Polar fleece vs anti-pill fleece is not a fibre comparison. Both are polyester, both are knitted and brushed the same way, and anti-pill is polar fleece that has been given an extra finish so the surface fibres do not work loose and roll into bobbles. On day one you cannot tell them apart. After ten washes you absolutely can - and that is the whole decision.
So the rule is simple. If the thing you are making gets washed weekly and rubs against itself - a child's hoodie, a car-seat blanket, pyjamas, a dressing gown - pay the small premium for anti-pill. If it is a wall hanging, a costume worn twice, a draught excluder or a dog-bed liner nobody inspects, plain fleece does the job for less. Everything below is the detail behind that.
What pilling actually is
Fleece starts life as a plain polyester knit. It is then napped: wire brushes drag fibre ends out of the knitted loops on one or both faces, so the surface becomes a dense pile of loose fibre ends. That pile is the point, it traps air, and trapped air is what makes fleece warm for its weight.
Pilling is that same pile going wrong. Friction, an elbow on a table, a seatbelt, a tumble dryer drum, a sleeve rubbing a side seam, tangles the loose fibre ends into little balls. Because polyester is strong, those balls do not snap off the way they would on a wool jumper. They stay attached by a single stubborn fibre, and the garment starts to look tired long before it is worn out.
Anti-pill fleece attacks that in two places. The fleece is shorn after napping so the pile is shorter and more even, leaving fewer long ends to tangle, and it gets a chemical finish that helps the remaining ends lie down and stay anchored. Some anti-pill fleece also uses a higher-quality, more consistent polyester filament to start with.
Anti-pill is a finish, not a guarantee. It slows pilling dramatically; it does not abolish it. A finish also wears with washing, so a five-year-old anti-pill fleece will eventually bobble too — it just gets there years later. Different suppliers use different finishing standards, so check the listing rather than assuming all anti-pill is equal.
The fleece table
GSM (grams per square metre) is the number that matters most and the one most sellers actually publish. Higher GSM means more polyester per square metre, which means warmer, heavier, more opaque and more expensive. Figures vary by supplier, so treat these as typical ranges and check the listing.
| Type | Typical GSM | Feel | Best for | Indicative price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microfleece | 120 – 200 | Thin, smooth, low pile, very drapey | Base layers, pram liners, linings, lightweight baby wear, cot sheets | £2 – £4/m |
| Polar fleece (standard) | 220 – 300 | The classic — medium pile both sides, slight stiffness | Blankets, hoodies, hats, scarves, costume, cushion backs | £2 – £5/m |
| Anti-pill polar fleece | 240 – 340 | Same weight, shorter and tidier surface | Anything washed weekly: children's clothes, pyjamas, throws | £3 – £6/m |
| Coral / plush fleece | 230 – 320 | Long, soft, silky pile — sheds when cut | Blankets, dressing gowns, soft toys, comfort items | £3 – £6/m |
| Sherpa / teddy fleece | 320 – 450 | Curly lamb-look pile, bulky, one-sided | Blanket backing, coat linings, jacket collars, teddies | £5 – £9/m |
270gsm fleece is the figure people search for because it is the sweet spot: warm enough for a blanket or a hoodie, light enough to gather without bulk, and thin enough that a domestic machine handles four layers at a seam intersection without complaint. If you only ever buy one fleece, buy that.
Is fleece warm?
For its weight, extremely. A 300gsm fleece traps more air than a wool jumper of the same weight, which is why it became the standard mid-layer. What it does not do is stop wind. Polyester fleece is a porous knit — a breeze goes straight through it, and rain soaks the pile. Indoors, or under a shell, it is a superb insulator. On a Peak District ridge on its own it is not.
Sewing fleece
Fleece is one of the friendliest fabrics a beginner can pick up, and it forgives most mistakes — the opposite of the fabric types beginners should avoid. It has four quirks worth knowing.
