How Our Sewing Team Pick Fabric

Picking fabric is an art, and an evolving one at that! Everyone has different ways of choosing fabrics for their ITH projects, and our sewing team is no exception. We asked them (along with a few other 'sometimes-sewers) how they pick, and gathered their answers to help you when you are next stuck picking fabrics:

Cassie

The project just speaks to me and I feel like I always know what fabrics suit it. I often spend a lot of time placing fabrics next to each other and looking at the design file, figuring out what works.

Allison

I'm usually digitising, but I miss sewing and testing designs! When I do get on a machine, I like to pick a floral or patterned fabric I love and take all the colours from that to create my palette. Basically, I have a hero fabric - whether it is used or not I decide as I go.

Martyn

I often find a loud fabric fat quarter that appeals, and then pick out all the colours. Often I don't even have to use the original fabric! But it gives a good base and helps me create something I am happy with from there.

Alyssa

I do the same as Martyn, usually find a fabric pack that I like and the mix it in with other fabrics that are the same colours or that complement the fabric pack. I also like to go onto pinterest sometimes

Lynn

I first pick colours that match the fabric/s I've chosen. From there I usually rely a lot on the colour theory to find analogous or opposite colours to match the overall concept depending on what we're aiming for. Oh! And A LOT of trial and error. Always have my seam ripper ready.

Chloe

I love plain colours the best over loud fabrics so i normally start with what plain of "plainish" fabrics I will use and then build from there. It does take a while to get it perfect though! I am always learning and testing.

Emma

Most of the time, I'm making something for someone, so it usually depends on what the person's preference might be. When designing, I usually pick bright vibrant fabrics for mock ups, and I used to also help with sewing when I lived in Australia, so that helps too!

We hope this helps you the next time you are stuck picking colours for an ITH design. Let us know how you pick fabric in the comments or in our Facebook Group!