The Grainline and an introduction to the fabrics

Welcome to this new introductory class on pattern making, in today’s class I want to talk a little about the grainline and the fabrics. 

We will start by talking about the grainline, how it works and how important it is. The grainline is one of the fundamental pillars in pattern making and deviating even a little bit can mean that you have to throw away the fabric that you are working on. 

We will then go on to focus on the different types of fabric that we can find, how to classify them and why they have different characteristics from each other. 

As I explain in today’s class, one of the ways to classify fabrics is how they are manufactured. 

It is not the same to work woven fabric or jersey fabric because the fabrics have different properties and the patterns will have to be different to account for this. 

For example, Jersey fabrics do not usually have darts because the fabric is much more elastic than woven fabrics. 

Class

In this course, we will start by focusing on woven fabric because it is the best base to start with and it is the way that the best schools in the world teach. 

As an extra, we will see that the fabric has different properties/reactions depending on how we cut it, such as extra elasticity when cut on the bias. 

In today’s class, we will also begin to see what interfacings are and how to place them correctly with the iron. In the industry, we use the machine that you can see below. 

Once you have a good base with woven fabric, we will move on to the other types of fabrics so that when you finish these courses there is no pattern that stops you. 

I recommend that as exercises, you start to look closely at fabrics that you have at home and try to see what type of fabrics they are and how you would classify them.

That is all for today’s class, remember that if you have any questions, you can always send me an email through the support section of your account.