July 15, 2020

Blush Leopard ITY

Hi, I am Sonia, otherwise known as S by S - a 26-year old, pink-obsessed sewist, whose ambition since the UK-wide lockdown has been to design and create her own wardrobe.

This is a review of Fabric Styles’ blush leopard ITY. I am writing this blog to provide you some tried-and-tested real-life information on this fabric, so you can make an informed choice when purchasing.

The fabric itself can be found here: https://www.fabric-styles.co.uk/collections/fabric/products/fs511-blush-leopard

For more ideas on how to use this and other fabrics sold by Fabric Styles, visit: https://www.instagram.com/s_by_s_x/

Colour

The primary colour of this fabric is a pale nude. Black leopard print features across the whole fabric, most of which have a blush pink centre. The blush and pale nude complement each other very well, giving a very sophisticated version of leopard print fabric. The surface of the fabric is very slightly glossy. Note that this fabric becomes paler when stretched.

The other side of the fabric is white, with the dark spots being visible (though much more muted than the right side).

Quality

This fabric is an ITY, i.e. an Interlock Twist Yarn fabric. This makes the fabric incredibly soft, both inside and out. It is very light-weight; it barely feels like you are wearing it. This property gives the fabric excellent drape, perfect for angel sleeves.

This fabric is also very stretchy. Because it is so thin, I wouldn’t recommend you use it for close fitting garments – it is much better suited to loose, drapey designs where the stretch makes it easy to put on rather than for support.

I have tried very hard, and have yet not been able to crease this fabric.

Lining

This fabric is very opaque, and doesn’t lose this when stretching. You cannot see undergarments through it. However, because it is very thin, the texture of undergarments would be noticed, so I don’t recommend using this fabric for tight clothing. I have only used 1 layer for the top that I have made with this fabric.

The inside is amazingly soft, this is honestly the most comfortable fabric I have ever owned. You will not need to line the inside of this ITY for comfort reasons. If you do plan on lining this fabric, you need to use one with the same drape and stretch as this one otherwise it would look very odd – therefore, I recommend you use another ITY to line it (or double up on this one!).

Note that the inside of this fabric is not the same colour as the outside. I was nervous about this when making the angel sleeves for this top, but having made the top and worn it a few times the difference in colour actually doesn’t look bad the way I thought it would.

Ease of Sewing

I am by no means an expert sewist, so how easy a fabric is to sew is really important to me.

On a scale of chiffon (0) to cotton (10), I would give this fabric a score of 4 out of 10 for the ease of sewing. This fabric is thin, slippery and stretchy, which does mean you have to treat it very differently to when sewing other fabrics. Using a stretch needle really helps, alongside lots of pins and a zigzag stitch everywhere you want to take advantage of the stretch. The great thing about this fabric is that it bounces back really well, so pins and ripped stitches won’t leave holes or ruin the surface.

Another really helpful quality is that this fabric doesn’t fray at the edges, so there is no need to finish them. I have deliberately not folded over the edges of the angel sleeves, to encourage the draped effect.