The How to of Fabrics Video

How Fabric is Sold

Fabrics are typically sold by the yard and come in a variety of widths.  When purchasing fabric for a specific project it is important to compare the width of your fabric selections against the widths used to calculate yardage for the project to make sure they are the same and that you are ordering enough.  All fabrics on the beebolt website will have the width indicated on their specific product page.  Don’t forget to allow for extra yardage if you are matching, centering or fussy cutting designs motifs in a fabric.  The minimum yardage available for purchase on the beebolt website is ½ yard and then may be ordered in ¼ yard increments.

Types of Fabric

Cotton Sheeting:  a plain weave cotton fabric that is used for sewing and quilting that is strong, versatile and easy to work with.

Voile:  the French word for veil, this term identifies a light, plain weave slightly sheer fabric especially good for making apparel and curtains. Voiles are frequently found in cotton, rayon, silk and wool fabrications.

Laminated or Coated Cotton: a fabric finish that has a thin protective film laminated to the fabric to make it durable, easy to care for and in most cases waterproof.  

Notes and Tips on Working with Laminated or Coated Cotton

• When making something for children or use with food verify that the laminated/coated cotton is free of phthalates
• Do not use for patterns requiring intricate piecing
• Do not iron on the coated side and use a low temperature setting and extreme caution on the uncoated side
• Use a longer stitch length
• Use a Teflon or walking foot on your sewing machine
• Avoid wrinkles by not folding laminated/coated fabrics, roll it instead
• Clean with a soft cloth, mild soap and water
• Do not use pins, they will leave a permanent mark
• Use binder clips or transparent tape on the coated side to hold pieces together white sewing

Specialty/Pre-cut Bundles

Fat quarter bundles are pre-packaged collections of fabric.  Quantity of pieces can vary, but is indicated on each individual item’s product page.  A fat quarter cut is a specialty cut of fabric.  It is one quarter of a yard of fabric, but it is cut to provide a square like piece (measuring approximately 18” x 22”) rather than a long skinny piece that a regular quarter yard cut (measuring approximately  9” x 44”). It is considered to be a more versatile piece of fabric.  There are many quilting and craft patterns written to utilize fat quarters.

Moda Fabrics has trademarked specific names for a number of pre-cut bundles.  Many other fabric manufacturers offer the same type of bundles under different names or just by their measurements.

Trademark names for Moda Pre-cuts

• Dessert Roll™ contains 10 – 5” x 45” strips
• HoneyBuns™ contains 40 - 1½” x 45” strips
• JellyRolls™ contains 40 - 2½” x 45” strips
• LayerCake™ contains 42 – 10” x 10” squares
• Turnover™ contains 80 – 6” triangles (two of each print in a collection)

Fabric Selection Tips

• Pick proper weight of fabric for project
• Buy quality fabrics
• Determine whether directional or non-directional fabrics work best
• Mix large and small scales of print design together in one project
• Plan your color palette and take inspiration from other sources
• Buy fabric you love when you see it