Shelley the Snail pattern available right here.
Fleece is an amazing fabric for sewing softies. Here's why:
- it's machine washable
- it's easy to find in almost any fabric store
- it comes in a huge variety of colors and patterns
- it's super soft and huggable
- it's durable
- it's forgiving of stitching mistakes
Despite fleece's many fantastic qualities I avoided it completely for years.
First, I was convinced that fleece was too stretchy for softies. I like to stuff my softie parts pretty firmly and I felt sure that if they were made from fleece they'd stretch out of shape and be super lumpy.
Second, I thought sewing through layers of fleece on my sewing machine would be too difficult. The fabric would be too thick and bulky to cram under the machine needle, and then the layers would shift while I was sewing leading to inaccurate seams.
Hobby Horse pattern available right here.
Now that I know that I can easily avoid both of these problems I totally appreciate the wonders of fleece for softies.
Here is how to avoid common problems and increase your success when sewing with fleece:
Fleece has grain direction that needs to be respected. The difference between the level of stretch on the warp threads versus the weft threads on fleece is dramatic. To demonstrate, pick up a piece of fleece (or use your fleece sweatshirt or scarf) and stretch it in one direction, then in another.
Not stretchy! And look how pretty! I love rainbow fleece.
When you pull the fabric parallel to the grain (with the warp threads), there is virtually NO STRETCH at all!
Perpendicular to the grain (with the weft threads)? Crazy amount of stretch!
On every pattern piece I draw an arrow to indicate how to place th pattern on the fabric.
The arrow should be parallel to the grain. If you are a softie pattern designer be sure to draw grainline arrows on your pattern pieces! Fleece or no fleece, grain direction is important!
Softie parts cut parallel to the grain will not stretch out of shape when stuffed, even when stuffed really firmly. Problem 1 resolved!
Problem 2 was the thickness and shifting of fleece layers when you take them to the machine. Want to know the trick? PINS! Pins are your very best friends. Pins are tiny little fingers that hold fabric in place when you can't.
Just look at all those wonderful pins! I was being conservative here. You could use more!
I am not kidding you when I say that I place a pin every 1/8 inch when I'm sewing with fleece. And remember to place your pins perpendicular with the edge of the fabric with the pinhead extending off the edge. This way you can easily pull the pins out as you sew.
Placing all those pins and taking them out is time consuming, yes, but it is so worth it! Neat and accurate seams that don't need to unpicked? Yes, please!
The next time you are thinking of sewing a softie and you want a fabric that is soft, comes in vibrant colors, is washable, cheap, durable, forgiving, and EASY TO WORK WITH, choose fleece! It's awesome.
If you have other issues or questions about sewing with fleece or choosing fabrics for softies fire away in the comments! Let's share our great tricks with one another.
This is so helpful. Thank you so much Abby. I was wondering if it makes a difference if I use polyester or cotton thread?
I use all-purpose polyester thread. I also like a heavier duty needle (14). Hope that helps!
ok, I think I may give it another go. You may have convinced me. thank you for this timely information. :}
I found that when I use an even feed/walking foot that it greatly reduces any sort of stalling of your machine, especially at the beginning of a stich or over multiple layers. Also, using a slightly long stitch length helps as well! 🙂 (I use a 3.5 on my machine)
So my problem is when I combine fleece with freezer paper. I have a tendency to melt the fleece with by iron while affixing the paper to the fleece. I’m assuming it’s just that my iron is too hot, but I haven’t gotten it right just yet.
Yes, you have to be careful. Bring the heat down to a wool setting and just touch the freezer paper with the iron for a second or two. Nothing worse than burnt fleece!
I agree that using a walking foot can be helpful. It feeds the top and bottom layers through at the same time because the foot has feed dogs. I still stick to a short stitch length, though, for tight, accurate seams.
I cut the fleece into about 1/8-inch strips, going with the stretchy, then stretch them out – they curl!!! It makes really cool curly hair on fleece dolls. If you cut it with the grain (so it doesn’t stretch), the strips won’t curl.
My relationship with fleece is love/hate:
Problem #1: After a toddler uses it for a while some fleece gets pills and looks rather ratty.
Problem #2: It attracts pet hair and floor fuzzies like crazy (of course this is a problem for the end user, not necessarily for the creator!). I figured that out before making softies when my kids were crawling around in fleece pants….
