you remember this it will mean that you are using the stretch of your fabric correctly with how your pattern has been designed, and your garment will be practical and comfortable!