It's a treat sewing with fleece -- the edges don't unravel, so there's no need to finish seams. Fleece is kind of stretchy, plus fleece garments are normally a little loose, so fitting isn't a big issue.

Even though fleece is easy to sew, there are two sewing tricks that can make your fleece experience much more pleasant!

First, you want to use a longer stitch length when you sew fleece. Rather than your normal setting of two or so, you may want to go up to a four or a five. Some people even suggest a basting stitch for fleece!

The reason is that fleece stitches can pull through the fabric if the stitch length is too short. Longer is better when you sew fleece. The plus side of this is that it makes your sewing much faster!

Next, you want to make sure of your "right-side/wrong-side" when you sew fleece. Some people are surprised to find that fleece has a right/wrong side -- the print usually appears the same from both sides. Solid colors have the same color depth regardless of the side. How can right/wrong side come into play?

The catch is that fleece will always curl to one side or the other. The side it curls towards is the "wrong" side! When you cut a piece of fleece, you'll not the cut edge will always curl in a certain direction. Take careful note of this when you assemble fleece garments or projects; match your right/wrong sides carefully to up the quality of your finished product!

To make this a little confusing, the salvage edge of fleece doesn't follow this rule! The salvage edge normally curls towards the "right" side! For best results, don't leave your salvage edges raw -- trim them instead. After all, fleece edges won't unravel, so there's no real need to keep the salvage edge.

Keep these two tricks in mind when sewing fleece and you'll find your sewing experience much more pleasant -- and the results more enjoyable!

Joey Robichaux operates Sewing Machines and Sewing Projects at http://www.using-sewing-machines.com -- offering free sewing projects and reviews of older mechanical sewing machines -- and Sewing Stash at http://www.sewing-stash.com an extensive sewing and crafts directory.