Fabric Mart Fabricistas

Hello from the Midwest!  I hope that you are all doing well and staying healthy during this crisis.  We've been sheltering in place for 3 weeks now.  I have to say that being able to sew during this time has probably saved my sanity.  It's been a way to look forward and focus on creating something beautiful.  So, I hope that you have also been able to find solace in something that you enjoy doing.

In anticipation of lovely Spring weather, I decided to make some culottes, using the Named culotte pattern- Ninni.  I bought this pattern when Fabric Mart had it in the Bargain Bin a couple of months ago.

For my fabric, I chose two double knits- one plaid and one textured.  Here's the plaid version.  You can see that the legs are pretty wide, and they are very comfortable.


I chose black and white fabrics because I wanted to extend my red capsule wardrobe from last month.  Here they are with the red jacket:


But, I also felt in the mood for some yellow this month.  So, I made a t…

I love shirt dresses! My pattern collection reflects this (I may or may not have eight shirt dress patterns) but somehow my closet does not. I have just two DIY shirt dresses (Mimi G's Katie dress and Simplicity 8546) and maybe two RTW versions. So it's high time that I added some to my wardrobe.


This polyester blouse weight twill by Milly has the perfect weight and drape for a relaxed shirt dress. If you prefer a more structured look, stick to a cotton shirting or light weight sateen. I loved this fabric and print so much that I grabbed both colorways. Unfortunately this fabric is sold out, but you can browse other shirtings and blouse weight fabrics here.


This fabric has a somewhat slinky feel, but isn't truly slippery. There's also a slight sheen without being shiny like a satin. It was easy to cut and sew, but I did get a few snags when pinning so make sure you use sharp pins and a fresh machine needle. I serged my pieces before assembling the pattern because as m…

Hi there! I'm sure your world has been turned upside down by Covid-19, just as mine has here in Florida. It is wild how quickly things can change...in a matter of days our house went from being so busy, shuttling kids here and there, to now, we have absolutely nothing on our schedule! It's been very nice to have a forced break, however I know that it is coming at a huge cost.

Seven months ago, my dad passed away in a bicycling accident. Losing someone so quickly and unexpectedly is incredibly hard; that grief has been a tremendous weight that I carry around each day. If I can help prevent someone from having to lose their loved one to Covid-19, I will! Our family has taken the social distancing that the United States has implemented very seriously so that we can help alleviate the demand that has been placed on the hospitals and the medical industry. All that to say, I write this sewing post today, completely aware that there are serious, life altering current events happenin…

"Our ability to handle life's challenges is a measure of our strength of character." - Les Brown Happy Saturday Loves! Life changes in the blink of an eye.  This past week has been a true test of our strength and faith and even with the roller coaster journey we all have been facing with the COVID-19 pandemic, my personal outlet and solace were to cut, sew and create. I had so many great plans for this blog post in support of Women's History Month and even wanted to create a YouTube video for Part II of my collaboration.  Our life as educators were affected suddenly on March 12 when we were called into an emergency faculty meeting for a possible shut down of the schools in our district for a few weeks.
  I sighed knowing that we could not meet and sew together for weeks to come. I honestly at the time did not truly understand the severity of what is going on. We made the best out of the situation and decided that we would all meet up at my home on Monday to finish on o…