Needle and stitch
- Needle: a ballpoint or jersey needle, size 80/12 for microfleece and 90/14 for polar and sherpa. A sharp universal needle pierces the knit loops instead of pushing between them, which gives you a line of tiny holes that grows into a ladder.
- Stitch: fleece is a knit, so a straight stitch snaps under stretch. Use a narrow zigzag — around 0.5mm wide, 3mm long — or a lightning-bolt stretch stitch. An overlocker is lovely here but genuinely optional.
- Length: lengthen to 3 to 3.5mm. Short stitches on a thick pile look chewed.
- Thread: ordinary all-purpose polyester. No special thread needed — the rest of the kit is in haberdashery essentials.
A walking foot, or the closest thing to one
Fleece is thick and grippy, so the feed dogs pull the bottom layer through faster than the presser foot moves the top layer. Over a metre of blanket edge that mismatch shows up as a rippled, twisted seam. A walking foot feeds both layers evenly and solves it outright. Without one: reduce presser-foot pressure if your machine allows, pin every 10cm rather than every 25cm, and hold the fabric taut behind and in front of the foot without pulling it.
Why hems are optional
Fleece does not fray. It is a knit with a napped surface, and a cut edge stays exactly as cut for the life of the item — no overlocking, no bias binding, no turning under required. That is why fleece blankets can be finished in an afternoon and why a beginner's first fleece project usually looks better than their first cotton one. If you do want a hem, turn once by 1cm and zigzag; never turn twice, which just makes a rigid ridge.
Stopping it stretching out of shape
Fleece stretches far more across the width than along the length. Cut a blanket with the stretch running the wrong way and it goes gradually oval on the sofa. Three habits fix it:
- Find the direction of greatest stretch before cutting — tug a corner both ways — and run it across the body or across the width of the blanket, not down its length.
- Stabilise seams that must not grow: shoulder seams, neckbands and the top of a hood. A strip of clear elastic or a length of narrow tape stitched into the seam holds the line.
- Never let the weight of a big piece hang off the table while you sew. Support it on a chair; gravity stretches fleece as effectively as your hands do.
Nap direction matters on plush and sherpa. Coral and sherpa fleece have a directional pile — run your hand along it and one way is smooth, the other resists. Cut every piece with the nap running the same way, or two panels of the same fabric will read as two different colours in daylight.
Eight fleece makes, with metreage and cost
All from fabric assumed at a standard 150cm width. Costs are worked examples at indicative rates of £2 to £5 a metre — check the current listing and rerun the sum for whatever you are buying. For the metreage on everything else, see how much fabric you need.
| Project | Fleece | Metreage | At £2/m | At £5/m |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No-sew tied blanket, lap size (120 x 150cm) | Polar, two contrasting colours | 1.3m + 1.3m | £5.20 | £13.00 |
| Single-bed throw, hemmed (150 x 200cm) | Anti-pill polar | 2.1m | £4.20 | £10.50 |
| Child's hoodie, age 5–6 | Anti-pill polar, 270gsm | 1.1m | £2.20 | £5.50 |
| Adult zip-up fleece jacket, size 14 | Anti-pill polar, 300gsm | 1.7m | £3.40 | £8.50 |
| Pram or car-seat liner | Microfleece | 0.7m | £1.40 | £3.50 |
| Hat and snood set | Polar, 250gsm | 0.5m | £1.00 | £2.50 |
| Dog bed cover, medium | Sherpa or plush | 1.2m | £2.40 | £6.00 |
| Draught excluder, 90cm door | Any offcut fleece | 0.4m | £0.80 | £2.00 |
The no-sew fleece blanket, properly
Two rectangles of fleece, wrong sides together, edges matched. Cut a 10cm square out of each corner through both layers. Then cut a fringe all the way round: strips 2.5cm wide and 10cm deep, cutting through both layers at once so the fringes line up. Tie each pair of matching strips in a double knot. That is it — no machine, and it is the single best project for teaching a child to use scissors properly.
