What Is Your Fabric Saying?

Fabric speaks to me, LOL. Sometimes I have an idea and I search for fabric, other times fabric jumps out at me and inspires me or challenges me to come up with a design just for it. That’s what happened with this fabric.

I don’t know what the fabric is called, or what it is made out of, it was a remnant I bought many years ago at an American Sewing Guild event.

The fabric is very soft, kind of spongy, stretches, and has a unique gimp looking pattern. When I looked at it, I thought hand cut fringe. I decided on making a coat out of it that would allow it to flow as I walked.

When I wear this coat, sometimes for special occasions and sometimes with jeans, I get a lot of compliments on it from people I don’t even know, asking where I purchased it. To me, that is one of the greatest compliments a seamstress can get.

Here is a close up picture of the fabric. You can see how the design creates a kind of channel horizontally when the fabric is held in this direction. The channel spoke – cut here for a fun free flowing hand cut fringe.

To make the fringe, I sewed a decorative stitch around the coat at the place I wanted the fringe to be cut up to. The stitching keeps the fringe all the same length, keeps it from fraying or continuing to tear further up the coat.

l wanted to keep the coat light weight, the hand soft and fluid, allowing the coat to have movement, so I lined it with Silk Charmeuse. I did not want to attach the lining at the hem so I stopped at the top of the fringe and used a ribbon, folded in half to give it a finished look. I sewed the ribbon on by machine, but if I had wanted a more couture look I would have hand sewn it on using a fell stitch.

With the coat being black, it absorbed the light so the details don’t really show up in my photo. I made an attached fringed scarf at the neckline, so it could be worn open, wrapped or tied at the neck. The soft movement of the coat makes it fun to wear, the fringe hits just above my ankles which looks great with heels.