Sewing Athletic Fabric with Zayna

February 08, 2024 1 Comment

Welcome to a journey to your new favorite fabric base- ATHLETIC! I’m going to tell you some of the many many reasons I LOVE Athletic as a base, and then once I’ve absolutely sold you on this incredible base I’ll give you some of my best tips, tricks and wish-I-knew-when-I-started tidbits. 

But first a bit about me, you’ve probably seen me around the RCF-verse rocking the many amazing fabrics offered. Outside of sewing I’m an avid outdoorsy type who loves to be up in the beautiful Utah mountains hiking, running and swimming. The minute the snow melts (and sometimes a minute sooner) you’ll find me on a trail, sweating my way up a mountain toting a toddler or walking our dogs. So breathable sporty fabrics are always on my radar and the RCF Athletic is something next level. 

Athletic is a thick, yet breathable fabric that can be printed full-coverage in the Designer Studio so the possibilities for your own custom activewear are endless. It passes the squat test, the jump test, and the clumsy-hiker-trips-over-her-own-feet test (I made this one up based on personal experience). In this season of New Year’s Resolutions and setting new fitness goals, you need some great new duds to jazz things up and Athletic is the perfect base to do this with!

So you’ve come to your better judgment and ordered the Athletic…now what? Here’s some helpful tips to help you succeed in sewing this awesome base.

Grab a few supplies to get you on your way to easier sewing: 

• Stretch thread/wooly nylon thread/bulky nylon thread 
• NOT elastic thread as you’d use in shirring but wooly polyester “stretch” thread such as Maxi-Lock Stretch or Guttermann Bulky Nylon 
• You can use stretch thread in your regular sewing machine but go slowly when winding your bobbin!
• The best use for stretch thread is in your two loopers on a serger, this prevents popping stitches in garments with lots of negative ease like swimsuits and leggings
• As a bonus it makes for SUPER soft seams!
• ALL the fabric clips
• Every clip you have and then some, if you don’t have clips…great time to try them!
• A glue stick that dries clear
• A great addition to help with slinky hems and pattern matching
• Clear elastic 
• Critical to supporting straps and skirts from heavyweight fabrics
• A heavy object to help you out if making binding from athletic
• I.e. a cookbook or a box 
• A sheet of metal and some magnetics
• A great all-purpose tip for cutting ANY heavy or slinky fabrics, place a sheet of metal underneath your cutting mat and use heavy magnets to hold your fabric in place to prevent sliding

And take a few tips from me:

Tip Number 1:

I was not kidding about the clips. Athletic is a bit slinky and a bit heavy, you don’t want it moving around on you while you stitch it up. The clips are your friend, I always stock up on the affordable ones on sites like Amazon to keep on hand. 

Tip Number 2:

If your hair has trouble holding a curl you may know where this tip is going…athletic fabric can be a bit feisty to iron for things like binding and hemming, pressing memory seams etc. while pressing keep a heavy wide and flat object like a book or a box. Once you’ve pressed or iron what you need, place the heavy object on top. The key here is to HOLD the shape until it has cooled completely to ensure it holds the memory seam/binding/etc. In the shape or with the mark you need. 

Tip Number 3:

For slinky fabrics a clear glue stick used in the seam allowance can help keep pattern-matched spots from running away from each other and things from slipping and sliding all over 

What tips and tricks do you have for sewing Athletic? I’d love for you to pop over to the Raspberry Creek Facebook Group and share them with me!

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