Swatch!

No, not the watch makers that were popular in the 80's! I found another interesting fabric today, and the company that sells it is kind enough to offer swatches. This way, I don't have to order 4 yards in order to find out that it's not quite what I'm looking for.

I'm taking a bit of a different direction this time, and looking into a fabric called "Broadcloth", which is made from wool. Wiki has a good entry on it. Oddly enough, I found out about broadcloth in a very interesting way. As you know, I do not really know much about fabrics. I know what muslin is and what it looks like. I guess I know what denim is and what it looks like. But that's about it. Oh, maybe herringbone too. But other than that, I'm pretty much a total novice when it comes to fabrics. An interview I read a long time ago (which is linked to SOMEWHERE in this blog) talks about the wool they used for the lining of the cape. Today I was poking around trying to find that interview again, just so I could read it again to have the info fresh in my head.

I did a google search for "Superman Returns Cape Fabric" and oddly enough found a link to superherohype forums that mention THIS BLOG!! Check it out...

SuperHeroHype!

Anyhow, I thought that was kind of funny. In reading over that thread, someone mentioned broadcloth as a fabric that was used. I've never heard that term used before, but it sort of fits with what was said in the interview, as this type of cloth is a wool weave. (Frankly, I don't even know the diff between wool and cotton. I thought they were the same???) Anyhow, it got me thinking that I should source some broadcloth, just in case that's a little closer to the material used in the actual cape.

So I hit up google, and very quickly found this fabric:

www.fabric.com

It's red, it's really wide, it's broadcloth!

And now the story comes full circle. I have ordered a swatch of this broadcloth, and will give it the once over when it arrives. Not sure about the color, but maybe if broadcloth is the right fabric, I'll have a new direction to go. Price-wise, it's totally reasonable, which is really good. Also really nice to see that they sell it in 108" wide bolts. I only need 63", but better to have more than less. Also, I just noticed that they also sell this fabric in white. So if the Red is not close enough to the original, I can always go the dye route. This is definitely turning into another exciting possibility.

Well, that's all I've got for this post. Busy day here. Lots accomplished on the fabric front over the past couple of days, though I wont' really know for sure how productive it has been until the fabric I've ordered starts rolling in.