How To Sew Plaid Fabrics

Plaid fabrics look elegant and smart on some kinds of garments. However, if you don’t know how to handle it, your project will look goofy and wonky after you have done.

I have some experience with sewing plaid that I will share here. Hope that it will help you handle this fabric with ease.

If you are constructing a piece of garment, stop once in a while to line up what you have cut out to see if the patterns match. For beginners, you can find an easy to use sewing machine for beginners at CraftsSelection.com to start your first sewing projects with plaid fabrics.

How To Sew Plaid Fabrics

Plaid fabrics usually have a common way in which the checks or stripes run across the piece. If you don’t pay attention to this and cut out the piece as you do with a plain one, the final project will look a bit off. This is the best way to show that the project is made of an amateur.

Contrary to what many beginners think, the machine you use doesn’t have much to do with how professional a project looks. I use a basic model but my projects don’t look much different from the one that is made with advanced machines.

To avoid this problem, whenever you finish cutting a piece, line up what you have had so far and see if the patterns match. If they don’t, you might want to do it again.

So the most important stage in sewing plaid is the cutting. If you don’t do it right, all the reaping out or adjusting the machine won’t change the situation.

In case you haven’t had a sewing machine to start with, here are some suggestions: CraftsSelection.com List of Best Crafts and Sewing Machines to guide you through the top models.

Use a walking foot for sewing plaid fabric

The top tip here is to make use of the notch.

It is not only for matching piece when you assemble the garment, but it can also prove its advantage to assist you in cutting out the perfect pieces.

When you’ve done this step right, the finished project will look like it flows across the whole project. The checks and strips will line up nicely.

Another helpful technique when sewing plaid is the walking foot.

When you have put in so much effort to keep the patterns flow in the same direction, you don’t want to waste all of them when you sew.

Plaid fabrics don’t require any special machine, a simple model will do as long as you use the right techniques.

With a regular foot, the project is fed through the machine by the feed dog. However, this mechanism can only apply force underneath the fabric, which can sometimes cause the upper piece and the lower one travel at a different pace.

A walking foot can solve this problem in a heartbeat. It applies another force on the upper side to make sure the two pieces don’t slide off each other.

Some sewing machines such as the best sewing machine for beginners have walking foot as an accessory. In case you don’t have a foot like that, try using a lot of pins. Limit the number to a pin every one inch, don’t use more than that unless you want your project to have holes all over it.