If you’re using microfleece or some that’s flat enough, I remedy the pilling by using a (cleaned) old razor, preferably with wire guards, to shave off the pills. Then I use an emery board to blend the fibers back together. I first learned about this for denim. but found it works on any flat fabric that pills. So it helps with jeggings, leggings, and plush toys that use microfleece. Large areas would benefit from actual sandpaper. I often like the finer grit side of the emery board, so something as similar to that is best.
Wow! I'm totally trying that curly hair trick, Caren. Thank you. I'm okay with a bit of pilling. It shows that the toy is well-loved. My bet is that some types of fleece pills more easily than others, but I don't know how to predict which type will pill readily. Does anyone?
You’re welcome, Amanda, and go for it! Practice practice practice.
I’d actually already worked out for myself that fleece is all kinds of awesome, after having tried to make some toys out of non-stretchy-at-all cotton fabric. I find the fleece is much more forgiving, and the end product is much cuddlier. Thank you very much for the tip on cutting on the grain though – I’m a beginner!
I totally agree. Given a choice I'd leave quilting cotton behind except for detail bits like ear lining and paw pads.
Hi Abby, I curled the hair of my Fefe the fleece dolly pattern last year it’s fabulous fun.
I’ve found there’s a big difference between fleeces. You can purchase Anti-pill fleece. It’s more expensive but worth it. Regular fleece will pill after a few good plays or lots of kisses and love and can look raggedy.
I only recommend anti-pill fleece for my patterns (polar fleece for Australians). Ask for help at your fabric store or quilt shop the ladies are very knowledgeable and will point you in the right direction 🙂
In my experience, the cheaper the fleece is, the more likely it will pill.
Take care and happy sewing, Sarah x
Thank you, Sarah! I also have noticed a difference between the standard fleece (what Jo-Ann's labels as "blizzard fleece") and micro fleece. Micro fleece is much thinner and even softer than the standard type. I like it, too, but it has a different feel. I sewed the sample shark for my shark pattern from micro fleece and he is one soft shark!
Thanks for the tips Abby. I do love sewing with Fleece now, and it makes the toys so soft cuddly.
So glad to hear it, Jody! Soft and cuddly is important, especially if you are sewing for a young child!
I finally watched Being Elmo last night and they were talking about the Muppets being made of fleece (I assume the same type of fleece) for at least 40 years.
Also many of the Muppets have a seam up the front of their faces (!) which is sewn with the “Jim Henson stitch” to make it nearly invisible. I just googled it and watched a YouTube video. It’s just a variation on a ladder stitch. But the major thing I hadn’t considered was that the guy ran the needle over the seam when he was done which evened out the fuzz and was really what hid the seam. I just tried it out on a machine stitched seam and it definitely made a difference. I’ll have to experiment further on some hand sewn seams.
My mind is slightly blown.
Hi Sarah, That was a fantastic movie! The muppets are sewn from Antron fleece. It is somewhat different from standard fleece and you can dye it! I am hoping to get my hands on some so that I can see what it's like. And I'd like to watch a video on the Jim Henson stitch. I guessed that it was like the ladder stitch, but I haven't seen it done. Do you have a link to the video? And it makes sense that running the needle over the seam would help to free the fleece pile from the the seam. Fleece does have pile, after all, even though it is very short and subtle. Thanks for the comment!
Ah cool! You will have to fill us in on what the Antron fleece is like.
The video is in a link in my comment above and repeated here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPM8h6kdNp0
Is there a difference between boiled and polar fleece? Thanks!
Thank you so much, Sarah. From the video I can really see that Antron fleece is not like the standard polar fleece we are buying at a regular fabric store. It has more body to it, and a longer pile. I am indeed intrigued and feel myself justifying purchasing a piece to play with! As for the "muppet stitch" it is indeed a version of ladder stitch, but he goes back into the stitch instead going forward. I wonder what difference that makes? I'm going to certainly play with that and possibly do a post about the results. Much food for thought here!
Hi Nicky,
I don't know for sure what the difference is, but I don't commonly see boiled fleece in the store here. I think it may be playing on the idea of boiled wool, which seems like a thicker, felt-like wool. Is boiled fleece thicker than polar fleece? Anyone know?
I know that when I do the regular ladder stitch I get some weird puckering. I suspect that the extra stitches would alleviate that and keep the seam extra tight.
where do you buy rainbow fleece from?
I got this piece at Jo-Ann's.
