Fabric Savvy: How to Work with Cotton Fabric

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Excerpted from Fabric Savvy

Fabric Savvy: How to Work with Cotton Fabric

From preshrinking to hemming, learn how to work with cotton batiste, cotton damask, cotton piqué, cotton shirting, cotton voile, and crinkle cotton

by Sandra Betzina

Open or download the 12-page PDF file below. (Requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print PDF files.)

CottonFabric.pdf

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Walking into a fabric store can be overwhelming. Shelves are lined with gorgeous new fabrics and an array of notions you may never have tried. Many students comment to me about the beautiful and exciting new fabrics they find and ask me what needle, presser foot, stitch length, and interfacing they need to use. Few have the courage to experiment themselves.

Fabric Savvy is a handy reference on virtually every fabric imaginable -- from the newest to the old favorites. With 85 types of fabric listed, you'll be able to choose any fabric in the store with confidence and get the results you want the first time. In this excerpt, you'll discover how to prepare and sew six kinds of cotton fabric.

Sandra Betzina is the dynamic host of HGTV's Sew Perfect and the author of Fabric Savvy, Fast Fit, Power Sewing Step-by-Step and Sandra Betzina Sews for Your Home. She has recently debuted her own line of patterns for the Vogue Pattern company called "Today's Fit by Sandra Betzina." She travels all over the United States and Canada as a lecturer, teacher, and guest on television sewing shows. She lives in San Francisco.

Photos: Jack Deutsch

From Fabric Savvy, pp. 26-37