Fabric Guide: Linen Look Cotton

We’ve just had a bumper delivery of linen look cotton in some beautiful prints so I thought I’d write pen a quick guide about it so you can drool in a more informed way 🙂

Composition

Well, it’s not a trick – it’s 100% cotton… but it looks like linen! The fabric has a decorative slub, just like linen so lends itself well to vintage style projects. It’s a medium weight fabric, it has more weight than a quilt weight cotton but isn’t as heavy as a true upholstery fabric.

“Why?!” I hear you cry! Well linen is beautiful *but* linen it’s a much higher maintenance fabric than cotton is. If left to it’s own devices linen has a tendency to fray to unravel after a few washes because it has a looser weave, it also creases like nobody’s business. With linen look cotton you get the look of linen it doesn’t crease as much, it’s less likely to come apart at the seams if left unfinished and it’s also generally cheaper. It’s much easier to launder – I don’t actually iron my linen look cotton makes at all if they have been tumble dried – what a bonus! Linen can also be a bit shifty when sewing, where as the linen look behaves like our stable old friend cotton.

Uses

Linen look cotton is a very versatile fabric and is suitable for decorative upholstery such as cushions and lampshades and well as being a great weight for bags. For dressmaking it is a great “bottom” fabric and would make wonderful skirts, trousers or lightweight jackets. It’s not so heavy that it is too much for toddler clothes though, I’ve made a few autumn and winter dresses for my daughter. It’d be a great choice for kitchen makes such as oven gloves or tea cosies too.

Care

Line look cotton is machine washable and can be tumble dried. I find my linen look makes don’t need much pressing, if at all so it’s a really easy care fabric.

We have lots of choice in stock so please take a look at our range of line look cotton here.