When you have a collection of swatches you can thumb through them. As you feel them, you really begin to understand how each fabric might behave in the real world. You want to know how a polyester ponte is different than a ponte with rayon and polyester? That’s where you need swatches. If you already own a piece of fabric, or you've already used it up for a project, it's still smart to save a swatch of your fabric. You can use it as a reference for future projects or when you're looking for similar qualities online. How do you obtain fabric swatches from (online)stores? In my Resource Library, I have a companion guide to the Ultimate jumbo mega guide to online fabric stores that is a list of online stores that offer swatches. Many are free, but most are fairly low cost options for getting your hands on swatches. You can sign up to get access to the Fabric Swatches Online Guide at the bottom of this post when you sign up for the newsletter. Join a fabric swatch club As someone who has collected my own little mountain of swatches over time, I know that they need some help in the organization department. If you are just getting your feet wet with sewing, I’d recommend instead Fabric Savvy by Sandra Betzina. It doesn’t have the swatches in it, but it’s a much more helpful to sewists. I write a full review of it in Sewing books for beginners that are actually helpful.

But once you have all these fabric swatches, how do you store and organize them? In a fabric swatch library or a fabric swatch book! Firstly there are a few key pieces of information you want to include. These are basic things that will go a long way to keeping your fabric swatch book tidy, easy to use and helpful for future projects.I promised I’d share a done-for-you option in case the idea of making your own fabric swatch book is not your cup of tea. Having a compiled fabric swatch book can help you choose a fabric or compare fabrics from your book to ones you wish to buy to get a good match. Another option would be to use an accordion file folder / expanding file organizer to hold the paper with swatches. This is also great if you are looking for fabrics to compliment each other from colours to tectures to designs. You can have a swatch in your book and take it to compare alongside other fabrics. Details To Include In Your Fabric Swatch Book For now, the most important info is the name of the fabric (i.e. ponte, denim, challis, double knit etc.) and the fiber content (i.e. 100% wool, 95% cotton/5% spandex etc.). specialty knits, poly knits, cottons

The easiest source of swatches is what you already have. Whatever fabric you’re using, save a scrap for the future. You can do this with every fabric you sew. For this project, you’ll need the Fabric Swatch Book Template. I just added it to the Resource Library. Before we get into making your own DIY fabric swatch book, let’s talk about how to collect a good set of swatches. How to collect fabric swatches Fibre content and breakdown – 100% cotton, 45% polyester etc ( ask the vendor or look at the label for this information)

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It took me a weekend of pre-washing all the unwashed fabrics + the ones I was unsure about and created a template to keep everything organized. I thought I'd share a bit about the process and notes on how and why you should create a swatch library. But let's start at the very beginning... What is a swatch of fabric? It depends on the shop. Most fabrics watches I've bought online were around 5 x 5 cm / 2" x 2", But when I bought wholesale would often receive larger fabric swatches up to a4 / letter size. However, if I'm cutting into a new piece of fabric I mostly cut off a small sliver of fabric to avoid cutting into the fabric too much. This is a fantastic reference book. It has swatches in categories of fabric. It’s quite comprehensive, and there’s text explaining each fabric. You never know how the fabric feels, what the color actually looks like, how the fabric drapes, washes or handles until you get your hands on it. For some projects, it's OK to take a gamble, but when you are working with expensive fabrics, that's not a risk I'm willing to take. A swatch library or a fabric swatch book is where you catalogue your fabric swatches and write down the details of a certain fabric for future reference. Why create a swatch book?

You can use staples, double sided tape, pins or paperclip to attach the swatches to a piece of paper. I’ve taken a couple of classes from Sarah Veblen on Patternreview. One is Understanding Knits and another that’s she’s not currently teaching on sheer fabrics. In each of those, there’s a kit of swatches for the class. A handy tip to help against fraying and curling edges, add a strip of tape before you cut out your swatch.This is particularly helpful if you are working with knits. Hopefully by now you’ve got swatches on your sewing radar. With your own fabric swatch book at hand, you’ll always have a great reference to help you demystify fabric! You can grab it when you sign up for the Elizabeth Made This newsletter. Making your DIY Fabric Swatch book 1. Cut your swatches

The law of fabric: the more fabric you touch, the better you understand what fabric is and how to work with it. It’s best to have a variety of swatches within that. They can be anything. Go for what interests you! Use the fabric you have for future swatches I share it with this caveat: It’s my opinion that this book is maybe not the most helpful for someone starting out sewing. I say that because it’s #1 more expensive than most sewing books. #2 The designer fashion pictures in the book might not be the most relatable for someone just starting out sewing. #3 There’s also not a lot of helpful sewing information particular to those fabrics. I like to use a rotary cutter fitted with a pinking blade here. This will keep the edges from fraying on you. 2. Print out the Fabric Swatch Book Template After that, print out as many copies of the Fabric Swatch Book Template as you like. I did 10 for this first batch which will hold 50 swatches. 3. Label and organize your swatches

Fabric swatches are a cheap or free way for you to get your hands on a veritable mountain of fabric! Care instructions – how to wash it, temperature, dry clean only and ironing – this will help make your fabric last longer. The possibilities are off course endless, but it highly depends on your needs. here are a few ideas to inspire your own system. Type of fabric (batiste, poplin, denim, gingham, tweed, jacquard, boucle, voile, double gauze, taffeta, etc.)