Toile De Jouy: Upholstery Fabric and Quilting Cotton Re-Imagined

Most successful sewing projects depend on choosing a suitable fabric.  A clingy bias skirt pattern, for instance, will look completely different in a quilting cotton than it will in a silk charmeuse. 

Many people avoid using quilting cottons and upholstery fabric for apparel because they are supposedly unsuitable materials.  However, I have had quite a bit of success with them, understanding that neither is going to drape very much at all!

And some of the prints and colors are so very pretty, they are impossible to resist!

This upholstery fabric was originally intended as a slip cover for a chair.  Well, that project never happened, although I have used some of the yardage as small home décor and craft projects, here and there.  It sat in the corner, on its roll.

I recently came across this image of Dita von Teese, and immediately knew that a dress was going to be the perfect thing to use up some of that upholstery fabric.  Turns out, I just scraped by with the yardage.

I was debating whether or not to add sleeves to my first Butterick 5882.  In the end, the question was moot because I did not have enough fabric.  Oh well, I will save that for the next one!

One thing to keep in mind with upholstery fabric is its loose weave.  Unfinished or cut edges will fray like nobody’s business, so a muslin is a really good idea!  Ripping out seams and handling pattern pieces over and over will only lead to frustration.

All of those cotton prints that I pulled out to match back to the upholstery fabric gave me an idea – quilting cotton would make the perfect lining fabric.  And when adding boning to a lining, it is so much easier to work with a stable fabric.  This is especially true when the lining is going to work back with a heavy weight fashion fabric.

I did not have any matching green thread for the cotton print, so I decided to go with a contrasting pink.  This is not a detail that anyone else will ever see, but it makes me happy.

The pattern also calls for a skirt lining.  I decided to finish my seams with seam binding and omit the skirt lining since I did not have anything suitable on hand.  Because this dress is worn with a petticoat, it is not really necessary. 

Of course, I added a strip of silk organza to the back opening, and used a lapped application for the zipper. 

It was a bit chilly to wear a sleeveless dress the day I finished this project, so I added one of my favorite cardigans. 

The moral of the story is, go ahead and use any fabric you desire – just remember the benefits and limitations of the particular fabric to avoid disappointment.

And to prove this project was not just a fluke - here is another example of upholstery fabric apparel, and one made entirely of quilting cotton!