Wool – Lightweight
Average
Most lightweight wools are lightweight, soft and drapeable, with good body. Many are firmly woven and easy to sew while others are loosely woven and ravel if overhandled. Light colors are often transparent; and even though they rarely have an obvious nap, they should be cut with a nap layout.
Similar Fabrics: Albatross, Cool Wool®, lightweight wool crepe, naked wool, printed challis, tropical worsteds, viyella, wool batiste, wool challis, wool gauze, wool voile.
Uses: Soft jackets and pants, skirts, dresses, blouses.
Design Elements: Gathers, unpressed pleats, flares, drapes, cowl necklines, bindings. Tropical worsteds can be pressed sharply. Avoid close fitting designs.
Sewing Checklist
Essential Supplies
Needles Sharp (HM), universal (H); sizes 70/10-80/12.
Thread: Lightweight (cotton, polyester, cotton covered polyester, silk), all purpose. Topstitching – lightweight, all purpose threads. Basting – soft cotton, fine silk. Serger – lightweight serger thread, textured thread.
Cutting: Sharp shears, rotary cutter/mat.
Marking: Chalk, clips, tailor’s tacks, thread, wax chalk.
Miscellaneous: Lightweight zippers, tissue, water soluble stabilizer.
Interfacings: Lightweight knit fusible, low-temp fusibles, sew ins, Sewin’ Sheer™, batiste, organza, polyester chiffon, China silk.
Linings: Depends on garment design, use, and quality.
Underlinings: Sometimes to provide support or opaqueness.
Machine Setup
Stitch Length: 1.75-2mm (12-15 spi).
Tension: Lightly balanced tension; light pressure.
Feet: Wide straight stitch, zigzag; small hole throat plate.
Sewing Basics
Fabric Prep: Steam or Dryclean.
Layout: Nap – right sides together.
Seams: Plain (pressed open or closed), topstitched, French, faux French, safety stitch serged, tissue stitched, taped.
Hems: Hand (blindstitch, blind catchstitch, catch stitch), interfaced, topstitched.
Seam/Hem Finishes: Serged, zigzag; if lined, none.
Edge Finishes: Facings (self fabric, lightweight linings, synthetic suede or leather), bindings, ribbing.
Closures: Buttonholes (machine, bound, inseam), buttons/button loops, zippers (hand, machine, invisible).
Pressing: Medium heat, steam, press cloth.
Garment Care: Dryclean; hand wash only if fabric was pretreated.
Workroom Secrets
Layout/Cutting/Marking: Mark the wrong side with chalked arrows to identify the nap.
Stitching: To preserve the fabric’s soft drape, stitch seams with lightweight thread. Begin with a new needle. Use a straight stitch foot and small hole throat plate to reduce stitching problems. When using a zigzag foot, move the needle to the right hand position. Hold the fabric firmly in front of and behind the presser foot when stitching. To reduce puckering, tissue stitch. Use a shorter stitch length when stitching curves. To reduce fraying, avoid overhandling and ripping.
Seams: Plain seams pressed open and serged with textured or lightweight serger threads are best for soft, fluid seams. Narrow serged seams work well for unlined garments, light colors, and fabrics that fray badly.
Hems: On flared skirts, cut the hem 5.8" to 11.4" (1.5-3.1cm) wide; on straight skirts, cut it 2" (5cm). For softer, more attractive hems, interface with bias cut silk organza, polyester chiffon, or very lightweight batiste. Narrow single fold hems allow skirts to float and billow more than wide hems and double fold hems such as shirttail and machine rolled hems.
Buttonholes: Stitch machine buttonholes with fine machine embroidery thread.
Zippers: Use lightweight zippers. To avoid stretching the opening, stabilize with a strip of lightweight selvage.
Pressing: Test press to determine the heat, moisture, and pressure. Generally, a lower temperature is better for lightweight wools. When pressing lightweight wool crepe with steam, press carefully to avoid shrinking the fabric unevenly.
Garment Care: Dryclean to maintain the garment’s pristine appearance.
From the Custom Couture Collection by Claire Shaeffer, these traditional trousers are fabricated in a lightweight wool crepe. (Vogue Pattern – 7468; courtesy of The McCall Pattern Co.)