Tips For Sewing With Chiffon Fabric
Sewing with chiffon is not for the faint of heart. It’s a slippery fabric that can cause more frustration that joy when – double or triple fold would be a standard baseline! But the beauty of a chiffon garment – it’s sheerness, it’s lightweight floatiness (is that even a word?) – make it a fabric type that should be sewn at least once.
For those keen to know more, I’m sharing more about what chiffon fabric is and it’s properties and uses, and tips on how to sew with chiffon too.
Chiffon As A Fabric Type
Chiffon is a sheer and lightweight fabric and can be made from cotton, nylon, polyester or silk fibers. It has a very soft and fluid feel to it.
You can use chiffon to make dresses, blouses, scarves and other types of clothing, but one of the reasons chiffon fabric is so popular is that it comes in many colors and prints. This means there is bound to be a chiffon suitable for you!
There are many different types of chiffon fabric available on the market today, and they vary in price based on the fiber content and quality. Chiffons are typically made from either natural fibers such as silk and cotton – the latter is less widely used! – or synthetic ones like nylon and polyester.
Polyester Chiffon
Polyester chiffon is usually made from 100% polyester and is the cheapest and easiest type of chiffon to find. It usually has a very soft feel, but when worn can make your feel hot and sticky.
Polyester chiffon is available in many solid colors and prints as the fiber content allows the colors to ‘stick’ better than natural fibers do.
Silk Chiffon
Just like polyester chiffon, silk chiffon is made only from silk and has the most luxurious feel to it with a higher price tag attached!
Silk chiffon has a slight sheen about it which makes it really pop out when light hits it. You can use chiffon to make silk chiffon scarves because of the fabric’s sheer and lightweight qualities, but it is also a popular choice for bridal gowns.
I’ve been getting samples of silk chiffon sent to me, as I prefer to make my own wedding gown for next summer.
Nylon Chiffon
Nylon chiffon is made from nylon – sensing a theme here? 😆 – and has more shine to it than chiffons made from natural fibers. Nylon chiffon is slightly thicker, giving it more body and structure than chiffons that are 100% polyester or silk.
Mixed Fiber Chiffon
Mixed fiber chiffon is made from a mixture of different fibers that can be found in varying qualities and quantities too, so you should always check the label. You can find chiffon which is a mixture of silk and polyester, which is a better price point than 100% silk chiffon.
Chiffon’s Breathability
How breathable chiffon fabric is really does depend on the fiber content:
- Cotton chiffon is very breathable and is perfect for warm sunny days.
- Polyester and nylon chiffons are not very breathable due to their man made fiber content – this means that clothing made from it will stick to your body! But they are available at a lower price point, which can add up if you’re buying many yards or meters.
- Silk chiffon is also breathable and feels nice on the skin too, even during the warm summer months, but the price is significantly higher on a per meter or per yard basis.
Learn more about man made fibres vs natural fibers here.
Making Clothes With Chiffon Fabric
There are many clothing types that can be made with chiffon, but which you go for will depend on the fiber content and quality of the chiffon you have on hand.
In my experience silk chiffon fabric is mostly used for luxury clothing, because of its high price point. Its sheerness and lightweight properties make it perfect for blouses, skirts, dresses and lingerie, although I have also seen stunning silk chiffon pants and jackets from luxury houses!
Polyester chiffon is used a lot in lower priced fast fashion and ready to wear brands, and is best suited to garments like blouses, scarves or dresses rather than pants or jackets.
Tips for Sewing With Chiffon Fabric
Sewing chiffon can be tricky as I’ve already mentioned. These are the steps that I take when sewing chiffon fabric that will make it easier for you to sew this slippy fabric too!
Stabilize Chiffon
Stabilizing Tip 1: The first step when working with chiffon fabric is to use one or two layers of tissue paper to ‘mount’ the fabric on. This will help limit how much the chiffon will slip and slide.
Stabilizing Tip 2: If you don’t have tissue paper, you can also use a sprayable fabric stabilizer which will add a little stiffness to the chiffon and allow you to cut it without it slipping all over.
Stabilizing Tip 3: When pinning chiffon, try to use the super fine dressmaker pins – they’re thinner and longer than regular pins and so are less likely to damage your beautiful chiffon. Make sure to use them in the seam allowances of the fabric though, just to be sure!
Cutting Chiffon
Cutting Tip 1: Using sharp scissors, shears or a new rotary cutter, cut chiffon in one layer only!
If you double it up as we normally would for other types of fabrics, you are likely to find that the pattern pieces you have cut out are inaccurate.
