Help me I'm dumb. :( About Fleece!

[Muslimah]

So, today (or yesterday xmas eve), I was on my way to walmart to look at baby stuff. I found a fabric store having a 50-70 cent off sale of their already lowlow prices. I go in and ask for Flannel or Terry cloth. They guy shows me something like terry but not exactly like the wash rag material. It seemed a bit thin. Then he showed me fleece. I saw the fleece it was only a $1.99 (Canadian) a yard! So, I snatched it up.

Now, I don't know if it is cotton or poly. I *think* he said it was cotton, but then again I went to Walmart right after to price shop around and she I know for sure said xzy was 100% cotton. How do I know if I have cotton or polyesster? or a blend?

Next time I am going to make a list of acceptable fabrics. I just want to make doublers, nursing pads, and mense pads. I feel like I am in over my head and I haven't even started to sew yet.

How do people become such Fabric experts? I feel like a dork in front of the sales clerks because I go in and ask for the different fabrics because I don't even know what they look like. How do you learn which fabrics use what needles and stuff like this? I don't even know what all the buttons on my machine are for....but I really want to learn and I am fast learner....I didnt know sewing little squares could be so difficult.

Okay, I just think I am having a moment. My mom gave me one of those "well what if u die giving birth....whats goign to happen to the baby" because I dont have insurance in canada and she wants me back in the states to see an MD and have medicaid but pls still answer about the fleece and excuse the hormone induced hysteria.

[boscopup]

$1.99/yd for fleece is good whatever type it is! Can you call the store and double check that way? It's possible that you found "sweatshirt fleece" that is 100% cotton, and if so, what a find! Most people can't find cotton fleece in local stores anymore. Blends are ok if they're high percentage cotton (like 70%+). If it's 100% polyester, you can use it as the waterproof portion of your pads, most likely. You can also make blankets or sleepers or sleep sacks out of it, since you have "real winters" up there.

And don't worry that you don't know fabrics... I'm still VERY much learning. Before sewing diapers, I didn't know what any of the fabrics looked like either!! It's really hard to shop for it when you don't know what you're looking for. But it sounds like you're off to a great start! The big thing to learn now is to check the end of the bolt for fabric content, so you know what you're getting.

Once you have a fabric in hand at home, if you're not able to find out the content via calling or going back to the store, you *can* do a burn test to see what kind of fabric you're dealing with, but I'm thinking it's not always easy to read that, plus I don't know that it'd be a good idea for a pregnant woman to be around burning polyester? Unfortunately, there's no way to visually assess what the fabric content is. And if the burn test showed it to be a cotton/poly blend, you still wouldn't know what percentage it is.

HTH!

[Micheliala]

AsSalamu Alaikum!
Learning what fabrics are which just takes time of feeling them and experience. I burnt a few fabrics while I was pregnant no problem. Just take a small piece and what you are looking for is something with mostly poly is going to just melt. If there is a lot of cotton it will turn to ash. Without the burn test, poly will look more shining in lighting and have a smoother feel to it. The cotton will actually feel like it can absorb the oils from your skin. Its hard to discern from just reading about it though and not seeing it for yourself.
The terry that he showed you may have been knit terry which is thinner, like what they use in baby blankets. If you are wanting terry, I've bought 100% cotton cheap towels from Walmart and chopped those up before. As a matter of fact, I have lots of spare here. pm me if you're interested in any
Michelle