First, I wanted to give you a peek at my latest fabric purchases. Not to ever let a road trip go to waste, I worked it out so that on the way home from Rex's doctor's appointment in Nashville, we were able to stop at Textile Fabrics and Children's Corner. You can see that I am a sucker for seersucker, my all time favorite summer fabric. Not having a clue what I will be making, and since most were 60" wide, I bought 1 yard of each. I am hoping to start my planning soon and will keep you posted as the projects progress. *Rex picked out the peach floral for Emma. :)
I am often asked about fabric choices when it comes to wrinkles. Anything that is 100% cotton will wrinkle. You must embrace this ahead of time before committing to the fabric and decide you are okay with it! I use Mary Ellen's Best Press instead of starch when ironing. It does nicely while not leaving a residue build up on the iron. But, even though the garment looks great after being freshly ironed it is still going to wrinkle in the car seat on the way to church!
When I don't want wrinkles, which the girls often request, I use the cotton polyester blends. For these I always use Imperial Broadcloth or Imperial Batiste. Both of these are 65% cotton and 35% polyester with the difference being that the Broadcloth is slightly heavier. It is important that the word "Imperial" is attached to the Broadcloth or Batiste name on the bolt of fabric. It is higher quality and pleats nicely with no risk to your pleater.
While on the trip I had a "first" I was not introduced as Michie', but as Emma and Christian's Nana!
Michie'
5 comments:
I have to say that when I make anything for my granddaughter, I will only use 65% cotton/35% poly, as my daughter-in-law doesn't want to iron, and I don't blame her! Too many other things to do with our time! I smock with Imperial batiste, but am frustrated with the fabric suppliers, as the cute fabric prints here in Canada are 100% cotton. I won't buy them, as I know my DIL won't be dressing my granddaughter very often in them, however cute they may be. Sigh...
Mary
Hi Michie, I'm just new to smocking and have been in a quandary as to what type of fabric to purchase. I have made a few outfits (beginners mistakes on all) but I'm tired of just plain colors. Thanks for posting this information as I have wanted to chose some seersucker but didn't know if it would smock well. Now I feel confident enough to make my online purchase...Barb
Thank you for the post. I will definitely be looking for the word "imperial" in the future. I just bought two more 100% cotton selections today (before reading the post) so I have committed to wrinkles for those outfits -- but it helps knowing I am not doing something wrong when my daughter walks into church with wrinkles. Hopefully, people understand it didn't look like that when we got in the car.:)
I really prefer the cotton fabrics when possible and have found a few things that help. First, the prints from Fabric Finders are 100% cotton, but they don't wrinkle nearly as badly as poor quality cotton fabrics. And lining a garment properly tends to help as well.
As for dealing with wrinkles on the way to church, I can't bear to put a pretty smocked dress in a car seat buckle and crush it. So, I always put my daughters in their car seats wearing their slips and bloomers. Then when we get to church, unbuckle and pop the dress over her head and go inside. No wrinkles at all! When they were little babies, sometimes I could carefully roll up the hem of the daygown and place it carefully under the seatbelt. But more often than not, I would just have them in a onesie for the ride and put the gown or dress on when we arrived. Having a minivan definitely made this easier at times.
I think most young moms prefer NOT to iron these days. I would be interested in hearing more recommendations for higher quality blends like the Imperial batiste and broadcloth.
Post a Comment