Cutting Tip 2: As chiffon is a ‘loose’ fabric, it will ‘drop’ when hung from a hanger. For this reason, it is essential that after cutting out and before sewing, you allow the chiffon to hang overnight.
Some people will tell you to weigh it down but I find that this can distort the fabric too much. Once it has been hung, you can then ‘recut’ using your original pattern pieces.
Sewing Chiffon
Stabilizing Tip 1: When sewing chiffon, I like to use a very fine, sharp needle. It should also be a brand new one to prevent it snagging the threads of the chiffon. I never sew chiffon with a needle larger than a 70/10!
Stabilizing Tip 2: Stay stitching is your friend! If you don’t know how, this tutorial on how to stay stitch will help, but it’s simply using a line of stitching to prevent the fabric from stretching out on the raw edges.
Stabilizing Tip 3: Your stitch length for sewing the seams is just as important as your needle size – I generally use a smaller stitch length, but I do take the time to test it, and the stitch tension, on a sample of my chiffon fabric before starting the main project.
Stabilizing Tip 4: Depending on the quality of the chiffon fabric you’re using and the garment you’re making, you may want to baste your seams first.
Although more time consuming, this will mean that there is less chance of damaging your fabric with pins and ensuring that all the notches throughout the pieces are properly aligned.
Stabilizing Tip 5: As chiffon is a very fine fabric, it can easily be sucked into the feed dogs of your sewing machine. To prevent this, hold onto the tails of your thread as well as the fabric in front of and behind your sewing machine presser foot.
Stabilizing Tip 6: Be mindful that if you try to pull your chiffon fabric through the machine, the feed dogs will snag the fabric and cause it to pucker! Plan to sew slowly and steady and make sure to remove pins rather than sewing over them, to prevent any damage.
Stabilizing Tip 7: Some people like to use tissue paper when sewing chiffon. It’s a lightweight paper that can be sewn along with the fabric to limit slippiness, and then ripped away carefully once the seam is complete.
I prefer to sew without it, but you may find it helpful if you’re a sewing beginner trying chiffon for the first time!
Stabilizing Tip 8: When it comes to seam finishing, because of the transparent nature of chiffon, you’ll want to sew French seams where possible.
In fast fashion and some RTW brands, seams are serged / overlocked together, but while this is a fast construction method, it is not the neatest.
My curved French seam tutorial will show you how I sew beautiful seams in organza, a similarly sheer fabric.
Stabilizing Tip 9: If you make a mistake, the instinct is to grab the nearest seam ripper and get ripping.
This is not the right way to fix those mistakes when working with chiffon, as the potential risk of damage is great, but if you have to unpick something, make sure to use a very sharp stitch unpicker, and work slowly and carefully.
Stabilizing Tip 10: When ending your line of stitching you can of course back tack, but you risk the fabric being ‘eaten’ and damaged by the feed dogs.
Better to leave small tails of thread and tie a neat knot to secure the stitches.
Hemming Your Chiffon
You’ve sewn your main seams together and now you need to hem your chiffon! There are two options:
- Use a pin hem which is slow and tedious, requiring several lines of stitching, but looks beautiful when done well.
- Use a narrow rolled hem presser foot, which will give a similar effect. This is the hem that you’ll have seen on silk scarves.
- Use a serger or overlocker to finish the raw edge of the fabric and then hand or machine sew a single fold hem to turn the serged edge under.
I prefer the pin hem method as it gives me more control, but if you have a narrow hem foot for your sewing machine, definitely give it a go!
You can learn how to sew a pin hem here.
Final Finishing Touches
The penultimate step is to make sure you press your project gently – try to use a low heat for polyester and nylon chiffons, and a medium heat will usually be ok for cotton and silk chiffon. It’s also best to use a pressing cloth if possible too.
My final tip for sewing chiffon is to remember to ‘hang’ your garment! Ideally you will do this BEFORE any final hemming. Once the chiffon is hung, it will ‘drop’, despite having hung it already back in the chiffon cutting stage – this is natural.
I remember making a full length midnight blue dress for a client who’s daughter needed a prom dress. The bodice was draped in silk satin, and the skirt from layers of chiffon, and I had that dress hanging for two full days before I levelled the hem and pin hemmed it! And yes, it was a stunning dress after all that work.
There you have it. A solid resource on what chiffon fabric is, the different types available to choose from and how to sew chiffon too! Just remember to make sure you take care when sewing chiffon as it’s easy to damage this fragile fabric!
If you’re still unsure whether sewing chiffon is right for you, take a look at my post on 5 best cotton fabrics for shirts! Cotton is a much easier fabric to work with if you are a sewing beginner, and a shirt is a great staple to sew at any time of year too!
