Sewing with Patterned Fabrics | Bernina Sew N Quilt Studio

Spring is a time for sewing lots of cute clothing and accessories with colorful floral-patterned fabrics! But, adding lines and shapes to fabrics also adds new challenges—how can you join the fabric for a seamless look? What about sleeves?

Let’s take a look at some great tips for sewing with prints and patterns to meet all of these challenges!

Start with the Basics

When you’re getting started with printed fabrics the first thing that you want to do is choose the right pattern to use! When working with printed fabrics, it’s ideal to work with fewer seams—so you have fewer seams that you need to match.

It’s also important to keep in mind what your finished project will look like on the body you’re making it for. Printed and patterned fabrics have a way of highlighting or diminishing the parts that they cover, so it’s crucial to know where the prints will be placed once the garment is completed to create the most flattering clothing!

Finally, make sure that your pattern will lend itself well to the symmetry of the patterned fabric. This is especially important for striped fabrics or mixing prints.

Match at the Seams

When you’re sewing a garment with sleeves and/or pockets, it’s important that the fabrics match one another where they are joined. Print matching will create a more seamless look for pockets, buttons, and sleeves!

Start by carefully looking over your pattern and making a note of where you’ll want your printed fabric to match up. This is important for places where you’ll want to join fabric together for a larger piece, and also for sleeves and pockets, which are sometimes overlooked.

Make sure that you have more than enough fabric for your pattern—enough to cover all of the clothing measurements and a little extra for creating seams for good matching. When in doubt, remember it’s better to have too much fabric than not enough! You can always use leftover fabric in other projects later!

One of the easiest ways to make sure your fabric matches is by first cutting the largest part of the pattern, and then physically lining up your remaining fabric where it will be joined. Make sure that you fold and pin the fabric as needed before cutting it and always account for the seam allowance!

Need a little extra help with matching patterned fabrics? Check out this step-by-step video!

Do you have everything you need to sew some festive printed garments? Feel free to drop by the Bernina Sew N Quilt Studio online store to get all of your sewing essentials delivered straight to your home!