Sewing With Wovens: An Introduction to Woven Fabrics

Part 1 of the Sewing With Wovens Series

What exactly does it mean when a fabric is woven? What's the difference between a fiber and a fabric? And why isn't saying “I need cotton” quite enough information to figure out what fabric you actually need?

If you've wondered about any of those things, this series is for you!

Hi, I'm Emily, the founder and owner of Boho Fabrics. In 2017 I started an online fabric store— and this past year we finally opened a retail location in Sparks, Maryland.  Since then, The Design Studio at Boho Fabrics was born! It's where I teach, along with a few other incredible instructors, and where we offer sewing and textile-related classes of all kinds.

I've realized I'll happily chat someone's ear off in the store about fabric, textiles, and sewing, but I haven't had as much opportunity to do that with our online customers. As I'm writing curriculum and answering questions in the shop, I'm going to bring more of those conversations here. Hopefully you'll have a few of those aha, now I get it moments along the way.

Let's Start With the Basics

I'm going to break all of this down much further in this series, but I'm approaching it from the perspective of someone who sews—not as a textile researcher.

When you're sewing a garment, one of the first things you'll usually encounter on a pattern is a list of suggested or suitable fabrics. You might see that a pattern is designed for wovens, knits, or sometimes something like wovens and stable knits. So what does that mean?

1. Is It a Knit or a Woven?

At the most basic level, there are two main fabric categories you're going to encounter in garment sewing: knits and wovens.

The biggest thing I want you to remember is:

Knits = stretchy
Wovens = not stretchy

Are there stable knits that don't stretch very much? Yes. Are there stretchy wovens? Also yes.

Are there exceptions to pretty much every rule when it comes to textiles? Absolutely. But this is a beginner's overview, so we're starting with the basics.

If you have some fabric nearby, try this. Hold it with the selvages running up and down and pull the fabric from side to side. If it stretches quite a bit, it's probably a knit. If you pull it and it barely moves, it's most likely a woven.

That's not a rule that works 100% of the time, but it's an easy way to start seeing and feeling the difference for yourself.

The reason they behave differently comes down to how they're made. Wovens are made by interlacing yarns, while knits are made from interconnected loops. Those loops allow knit fabrics to stretch in a way that traditional woven fabrics don't.

We'll dig further into both later. For now, the basic idea is: knit = stretchy; woven = not stretchy.

2. What Is the Fabric Made From? Fiber.

Fibers are the building blocks of textiles. Cotton, linen, wool, silk, rayon, polyester, and nylon are all examples of fibers.

One of the most common things I hear in the store is some version of, “I'm looking for cotton fabric.”   This can easily be swapped out for linen, wool, silk, etc. too (I've heard it all!) That's useful information, but it's only the starting point.

Think of fibers like ingredients. Take a tomato. You can slice it for a BLT, dice it up for salsa, or crush it down into tomato sauce. Same ingredient, very different end result. Textiles work much the same way.

Let's Look at Two 100% Cotton Fabrics

Cotton Voile — 100% Cotton

Lightweight, soft, and somewhat sheer. It works well for lightweight tops, blouses, dresses, and other garments where you want something light and airy.

Cotton Duck — 100% Cotton

Heavy, sturdy, and much more structured. It's commonly used for projects where durability and structure matter more than drape.

Very different fabrics. Still both 100% cotton.

Knowing the fiber content tells you what the fabric is made from. It doesn't tell you how heavy it is, how it drapes, how it feels, how much it stretches, what you should sew with it, or how it's going to behave while you're sewing it.

Fabrics also don't have to be made from only one fiber. Just like recipes can have multiple ingredients, textiles can be blends. You might see cotton/polyester, linen/rayon, wool/nylon, or a small percentage of spandex added to another fiber for additional stretch and recovery.

We'll talk more about blends later because it truly deserves it's own series!

What Should You Remember?

For now, when you're looking at fabric, start with two questions:

1. Is it a knit or a woven?
This gives you a basic idea of how the fabric is constructed and whether it stretches.

2. What is it made from?
This is the fiber content.

Those two answers don't tell you everything about a fabric, but they give you a good place to start.

From here on out, we will only be discussing woven fabrics! We're going to about other common fabric names you see when you're shopping—poplin, lawn, twill, challis, denim, canvas, jacquard, and plenty more. We'll talk about how they behave, what they're good for, and how to figure out what might actually work for the garment YOU want to make.

And yes, we'll eventually talk about wool. If the word “wool” immediately makes you picture a heavy (& itchy!) winter coat, I think there might be an aha moment coming your way!

Have a fabric or textile question you'd like me to cover? Leave it in the comments. There's a pretty good chance I've either researched it already or would be happy to go down the rabbit hole.