Fleece Jacket

Sew, when I go to my local fabric store, the girl that usually cuts the fabric knows me well and she always refers to me as ‘polyester queen’ (I didn’t pick that name, but I have a type when it comes to picking out fabrics).

First off, if you are scrolling through this post just to ‘find out what fleece settings are’, then you just will be your own downfall if results are not expected. No matter what, the golden rule for me is to know your material. Know that it is laser safe and then know what it actually is consistent of. If you know fleece then you know fleece is just a category.

This might be just me but my mind looks for patterns and so I am just going to try and communicate patterns.

Remember this ‘wool coat’ I posted?

Well this coat was 100% polyester and the setting I found to perfectly melted the poly was 550 speed, 22 power, and 270 LPI. I would recommend this setting for any heavyweight 100% polyester fabric. It was great.

So lets take a small step in blending the poly to look at the stuff where I engrave scuba suede:

This is the scuba suede I often used for things I engrave and sew myself. This suede is 92% polyester and 8% spandex. FYI, spandex is the key to making any fabric comfy. If you are shopping around at a department store and find something that you wonder about engraving it, well if it is comfy and stretchy, then it has spandex and that its own world.

Back to the post, this is a scuba suede (98% poly and 8% spandex) engraving I did:

The settings were 850 speed and 14 power… notice how different that is from 100% polyester (which was was 550 speed, 22 power)?

Not lets get to this ‘fleece’

First, I am crazy about Costco and so this is the jacket I am using and it is amazingly comfy
https://www.costco.com/32-degrees-ladies’-snap-arctic-fleece-pullover.product.100748734.html

the specs for this jacket are:

  • 95% Polyester | 5% Spandex
  • Midweight
  • 330 GSM (fyi, this will become important)

I have posted before that I always work a test run in stuff. This was a low cost jacket and so for the fun, I decided to give a sample of what 100% polyester settings would result with:


^^^ yikes, that doesnt look good. The reason is first because it has spandex. So lets dial it back to the 92% poly and 8% spandex blend settings:


^^^ I guess its better but its still way to much. Why would that be if this fabric has less spandex? Well, its the weight. The weight of this fabric is much less then the scuba suede. Therefore, I dialed back things to 1000 speed, 8 power, and 270 LPI

So if you just want to know fleece settings, then sure, try 1000 speed and 8 power. But I have really found these settings to be good for 95% polyester, 5% spandex, and 330 GSM.

44 Likes

I just love looking at the things you make and appreciate you sharing your wealth of knowledge! One of these days I’m going to try my forge on some kind of fabric! I don’t sew but would love to test something out! Thanks again for showing your beautiful items!

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I knew it was you from the title of the post! Another winner!

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Really useful write up. I really want to do some fabric and leathers, but need to build some confidence first and your write-up helps

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Thank you so much for your guidance.

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Great write up. On my list of things ‘to do’ for my grandkids. The share of your experiments is a great place to start.

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These writeups are so very helpful. I had never really thought about lowering the power < 10 and increasing the LPI. Thanks for sharing your experiments!

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Fantastic write up! You are amazing to share your knowledge and I appreciate it😄

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I think many will appreciate this write up!

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Thank you so much! I used your 100% polyester settings on my REI fleece jacket and loved it! I did change the lpi to just 125 and it worked great (it would’ve been better if it hadn’t gotten bumped right at the end, but oh well!). Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

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I am so glad! That looks amazing! REI has some cool stuff. I love the results I get with the glowforge and high polyester materials. Fleece, suede, wool, it’s been great :slight_smile:

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I made another :slight_smile:

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My daughter would love that :laughing:

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It is certainly a fun one :slight_smile:

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Thank you so much for sharing! My husband’s birthday is next week, I’m going to try and make him something fun :grin:

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Maybe your best design yet. :wink: (And that is saying something.)

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Lol, thanks! I love it a lot. Outlook to have for life.

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PSA: the Costco fleeces are on sale right now! :wink:

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Ah! I have to order more then lol! I love Costco.

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They are back! :slight_smile:

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