The Types of Rayon Dick Dapson Fabrications LLC, Richland, MI At the July meeting of the Lansing Clippers, several people had questions about the types of rayon. I would like to address those queries here so that a more complete explanation is available to you. The different names for rayon are based on three things: source of the natural fiber, how that fiber is processed, and proprietary trade names. All rayon is made from cellulose, a polymer found in plants. The polymer is in a solid state, hard (stiff) and insoluble; hardly something that would feel soft as silk next to your skin. Amazingly, that's what happens when you treat cellulose in certain ways. It is first liquefied, then spun out as a soft, insoluble flexible fiber which is plied into yarn and made into fabric. The earliest rayon was Viscose, the name referring to the viscous nature of the liquefied cellulose. Wood pulp is used here, treated with some dangerous chemicals (sodium hydroxide, carbon disulfide and sulfu
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July 2023 Meeting Recap Like honeybees in a garden, members kept drifting toward the bolts of beautiful fabric at our July meeting. Janet and Dick Dapson from Fabrications brought so many high-quality choices, it was a sensory delight to peruse the luxurious and colorful textures. Janet’s presentation topic was “All Types of Fabric”, and she managed to cover an amazing variety with examples to demonstrate differences in weight and draping. Although her favorite fiber is silk, she advised that we consider the type of fabric rather than focusing on the fiber content. For example, rayon has evolved over the years, and is now included in many blends with differing characteristics. Rayon challis, originally a fussy dry-clean-only fabric, is now available in a washable! Newer rayons such as Tencel, Viscose, Modal (all trade names) are made from natural plant fibers which are then treated, and can be classified as “semi-synthetic”. Janet also explained the differences between interlock or dou
My Experience with the Ditto Paperless Pattern Projection System When I first heard about using a projector to put a pattern image on fabric to be cut instead of using a paper pattern, I was intrigued and I wanted to learn more about it. So, when I heard that Country Stitches was hosting a demonstration for the Ditto system, I immediately signed up. During the demo, there were two people assigned to each projector system set-up. The company representative walked us through the process of choosing a pattern and sending it to the projector. He showed us how to calibrate the projector and place the pattern images on the fabric. I asked a lot of questions and listened as others asked questions as well. The one thing I did not do was take a really good look at the patten library used to choose which pattern to send to the projector. Nevertheless, at the end of the demo, I purchased the Ditto projector system. The pattern library consists of Ditto patterns as well as ce
What I’m sewing: Looking forward to Spring Now that the holidays are past, I have been looking forward to spring (break): warm weather, sun, and lighter clothing. Fall and spring seem to be my time for new clothes – probably a hold over from my childhood where there were always new clothes for school in the fall and a new outfit for Easter. So, I dug into the stash which had grown substantially with the passport event and started sewing. First up were two shirts for my husband. We found blue and yellow striped shirt weight cotton fabrics at Fabrications. The fabrics have a lovely hand and the stripes were helpful in getting all the pieces to line up! I made sure that the center fold of the fabric was along one stripe and then all the stripes matched down the shirts. I used the Liesl & Co. All-Day Shirt pattern. The pattern instructions were clear with very good instructions on how to finish the yoke and the sleeve welts. I’m not production sewing these d