Hi!
I am making double layer fleece blankets and sewing them together around the edges. Does the stretch direction need to be the same in both layers? In other words, does the fabric need to lay so that the stretchiest direction of both fabrics lay the same direction or doesn’t it matter?
Thanks.
Pam
Yes, Pam, the stretchiness of the layers should both be in the same direction.
I only just stumbled upon this and was thinking of making a pair of glove liners with fleece but am curious on one where to find a pattern for such a thing and two what type of fleece is best for this since I do not care so much for the piling and want to know what is the most durable type of fleece to use for glove liners and can fleece be sewn to the inside of a pair of gloves? Also I am always getting so cold and was wondering if you could line a pair of jeans with fleece?
I know so many questions so I will ask step by step
1) Can fleece be used to make glove liners?
2) If fleece can be used for liners then what type of fleece do I use?
3) What is the strongest fleece they make?
4) Can fleece be sewn to another material like either Cotton or Jeans or any other type for that matter?
5) If any sewing is done with fleece what type of thread is best for fleece to fleece, fleece to denim (cotton, poly, Lycra, and so on).
6) When sewing on a machine with fleece what type of needle would I need?
So sorry for all the questions, I am fairly new to using a sewing machine like only 6 years now and with using fleece I never thought of using fleece until I saw this cause I was told a long while ago by my mother in law it could not be done with a machine! She said it would rip way too easily as well as get jammed in a machine and could cause all sorts of havoc on a machine.
Hi Jeanann,
I sew with fleece every day and I love it. It is easy to sew on the machine and won’t tear. You do need to use a lot of pins and pay attention to the direction of the stretch. If you’re sewing fleece as a lining inside gloves or pants you want the stretch to wrap around your body.
I use a standard size 14 needle and all-purpose polyester thread without any kind of problem. If you’d like you could also try a needle for sewing stretch fabrics (ball-point needle), but I don’t find that I need one.
If you’re shopping at a regular fabric store they usually have anti-pill fleece and regular polar fleece. Both are great – soft, warm, forgiving to sew with, washable, and very durable.
I hope that helps!
I wanted to purchase three of your patterns but I am not interested in Facebook or Twitter or ETSY. If I can’t purchase your patterns because of this, please let me know. Thank you. Susan
Thank you, Susan! I’ll send you an email. You can also purchase my patterns from my BigCartel shop here on the blog.
Hi,
Does fleece need to be pre-washed?
Regards
Tricia
Hi Tricia,
No, fleece doesn’t need to be pre-washed. Just cut and sew!
Hi,
I found lots of the comments very informative. I made a softie with wool and cotton fleece using polyester thread and a 1.5 stitch length. When it was tested for safety (7 kg pressure applied to it), , the seams split in a number of places. In some cases it was where I had handsewn openings but in other cases it wasn’t. I used a needle for heavy fabrics (a regular, not ballpoint size 100 Husqvarna). I want to be able to sell these toys so the seams can’t split. Any thoughts on how I can improve? My machinewon’t accept hand quilting thread – what other strong thread could I use in a domestic sewing machine? I didn’tknow about grain but the head was stretchiest going around the head but the legs were stretchiest on the leg length. Could it be that I needed to use a stretch stitch? I didn’t stretch the fleece mush as I sewed it.
Without seeing the fabric first I’m not sure if I can be of specific help to you, Betty. My best advice would be to do some research on thread perhaps by visiting a local store where there are some knowledgeable sales staff with whom you could speak. I would take some time to learn about grain as well because that has a significant affect on the finished toy’s look. Experiment with different threads – perhaps a mercerized cotton would work. Good luck to you!
I just started sewing again after a 40 year break! I made a couple of things with fleece, and just bought material to make a dog bed, not realizing it was microfleece with a lot of stretch. I’m debating between a donut style bed, lots more seams and cutting but no zipper, or just a big rectangle or round bed with a zipper. I think the zipper should go parallel to the grain, with no stretch that direction. any other tips or thoughts? Thanks!
I’ve been sewing with a lot of fleece lately. I’ve found that when I use a layer of interfacing on the fleece it gives my animals an extremely smooth and polished texture. It takes away the stretch so that has to be considered before using this method, but it really does work well to keep any bunching under control and the seams look nice and tight.
any advice on how to wash my daughters fleece mermaid doll? thanks!
You can handwash with a gentle detergent and line dry.
thanks!