Two things people get wrong: cut the fringe strips at least 8cm deep, because short fringes untie themselves; and use two layers of standard polar rather than one, because a single-layer tied edge has nothing to knot against.
Where to double up
For a heavier throw, back polar fleece with sherpa. For a proper winter blanket, put a layer of wadding between two fleeces — although fleece is warm enough that this is usually overkill, and the wadding and interfacing range is better spent on quilts. Fleece is also the easiest lining you will ever use for a coat hood or a pair of slippers. If you would rather sew a hoodie in loopback or brushed-back jersey than fleece, sweatshirt fabrics covers those.
Washing and care
Fleece is easy to wash and easy to ruin, and the ruining is almost always heat.
- Wash at 30°C, cool. Polyester melts. A hot wash flattens the pile permanently and no amount of brushing brings it back.
- Turn garments inside out and wash fleece with fleece. Washing it alongside towels, denim or Velcro is the fastest route to pilling, because those are exactly the abrasive surfaces that tangle the pile.
- No fabric softener. It coats the fibres, kills the loft and reduces the warmth. It also gradually undoes an anti-pill finish.
- Spin low, and air dry. Fleece dries in a couple of hours over a rail. A tumble dryer is a rotating pilling machine — heat plus friction is the exact combination you are trying to avoid.
- Never iron directly. If you must press a seam, use a cool iron, a pressing cloth and no steam, and test on a scrap first.
- Existing bobbles come off with a battery fabric shaver or a disposable razor used lightly. Do not pull them off by hand — you take the anchoring fibre with them and open the pile up for next time.
Fleece does not need pre-washing for shrinkage the way cotton does — polyester is dimensionally stable — but a first wash before cutting is still worth it if you are combining fleece with cotton in the same project. The general rules are in how to wash fabric properly.
Which one should you buy
Buy anti-pill for anything that touches a body regularly and goes in the machine every week. Buy standard polar for blankets that live folded on a sofa, for costume, for craft, for lining and for anything where the price per metre is the point. Buy microfleece when you need softness without bulk, and sherpa when you want the look more than the practicality. If you want warmth without polyester, brushed cotton is the natural-fibre alternative, and the warm and cosy collection puts fleece and winter weights side by side. For the rest of the season, see autumn fabrics UK. If you are still unsure, 270gsm anti-pill in a colour you will not tire of will cover most fleece projects, and it is one of the few fabrics where a beginner's first attempt genuinely looks shop-bought.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between polar fleece and anti-pill fleece?
Anti-pill fleece is polar fleece with an extra finishing stage. The same polyester knit is shorn and treated so the surface fibres are shorter and less likely to work loose, roll into bobbles and stay put. On day one you will struggle to tell them apart. After ten washes the anti-pill one still looks new and the untreated one has gone bobbly at the cuffs and seat.
Is fleece warm enough for winter?
Yes, as a mid-layer or indoors. Fleece traps a lot of air for its weight, so a 300gsm fleece is warmer than a jumper of the same weight. What it does not do is block wind or rain — polyester fleece is porous, so a British January needs a shell over it. As a blanket, a hoodie or a dressing gown it is warm on its own.
How much fleece do I need for a blanket?
From standard 150cm-wide fleece: 1m for a baby blanket, 1.3m for a lap blanket, 1.8m for a sofa throw, and two 2.4m lengths joined side by side for a double. A no-sew tied blanket needs two layers, so double those figures. At an indicative £3 a metre a sofa throw is about £5.40.
Does fleece need to be hemmed?
No. Fleece is a knit with a raised nap and it does not fray, so a raw edge stays stable for the life of the item. Hemming is a styling choice. If you want a neat finish, a single turned 1cm hem with a stretch or zigzag stitch is plenty — or leave the edge raw, or cut it with pinking shears or a wavy rotary blade.
