Selecting Interfacing

I’ve gotten a few questions about how to select interfacing for the upcoming Alder Sew-Along so I wanted to take a minute and direct you to two older posts I’ve made on interfacing. This first post, Selecting and Applying Interfacing, talks heavily about using silk as the self fabric but the same premise applies for any garment. You want to select an interfacing that generally has the same drape as your garment. If you’re doing a collar you can go a bit stiffer, but what you really want to avoid at all cost is having your fabric look like you stitched it to a bit of plywood. I always recommend going with either a woven or tricot (knit) interfacing and stay away from the bonded stuff. It’s made in a way similar to the aforementioned plywood with fibers running every which way, and as such, has little to no drape no matter how thin of stuff you get. I think that bonded interfacing is best left out of your fine garments and reserved for craft type projects.

The second post I’d like to refer you to is My Favorite Fusibles. This post is just that, the fusible interfacings I use in pretty much 100% of my projects. I’ve tried a lot of interfacing over the years, through this site, hound, and my pattern work and these are the ones I like the most and continue to reorder bolt after bolt. No hard glue, sticks through as many washes as I’ve thrown at my garments, never shrinks, beautiful hand/drape, and not plasticky like some of them can occasionally feel at large box stores. Just really great stuff in my opinion.

So that’s my fusible advice, hope you found it helpful!