When looking around a house, there are plenty of places where fabrics are used.

Curtains, cushion & upholstery. Towels & clothes. Coats bags & other clothing.  You can hardly go into a room without seeing fabric being used in some way. shape or form, and it’s no different in the miniature world.

When selecting which fabric to use there are a few important things to consider.

In the real world you, may love the feel & texture of heavy brocade, but in miniature such fabrics would be too bulky, as would heavy velvet.

Another thing to watch for is the size of pattern – too big and it can overwhelm a room.

Dependant on what items you are making, you need to be aware of the way a fabric falls. Silk hangs beautifully, but is not the easiest of fabrics to sew.

Pure cottons & poly cottons are good for most things, as they will hang nicely, and come in a large range of colours and patterns.

When using checked fabric, again the scale is important. For miniatures you should be looking at ginghams with approximately 16 squares per inch.

Don’t be scared of experimenting. Many fabrics can be glued to avoid sewing, and there are products on the market – e.g. fray check, which means that you don’t even have to hem items if you don’t want to.