Be excited to go fabric shopping! Prepare yourself mentally, and enter the store with a picture of your design in your mind (or hand), aware of the colors you want and a really specific idea of how you want the final garment to look.

It can be easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number and types of fabrics available on display, but if you start your fabric expedition with these factors in mind, it will simplify your time spent choosing your fabric:  

1. Consider the Fabric Weight

The weight of a fabric is measured in GSM (grams per square meter) and it defines how heavy or light a fabric is. Don't worry, you don't have to measure the fabric's weight at the store. Measuring the fabric weight is a way of measuring the thickness of the material, and differentiating between light-weight, medium-weight, or heavy-weight fabric.  

2. Examine the Fabric Drape

The drape determines how the fabric flows. In other words, stiff fabrics have less drape, and fluid fabrics have more drape. Easy! But be careful with this term. Drape is often confused with weight, but they are two different factors that affect how garments look.  

3. Test the Fabric Stretch

Stretch is how much your fabric stretches. Fabrics have different elasticity (ability of textile fibers to “bounce back” when they are stretched). When you are choosing a fabric with stretch, you have to be sure that it works for your pattern, because it can change how the final product fits the body.