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You are here: Home / Embroidery Gears / How To Choose The Best Fabric For Embroidery 2023 – Complete Guide For Beginners

How To Choose The Best Fabric For Embroidery 2023 – Complete Guide For Beginners

By Patricia Smith | Last Updated March 5, 2023

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. If you make a purchase through links from this website, we may get a small share of the sale from Amazon.

Best Fabric for EmbroideryAre you planning to get started with embroidery work but don’t have an idea of how to choose the best fabric for embroidery?

Don’t worry as we have got you all covered.

Let me introduce some most commonly used fabrics to help you understand the demands of embroidery. It will help you save your day as you will choose the right material for the embroidery projects.

Different forms of fabrics are available for embroidery. The materials are present in linen, cotton, or blends, and that too in various thread counts.

The embroidery fabric use depends entirely on the selection of your embroidery technique. Have a look at the most common embroidery fabrics provided by the suppliers.

Table of Contents

  • Embroidery Fabrics Categories
  • Types of Embroidery Fabric
    • Cotton
    • Satin
    • Linen
    • Silk
    • Flour Sack Towels
    • Aida Cloth
    • Wool
  • Tips For Beginners
  • Conclusion

Embroidery Fabrics Categories

When you pick up an embroidery machine, you need to know a thorough knowledge of the fabric type. The two broad categories of embroidery fabric include:

Even-weave Fabric

Even-weave fabrics are woven fabrics that include cotton and synthetic that can be polyester, rayon, silk, wool, cotton, linen, or acrylic. The Evenweave fabric has threads that are of the same thickness. These threads are smooth, soft, and have a clean surface.

Plain Weave Fabric

Plain weave fabrics are the ones that have threads over one another in both directions.

Types of Embroidery Fabric

The fabrics are further divided into these broad categories include:

Cotton

Cotton muslin is the ubiquitous fabric that is used for embroidery. The thread count in cotton ranges from 70-250 thread count. If the thread count is around 250, then it’s the most beautiful type of fabric.

Cotton fabric is tightly woven, given a smooth surface. When you stretch the material on the embroidery frame, it does not result in any damage.

The only disadvantage while using cotton is that you have to perform counted threaded embroidery. If you plan on using cotton on the embroidery frame, be aware of the thread count.

Single-thread cotton is the best fabric for embroidery as it’s available in plain and even weaves. You can pull it quickly for a drawn thread or pulled thread work.

Satin

If you are planning for embroidery work, that looks smooth, shiny, and beautiful, then opt for satin. It looks so cute and delicate. Choose a high-quality cloth for a smooth and tight weave so that the thread does not snag.

Choose satin with natural fibers so that it offers you a glossy finish, and you can work comfortably.

Linen

If you are working on final projects, then this plain and even fabric is a perfect choice. The embroidery work on this fabric is slightly tricky due to the nubby surface.

The embroidery fabric linen has a slightly rough surface, which is the charm of this fabric. The thin and thick threads in the weaving of linen make the surface uneven.

The only disadvantage of linen is that the fabric is quite expensive. You can find the most beautiful linen in specialty shops that are specific for embroidery work.

You can also use linen blended with silk for embroidery as well. There are several linen brands in the market, so choose wisely for the hat embroidery machine.

Silk

If you are planning to get stunning results, then silk should be your ideal choice for beautiful embroidery. It is the best fabric for embroidery when making dresses or accessories for home décor.

Hand embroidery on silk fabric has been in practice for the past decades. You need to use the sharpest needle for embroidery on silk.

Flour Sack Towels

You can find a massive range of by-the-yard and ready-made flour sack towels. If you are working on retro and contemporary projects, then utilize this material.

Flour sack towels are not an expensive type of fabric. However, you need to look at the following traits before buying one. Check whether it has a close-weave, smooth hand, is fully hemmed, and is lint-free.

Aida Cloth

If you are a cross-stitcher, then Aida cloth is one of the best fabrics for embroidery. Aida cloth is famous among cross-stitches. It is because it has easy-to-count square patterns and is used for Assisi embroidery.

Furthermore, it is used for counted threading and surface embroidery methods. And this cloth is woven with the help of grouped fibers that form easy-to-follow squares. You can buy Aida in a massive range of colors with printed patterns or various textures.

The fiber content in Aida cloth can be rayon, linen, or cotton. The fiber size ranges from 11-22 counts, i.e., the number of squares within one inch of fabric.

Wool

If you are new and want a comfortable embroidery work experience, then choose wool. Wool fabrics are versatile and highly soft fabrics for embroidery work. It is one of the best fabrics for embroidery.

It is a natural form of fiber derived from sheep and goats. Wool has been used for centuries for creating durable and warm clothing items ranging from quilts to sweaters, blankets, and other things.

Wool is a perfect fabric for stitching and embroidery work, as it is quite strong. You can use wool easily because it is user-friendly. The tight weave of wool fabric serves as a sturdy canvas for embroidery work.

There are different wool blends such as wool/ nylon and wool/ silk, which have a loose weave. You can use wool blends for lighter and more delicate designs.

Tips For Beginners

When choosing the best fabric for embroidery, you need to know the following useful tips, especially for beginners. Always try to keep these tips in your mind to avoid any errors while starting with the embroidery and sewing.

useful-fabric-tips-for-beginners

Have a look at the tips which we compiled for you in this beginner’s guide, so that you don’t have to face any errors.

Fabric Type

Choose the fabric type efficiently so that you can get tight weaves and work efficiently over it. If you choose a fabric with loose patterns, you won’t be able to get stunning results.

Embroidery Type

The embroidery type you are working on influences the fabric type you choose. In surface embroidery, there are mostly flowing and curved lines, which means you should select full-weave fabric. For counted work, it’s better to choose even weave fabric.

Fabric Weight

Once you start doing the project, you must check the fabric weight. If stitching the delicate light work, then choose the light fabric.

However, if you are doing some massive project, then avoid choosing flimsy material and go for heavy fabric content. You must select the fabric weight according to the stitching mode.

Space Between Threads

Consider the space amongst the threads carefully.

Type Of Embroidery Work

You should select the embroidery fabric wisely and know about the work you will perform on it. For instance, if you are carrying out pulled thread embroidery; choose a fabric with open space amongst threads.

If you are doing cutwork embroidery and drawn thread work, then select a material with less space amongst the threads.

Thread Count

You should look at the number of threads in each inch. You should check the thread count for a more exquisite cloth while starting with the embroidery work.

Fabrics with low thread count are not the ideal choice for surface embroidery. A higher thread count is perfect for specific projects which need fabric support.

Smooth Hand

The “Hand” is defined as the feeling of the fabric surface. For surface embroidery, choose a fabric with a smooth hand, and that is free from textures.

Conclusion

Choosing the commercial machine along with the embroidery kits before you start doing the embroidery work is a difficult task.

Once you have done selecting the embroidery machine for beginners, choose where to buy the embroidery fabric.

You should be aware of all the embroidery fabrics and embroidery cloth names before getting started with embroidery work on different clothes.

You can buy the best fabric for embroidery from Amazon, which offers a variety of embroidery fabrics for consumers. Follow the tips we have mentioned above for a remarkable experience in embroidery and sewing.

About Patricia Smith

Patricia Smith is 32-year old small Business Owner. She is Professional Blogger, Enthusiast Sewer and currently doing Master of Design (MDes) in Fashion from the Art Institute of Chicago.Read more about her.

StitchingGuide.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, and we get a commission on purchases made through our links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

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