Friday 1 August 2014

4 tips to help you choose the perfect fabric, the next time you make/buy a dress.



We all have been there, you see a beautiful style you love, in a magazine, a friend's dp or on your favorite blog. You can't wait to take it to your tailor or favorite designer to get it made, you pick a fabric that has been lying  in your box for donkey years with no use or you go shopping for a fabric and then head off to get your dress made. While the making of your dress is in progress, you can't help going to the picture, once in a while, to take a glance at it and imagine
yourself in the dress and how truly elegant and dapper you would look when you finally get to wear the dress. But Alas when your dress is finally ready, with excitement you quickly try it on, and  then, almost instantly, your countenance changes, you are crestfallen.


Reason: You don't look half as good as the person in the picture. Your excitement quickly turns to disappointment. But just before you blame your designer, check and double check, it might have been your fabric that failed!

This is where I come in, (hehe). Below I have put together, 4 tips to help you make the right fabric choice the next time you make a dress. These tips will also come in handy when you are out and about shopping for clothes!

1. First consider the style. The weight and fiber content as well as weave of the fabric must be suitable for the style you have in mind. Light weight fabrics that are not bulky are good for dresses that need fullness and draping. sometimes you may have to find out the fiber content of your fabric.





2. Consider the texture of the fabric. The texture of a fabric affects the final appearance of  a garment. Rough and bulky fabric increase size. Smooth and shiny fabrics such as satin also increase size due to their reflections. Dull and soft fabrics make a figure appear smaller.




3. Consider the print.Prints and patterns make your fabric more beautiful and interesting, so get those prints to work for you not against you.


When you are choosing the print for your style/fabric, you want to consider its size, color and direction.If you are making a dress with curves, stripes may be difficult to keep even.


Prints should also be chosen to match one's figure both in size and in color. Vertical strips makes a person look slimmer and taller while horizontal stripes reduce height. Small designs are good for moderate figures but large and bold designs may be too overpowering. Motifs of upright designs add height to the wearer while those that are widely spaced and sharply contrasted tend to increase width. Also note that the color may look different in the lighting of the store vs. your skin.



4. Entrust the choice of fabric to your designer. Needless to say, your designers work with fabric constantly and they understand the workings of fabrics better than you ever will. So why don't you pick a style and leave the choice of fabric to them, instead of dumping just any fabric with them and then expect them to perform the miracle of  giving you a Vogue or GQ look! It aint gonno happen! Always remember, your designers are what they are - designers not miracle workers lol.



That's all folks, I hope you find these tips useful.




What would you rather do, shop for a fabric yourself or leave it to your designer?

17 comments:

  1. Haha I just like the way you write! You are gifted!

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  2. Nice one Mo'j. Guess we will just let you do the fabric selection. Lol

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  3. These are great tips in choosing fabric I wish I could sew.
    http://tifi11.blogspot.com

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  4. Good one there, I'd rather leave my designer to make the choice tho. I enjoy reading your blogs. Keep the good work.

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  5. Nice. Why leave all the fun to the designer? We have the tips now so I can put them to practice. Plus designers de find money with hot eye, so leave the choice to them at the risk of your wallet. *grins

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  6. I'm actually going to start working on sewing a few self-designed pieces and so these tips came in perfect time! Great post! xx
    <(') Hoda | JooJoo Azad ~ Free Bird

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  7. Nice piece, I think for me the choice of fabric goes with my desired look and not my designers/tailor, leaving the choice of fabric to my designer is like letting my designer control my ideas about fashion. What if we like different colours,or patterns? I think a good designer should be able to work even with the most unlikely fabrics to give it something unique and different, that way even if I see something I like and try to recreate but fail,mine should end up being better or else I fire my designer for lack of creativity *wink*lol

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  8. i choose my self oo, i i do because i have to be sure on the right prints and patterns
    Nice ! am glad you not doing the lengthy write up again
    fashionitazbybuiti.blogspot.com

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  9. Nice tips, I like the way you write....as for your question, I wld leave it to my designer. Although am good with color blend but a novice in fabric quality. So..I choose my colors, he/she gets the fabric

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  10. I've been disappointed many times before. I have a number of butchered clothes in my box at this moment. These a lovely tips about considering fabric weight. I like to choose my own fabrics as I trust my tastes better.

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  11. Great post. I like my cloth well tailored and the perfect fabric will do
    www.tosyne101.wordpress.com

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  12. Great post. I like my cloth well tailored and the perfect fabric will do
    www.tosyne101.wordpress.com

    ReplyDelete
  13. great post
    http://www.dammyrouge.com/

    ReplyDelete

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