Lets talk about the substrates

So you've heard the term bandied around and it sounds kinda technical. So what is it and why should you care?

A substrate is defined as the primary material upon which other materials are applied.  In the case of fabric, substrate is the base cloth upon which ink, paint or pigment are applied to create all of the glorious printed fabrics available to us today.

An increasing number of designers are including a variety of different substrates in their fabric collections, which has opened up a wealth of different project opportunities with our favourite prints.

Rayon and lawns are perfect for garments as they have a softer hand and drape beautifully.  Double gauze is the perfect weight and softness for baby wraps and also works really well as a quilt back when you are after that extra bit of softness. Bag making is a no-brainer for the canvas weight blends with their extra body and firm feel, but I've also had a lot of success in using them for cushions and upholstery projects as well.

The latest collections from Cotton and Steel include a variety of substrates. In addition to the usual 100% cotton prints, there are lawns, double gauze, cotton/linen blends in canvas weight and rayons.

Some of my favourite prints this season are printed on the different substrates.

The flamingos shown below are from the Les Fleurs collection by Rifle Paper Company for Cotton and Steel are printed on a cotton lawn substrate and I'm thinking about whipping up a dress for a friends toddler.

Another favourite is the cicada song print in pear from Rashida Coleman Hales' Raindrop collection for Cotton and Steel.  A zipper pouch would be a quick and easy project, but I'm also sorely tempted to make a bag. Perhaps the Noodlehead 341 Tote will finally happen.   

Also a note to everyone that in the Trinket range, two of the prints are very similar, but in a different scale when reproduced on the different substrates.  The orange which I have shown here and the frost grey daisy prints are repeated on the cotton gauze and the quilting cotton. The double gauze print is a slightly smaller scale and you may even be able to make out the impressions from the needle punching which holds the two layers of gauze together.