How can I get realistic fabric folds in Blender for heavy cloth like wool?

[Ethan68]

I've been trying to get better at creating realistic fabric folds for a character's clothing in Blender, but my simulations always look either too stiff or like a chaotic mess of cloth. I'm specifically struggling with the weight and drape of heavy materials like wool or thick cotton, where the folds should be larger and softer. I watched a few tutorials on cloth brushes and the drapery add-on, but my manual sculpting still ends up looking unnatural.

[Timothy43]

I get the stiffness thing. My wool folds only softened after I let the sim settle and baked the cache for longer.

[OliverT]

I tried switching to a heavier fabric preset, cranked up mass density, and bumped damping. It helped the drape feel heavier and the folds became larger and softer, but it took a few iterations and I ended up tweaking gravity down a bit.

[Olivia_L]

One weekend I even doodled rough folds by hand on a reference tee, then tried to bake that into the sim to guide it. It looked okay at first, but the result went wonky and I scrapped that approach.

[Mia.S]

Do you think maybe the problem is the pose or how the cloth sits on the body, not the fabric itself?