Fabric 101: Duck 

When you’re looking into durable fabrics for your next project, you may come across duck canvas. This isn’t a material made from ducks, so there’s no need to worry about feathers. Duck is a type of canvas with a higher thread count, making it smoother, and more durable than standard canvas.

It is often used for things like tents, sneakers, and workwear (think work overalls or heavy-duty aprons). In my own sewing, I generally only use this type of fabric for tote bags and backpacks, since it’s not really suitable for most garment making. However, if you’re a gardener or you use fabric for a lot of home decor projects, duck fabric can really come in handy.

Fabric	Duck
Texture?	Mostly smooth texture, with some coarseness
Stretch?	No stretch
Weight?	Heavy weight (GSM 200+)
Stiff or flowy drape?	Very stiff drape
Nap?	Not a napped fabric
Typical fiber content?	Usually cotton
Opaque or sheer?	opaque
Shiny?	Matte
Fraying?	Somewhat resistant to fraying, but it does still fray
Pilling?	Resistant to pilling and snagging
What to make?	Most often used for heavy duty workwear, canvas sneakers (like converses), tents and tarps, tote bags and backpacks, upholstery and painting canvases
What needle to use?	Use a heavy weight needle

What kind of fabric is duck?

Duck fabric is a durable, woven cotton textile that is a type of canvas. It is tightly woven to ensure high quality and high tensile strength (meaning, you’re not going to be able to ripe this material when you pull on it). Duck is a bit heavier than plain canvas, but still comes in various weights and thicknesses, which are typically categorized by a numbering system; the smaller the number, the heavier the fabric. 

Duck fabric is used in applications where sturdiness is required, such as work clothes, canvas sneakers, and equipment covers. Additionally, it’s commonly used to create bags, backpacks, and for upholstery purposes, especially for outdoor furniture due to its resilience to wear and water resistant properties. The fabric’s thickness and weight make it an excellent choice for thermally insulating materials, so it’s also often used in protective clothing against the cold.

When shopping for duck fabric for your projects, look for:

• Weight or number rating: Typically, #1 is heaviest, while higher numbers indicate lighter material.
• Treatment: Some duck fabrics may be treated for added water resistance or to prevent mildew.

What can you make with duck fabric?

Duck fabric is an excellent material for products that require sturdy fabric. It’s used in outdoor gear, such as tents, tarps, and outdoor furniture. It’s also used for bags, backpacks, and totes, in addition to tough work pants and jackets. Duck canvas can also be used in home decor for durable upholstery and cushion covers, or for garden gear and patio covers that requires some level of water resistance.

Properties of duck fabric

• Texture: Duck fabric is smooth compared to plain canvas. This is because the fabric is dense and extremely tightly woven.
• Weight: Duck is heavy weight, but it can still vary significantly. For example, #12 duck fabric is a manageable weight even for home sewers and can be used for basic bags and aprons, while #1 duck fabric is on the heavier end, used for tents and tarps and would require an industrial machine to sew.
• Drape: Duck fabric is known for being incredibly stiff an structured.
• Fiber content: Duck fabric is typically made from cotton fibers. Historically it was also made from linen, but that’s not common in the modern era.
• Shine or matte appearance: Duck fabric is not shiny; it has a matte or dull finish. It can be finished with a waxy layer to improve the water resistance, which can give the fabric a bit of a sheen, but overall duck will have a dull, non-shiny appearance.
• Fraying: Duck fabric is resistant to fraying compared to lighter and more loosely woven fabrics. However, like all woven fabrics, the raw edges of duck fabric will eventually fray if they are not properly finished or treated.
• Durability: Duck canvas exhibits a high resistance to snagging and pilling. It also has extremely high tensile strength, making it unlikely to rip.
• Wrinkling: Duck fabric is not very prone to wrinkling, however it can get heavy creases if the material is folded for long periods of time.

What to know before sewing with duck

Sewing with duck fabric is difficult due to it’s heavy weight (Some machines simply can’t handle the layers), but it’s a manageable task if you have a heavy duty sewing machine and heavy duty needles. The only difficult part about sewing duck is the heavy, thick nature of the material.

Use these tips to help:

1. Duck is quite thick and not all home sewing machines will be able to handle the layers. Be sure your machine can handle heavy duty material so avoid breaking a needle or damaging your sewing machine.
2. Use a longer stitch length when sewing with duck to get through all the layers (try something around a 3.5mm stitch length)
3. It’s best to finish the seams open to avoid stacking too many layers.
4. When using duck for upholstery, you may not need to finish the seams since duck does not fray easily
5. Use a heavy duty or denim needle when sewing with duck, size 100 or more
6. When cutting duck, you may want to cut patterns in a single layer so that you’re not cutting through too many layers at a time.