How to Order the Best Fabric Online for Your Sewing Projects

I originally explored this in the DPL community in response to a creative community member who asked for guidance around how to understand more about fabric weights and how to choose the right fabric for your sewing project. With last year seeing the world in an endless state of lockdown, many of use have had our hand forced to venture online to shop for our textiles. Sometimes this can be really confusing to know what fabric suits your project or what kind of weights you’d like to go for etc.

Today, I’ll be providing a quick overview of fabric weights using gram per square metre or GSM. Oz is also available, however I only really refer to this when it comes to denim!
Fabric weights in their most simplified categories can fall into lightweight, medium weight and heavyweight.

lightweight

Ranging up to 130gsm-140gsm.

This includes your chiffons, georgettes etc. If you are looking at a woven cotton textile on a site that is 80gsm, then this is a very lightweight cotton which could even be sheer. Therefore, this may not be ideal for your project should you be intending to use it for a blouse (va-va-voom!) - that being said it will probably host some beautiful drape properties so it just depends on your preference and personal style.

medium weight

Range from 140gsm-150gsm all the way up to to 400gsm-500gsm.

This is a larger range, but all are still classed as medium weight.

Let’s work our way up the scale.

For instance, 180gsm should it be a jersey, would be suitable for a t-shirt.
Jumping up to 240gsm would be suitable for jackets, trousers or light outdoor garments.
340gsm looks at a ‘heavier’ medium weights such as thicker cottons.
400gsm may see us reaching denims and canvas.
This is where I switch to oz (sorry!). 12-14oz are your standard weights for jeans and jackets, though you can get denim as lightweight as 4oz.

heavyweight

When we reach the heavy weight fabrics you’ll often find yourself in the zone of upholstery.
700gsm is a weight whose application is appropriate for upholstery, thick canvas or even some wools that are suitable for outdoor coats.

LCD SCREENS

When ordering anything online, LCD screens can reflect colours differently. I’m sure we’ve all had a nightmare story of ordering something we thought was peach to only be handed a neon pink by the postman! No? Just me?

Ultimately, whatever your reason for ordering fabric online, and should your project timeline allow for it, my advice would always be to order swatches first. Hopefully the brief breakdown of weights above will give you confidence further down the line when you next come to add some textiles to your online shopping basket, but we can all agree nothing beats a tangible experience of feeling the fabrics for yourself in a brick and mortar store.

What’s the last fabric you bought online? Did it meet your expectations? What did you make with it? Let me know in the comments below!

Also, if you enjoyed this overview and would like to delve a little deeper into textile theory, gaining confidence with your sewing projects or exploring your skill across the entire Create, Cut, Construct™ framework, then why not check out The DPL Atelier?