Fabric for different seasons - HOT or NOT??

I'm sure you know the fabric I pick for summer in Australia isn't going to do much for you in Scottish winter! So how do we pick the right fabric to keep us cool or hot? There's nothing worse than making what you think will be a cool, breezy, floaty summer blouse and then when you wear it, you feel like you're melting in a plastic bag right? There are a few factors for fabric to help us know if it's going to make a garment that's cool or hot to wear! And if you didn't know already, learning about fabrics is a whole other thing we need to learn alongside our sewing skills! Knowing what fibre makes up the fabric helps us decide as natural fibres handle heat and moisture differently to synthetics. Our bodies are little furnaces always giving out heat and fibres like wool are exceptionally good for retaining heat and keeping us warm. No matter what, we are always producing moisture and having our clothes wick that away from us is important and natural fibres are perfect for that! They absorb the moisture, cool it down and evaporate it away from us. Synthetics, such as polyester, are essentially just plastic so they lock the moisture into our skin and we just dissolve into clammy puddles! Another thing to look at is the weave of the fabric, is it loose or tight? You'll have seen those sheets with like 1000 thread count right? That means that there are 1000 threads in every square inch of fabric - the higher that count, the tighter the weave so the harder it is for hea