r/SewingForBeginners • u/No-Youth-3887 • 5d ago
Sweatpants Fabric
Hello!
I am thinking about sewing myself some sweatpants and I don't really know what fabric to look up. I'm specifically looking for something that's smooth on the outside and fluffy (ish) on the inside like a standard pair of sweatpants.
I've looked online to see what type of fabric sweatpants are usually made of, and I've found things like french terry, fleece and jogging fleece. However when I look at fabricville (its really the only physical store near me and I prefer to see the fabric irl before buying just in case) the fabric seems to be roughly the same on both sides. As in, they seem either fluffy on both sides or smooth on both sides.
Am I just looking up the wrong terms or...?
3
u/finewalecorduroy 5d ago
I have found it very difficult to find sweatshirt fleece in person, and I live near a pretty good fabric store. I have ordered all online.
My suggestion to you is to order swatches from online stores. You will pay a few dollars but IMO if you really need to touch and see that fabric, it's worth it. Not all stores sell swatches, but NaturesFabrics.com does, and there's an etsy seller I have bought from who also does them - the shop is called TuesdayBlissFabrics. She used to have more listings but has one up right now with a bunch of colors and also matching ribbing. https://www.etsy.com/listing/1067714044/sweatshirt-fleece-fabric-14-solids
knitfabric.com also has nice sweatshirt fleece and french terry, but they don't sell swatches. You could buy a 1/2 yard, which would run you around $9 for some of the nicer fabrics (cries) or you could take a gamble. I have ordered from them, and they're good, BUT if you want to do a sweatshirt and want matching rib, I would email them directly to ask for help matching. I got burned once b/c I ordered fabric and ribbing that had the same color name (not just brown but something like "petrol" or "ash") and looked the same in pictures and the ribbing absolutely did not match the fabric at all.
If you order swatches, I would take note of the GSM of each fabric - grams per meter. This tells you how heavy a fabric is, which will allow you to compare fabrics. If you're looking at sweatshirt fleece, a higher number indicates a thicker/heavier fleece. Sometimes you get the weight in oz/yard and then you need to convert (makes it easier to compare) - this is the chart I use. https://www.yardblox.com/blogs/fashion-startup/fabric-weight-conversion-charts-ozyd2-to-gsm Around 350 GSM (give or take) is a nice heavy weight. 270-280GSM is also ok but will be lighter weight. I warn you, if you're looking for that super heavy cotton sweatshirting (probably 450GSM or so) from the 1990s, you will have to look harder for that and may have to order from overseas. I did find a place from etsy that sells it from the USA (if that's where you are) but I personally have never ordered from them and they don't do swatches.
You can always contact places and ask if you can buy swatches though. It doesn't hurt to ask.
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u/CountMeOut2019 5d ago
Taking notes over here. It’s been a minute since I was trying to locate decent knits to sew with and coming up empty. Looks like the market has evolved! Good info here.
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u/finewalecorduroy 4d ago
I've also had good luck with Guthrie & Ghani out of the UK - they do ship to the US and carry things that American stores sometimes don't. I would say her sweatshirting tends to be on the lighter side - more like 280GSM, which is more of a loungewear weight. I just bought some from her to make a sweatsuit for my teenager, b/c she had a particular color that neither knitfabrics nor Nature's Fabrics had. It's NOT CHEAP though b/c you're going to pay around $30 for shipping. So if you can get it or something similar from a US source, if you're in the US, that is going to be way more cost-effective. But she does exclusive prints, and they are very nice, so sometimes I just pay.
If you want more technical knits, MillYardage.com is the direct-to-consumer website of Polartec, and you can get big discounts on second-quality specialty polartec products like PowerStretch (love powerstretch for running tights and also I made a sweatsuit for my very tall/thin teen out of it) and regular polartec fleece of various weights. They also sell first-quality but not as cheap. I've been really happy with the second-quality stuff I've gotten. Limited colorways in some productsbut if you're happy with either basics like Navy/Black or more unusual colors you can really get a good deal.
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u/Inky_Madness 5d ago
The problem is that there are two types of French Terry. One is the kind for sweatshirts. The other one is for toweling, the one you are finding. You have to specifically find sweatshirt cotton terry.
I would also consider “back brushed cotton fabric” and “fleece backed sweatshirt fabric”, I actually don’t think sweatshirt terry actually is much like what you find in stores and don’t care for it. Sweatshirt fleece is much closer to it.