Fabric Mart Fabricistas

I'd be willing to generalize that it's been a rough month for most of us, especially black people in America. All of our lives were already disrupted by COVID-19 and the threat of murder hornets loomed then the murder of George Floyd (closely following the murders of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery) brought police brutality and this country's history of race relations to the forefront. I'd be lying if I said that all of this didn't have an effect on my sewjo. Sewing is usually something that I can enjoy and use to bring me up when I'm down, but honestly I was so overwhelmed with a variety of emotion that I had to take break from sewing for a few weeks.

Several (non-poc) sewists reached out to me during this time and I truly appreciated it. Almost all wanted to let me know that they acknowledged and agreed with IG posts and stories I'd shared (@TipStitched). Some just wanted to see if I was ok considering "everything that was going on". This was …

Hi all!  I hope you're having a good start to your summer!

One of the unexpected joys of sewing is seeing how different a project can look with a change of fabric.  It's winning every time--you get something fresh without the hassle of picking another pattern.  After finding my perfect shirtdress last year in the Deer and Doe Bleuet, I decided it was high time to make another version.

And when I saw this eyelet lawn, I knew I had found the perfect match for shirtdress #2.





Ice Dyeing! To start out my Bleuet part deux, I decided to ice dye the eyelet.  The 100% cotton makes it a perfect choice for ice dye.  It's lightweight too which makes it easy to manipulate during the ice dyeing process.  
I expected the embroidery to be a polyester, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was cotton too.  So all of the pretty flowers embroidered across the surface of the eyelet picked up some of the dye as well.
For this yardage, I used Procion dyes in coral, hot pink, clear yell…

Happy Saturday All! In these unsettling times, I hug my children a little tighter, spend quality time embracing them, and cherish every moment even more. This pandemic has allowed me to appreciate deep conversations about racial injustice, police brutality, and their feelings about growing up black.
My daughter Arielle, a happy go lucky child, shuns away as she is always being questioned about her race and which box she checks off on an application. She hates the fact that she is consistently asked by her peers and teachers at school if she is biracial, Hispanic, or Black. She has often times questioned her own identity, yet she gladly responds to anyone who asks, “ I am black and I am a part of the human race”.

My son despises the news media (especially social media) and doesn't watch it at all. The death of his older brother and guns triggers a fear that we pray he overcomes. Over the past few weeks, I have read some of the most unreal remarks and comments about "all lives ma…

I've always been fond of unusual hemlines- high/low, asymmetric, and handkerchief.  This month, I was particularly drawn to handkerchief hems, and tried out new to me patterns in a top, skirt and shirtdress.  A handkerchief hem has four corners- as if you had cut a hole in the middle of a handkerchief and put it over your head.   It's been around since the ancient Greeks, and had a heyday in the 1920's. 


This handkerchief hem knit top is from out of print Vogue 8651, and I used a coral bamboo knit to make it with along with Milly notions of coral ribbon and gold beads.



Fabric Mart is out of this knit, but I think any of the rayon/lycra knits would have a similar drape.  I got the idea of making an attached necklace from another reviewer on Patternreview.com.  I only purchased this ribbon in coral, and now I wish I had gotten several colors, as I've found many uses for it, as you'll see!


How I created this look was by taking three lengths of ribbon, and then spaci…