Skip to main content

Made By A Fabricista: Why I Love Sewing Woven Fabrics Over Knits

Sewing is a creative hobby that allows me to express my unique style while adding a personal touch to my wardrobe. When it comes to choosing between wovens and knits I will mostly always choose woven. There are a lot of reasons I choose wovens as my go-to choice. The project I chose for this Fabric Mart make is from Friday Pattern Company’s Patina Blouse.  I used a gorgeous lightweight rayon.  It’s delicate hand is the perfect blouse weight and it drapes beautifully with this pattern. In this blog post, l'll explore the advantages of sewing woven blouses over knit shirts, highlighting the creativity, versatility, and satisfaction that come with this choice. 

The Joy of Creativity

Sewing a woven blouse offers a chance for my creativity to flourish. Woven fabrics come in a wide array of colors, patterns, and textures, allowing me to unleash my artistic potential. With knits, the stretch and drape of the fabric often limit my design options. In contrast, woven fabrics give me the freedom to experiment with various styles, such as pants, shirts with pleats, and tucks, which are more challenging to achieve with knits and is often hard to find with knit patterns. 

Versatility in Fabric Selection

Woven blouses provide the luxury of choice when it comes to fabric selection. It is an opportunity to work with fabrics like cotton, silk, linen, and more, each offering a distinct look and feel. This variety allows me to create garments suitable for different occasions and seasons. Knit shirts, on the other hand, are typically restricted to stretchy fabrics, limiting my ability to adapt to different styles and settings. Often I find most knit patterns are for leggings, t-shirt, joggers and looser dresses.  While I do like the ease of wearing knits, I find the structured style of woven suit me better. 

Skill Development

Sewing woven blouses can be a valuable learning experience. Over the past two years writing for Fabric Mart I have been encouraged to hone my sewing skills, as working with woven fabrics often involves more intricate construction techniques. From precision in cutting to mastering details like buttonholes and collars, I have become a more proficient seamstress through the challenges presented by woven garments. Remember the Jeans I made! Who would have thought I would make Jeans! You can see them here in the photos.

Custom Fit and Tailoring

Woven blouses offer better opportunities for achieving a tailored fit. With woven fabrics, I can make precise adjustments and alterations to ensure my garments fit perfectly. This level of customization can be challenging to attain with knit shirts, where stretchy materials make it harder to control the fit.

To me choosing to sew wovens over knits is a decision that promises creativity, versatility, skill development, and long-lasting satisfaction. While knit garments have their place in the wardrobe, woven garments offer a chance to become a more accomplished seamstress for myself. I am grateful that I have had the opportunity to sew, create and write for Fabric Mart. It has truly helped my sewing skills improve and helped me branch out to more challenging patterns and fabrics. So, whether you're a seasoned sewing enthusiast or a novice looking to expand your skills, consider embracing the art of crafting woven garments and experience the joy of sewing in all its glory. Happy stitching!

HANNAH   @modistrasews


Unfortunately Fabric Mart Fabrics sell out quickly!
You can find similar fabrics by shopping the following categories: CHALLIS, VOILE, & SHIRTING & BLOUSEWEIGHTS.
You can also shop our collection of Friday Pattern Company Patterns HERE.

Comments

  1. I love the blouse that was made. I don’t ever remember seeing that Fabric could you please post the SKU number for it?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I often sew something myself, I love to do it

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice job on your blouse!!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for leaving a comment! All comments are reviewed before posting to help us eliminate spam. Your comment will be posted within 24 hours.

Popular Posts You Might Like

Made By A Fabricista: Bold Aspen Dress for Spring

 As I write this in mid-April, central New Jersey weather is showing small signs of spring. My neighbor’s daffodils are blooming and our magnolia tree is trying to unfold its vibrant magenta petals. I am in the midst of preparing my wardrobe for the warmer months, even if we are still huddling against windy 30 degree days. For me, warm weather means linen. I love breathable, floaty linen sundresses and drapey, loose linen wide-leg pants. My vision for a spring piece was something bold and bright, inspired by the natural colors of blooming flowers, but also something that could transition well between the warmer and cooler months. When I saw Fabric Godmother’s Apsen Dress, I knew that it had the sensible transitional opportunities I was looking for while also providing a blank canvas for fun prints, patterns and colors. With the pattern in mind, I then turned to the stunning linen collection that Fabric Mart always has on hand to see what colors or patterns would best suit my visio...

Made By A Fabricista: Celebrating warm weather with Spring sewing!

Hi sewing friends! I don’t know about you but boy, was winter cold and dreary this year! The weather here in the Philadelphia area has been slowly improving, but Spring sure did take her sweet old time to arrive. So by April, I was definitely in the headspace of needing to sew up things that were either bright and cheery or meant for the warmer weather I am very much craving right now. I recently purchased a few SewBexx Patterns so I took them on a test run to create some Spring makes. First on my list was to make a top using this absolutely gorgeous ITY fabric I picked up last year. I had two yards which was enough for a long sleeve shirt. I chose the Olivia top, which is oversized with a drop shoulder, has multiple lengths and a split hem. I think the pattern is intended for heavier fabrics but I was envisioning how lovely this top would look with the drape of ITY knit fabric, and it did not disappoint. It came together for me quickly and was a straight forward sew…and I love the br...

Made By A Fabricista: Stripes For Spring

Hi everyone!   It’s finally warming up here in southeastern Pennsylvania and I wanted to make a light, flowy dress for springtime. I snagged a vintage Laura Ashley pattern from Joanns on one of my last trips there. I somehow didn’t have anything in my pattern stash with a sweetheart neckline, so I thought it would be a good addition. The pattern calls for a giant gathered skirt, so I knew I would need something lightweight and drapey for it.  Something like a pink striped cotton fine seersucker. The fabric is light and has a really nice drape, almost like a challis . I knew it would gather beautifully. I  got to work cutting everything out, with help from my assistant. When I say the skirt is massive I mean it.  I ran into an issue right away where my fabric isn't wide enough to cut the back panel without opening the fabric out. And my three yards of fabric wasn’t enough to cut two back panels. I ran into this issue last year when making my pinafore dress . In ...