Fabric Mart Fabricistas

We have a winner in the Belcarra Blouse Pattern Giveaway!  Congrats to Stephanie H.N. in our random drawing. Stephanie, please email me at fabricmartblog (a) gmail.com to claim your prize. If I do not hear from you by Friday, May 2, we will select another name. If you would like your own copy of the Belcarra Blouse, check out our website here ! To view many of the other patterns Fabric Mart carries, click here .

I'm so excited to share with you the dress that YOU helped me pick out! Thank you to all that voted on which pattern we should sew together AND for selecting the fabric that I would sew with. I hope you all got something out of it, whether you were sewing along or not.  The big reveal: Overall, I thought the pattern was pretty easy! I liked the collar on the knit dress. You don't see collars in knit too often. (Makes me want to explore making knit tops with collars!) I was really glad I made a muslin because there were a few things that I needed to address. The bodice needed to be cut smaller than the skirt and the back neckline needed to be smaller. I also made the sleeves thinner. The tab on the sleeve was really clever. Another feature you would not expect in a knit garment. In fact, I have at least three woven RTW blouses in my closet that have this feature.  I wasn't sure if I would like pockets in the dress, because a few years ago I made a

Hey everyone! I'm not going to waste everyone's time with the last couple of steps, they are simple enough and I don't have any enlightening suggestions to share with you! So put a hem in your dress, made the belt and any other last finishing touches! I will be posting my finished dress as soon as my husband's hockey game is over, so he can take some photos! When you are finished with your dress, please email me a photo of the finished product. I will post everyone's dress on the blog! You can also post it on Flickr, but I will not be counting any photos from Flickr into the drawing for the $50 gift certificate. Feel free to blog about it too! I will link your photo to your blog, if you have one. To enter the random drawing for a $50 gift certificate to Fabric Mart, email me (Fabricmartblog (a) gmail.com) a photo of your finished garment by Wednesday, May 7th. I will post everyone's finished dresses, then at random select a winner. To be considered

Sewaholic Patterns does it again...creates another fabulous design! And we're so lucky to have this pattern in stock! This semi-fitted, pullover blouse creates the illusion of a loose fitting blouse, with shaping in all the right places.  We have this pattern in stock! Click here to buy it now! The pattern calls for lightweight woven fabrics to be used. We have a nice selection of wovens in both natural and synthetic fibers. Here are some of my favorite picks:  This gorgeous Clematis Blue China Silk would be perfect in this blouse, especially in view B, which has pleats along the shoulder line. Light pink and blush fabrics are trendy this season. This Dusty Pink Poly Crepe de Chine would make a lovely blouse! This Orchid Stripe Silk/ Cotton Voile is the NOW color! (2014 Pantone Color of the Year!) Lovely color with a delicate stripe.  This Abstract Swirls Silk Chiffon , a designer fabric, would be fun to play with print placem

We're in the home stretch! Just the sleeves and the finishing touches...then we are done! If you're following our Flickr page, you can see the progress that is being made by many of our participants. Click here to see what's going over there. We even have two ladies that have been sewing their dresses together! What a great thing to do with your sewing friends! Today's step focuses on the sleeves. This pattern has two options: short sleeves and 3/4 length sleeves with a tab. Sewing the sleeves to the dress is a pretty straight forward process, but I will share a trick that I learned in setting the sleeves. I used the 3/4 length sleeves with a tab, so that is what I will focus on.   Also, I usually have to grade my sleeves to fit to my liking, so I will share that information with you too. We won't be creating your regular 3/4 length sleeve with this dress...there is a tab! Sew together the tab like the directions state. Sew a buttonhole as directed. I deci

In today's step, I will focus on inserting the elastic. Before you do this, be sure to attach the bodice to the skirt pieces, matching side seams and other markings. Use the waistline marking as your seam allowance. Then sew a second seam line 1/4 or so from the edge of the fabric, leaving an opening for you to insert the elastic. You've now created the elastic casing!  When first looking at this pattern, I didn't realize it had an elastic waistline. It actually made me happy because then any size adjustments can be altered with the elastic!  I had someone ask me in a previous step what elastic to use. There are a variety of different elastics out there, but two of the most common are woven and knit. Woven elastic is sturdy and knit elastic is softer. I used a woven elastic because that is what I had in my stash. (I keep a variety of different elastics on hand.) But if I had the option, I would probably pick a knit elastic because the knit I made the dress wi

So how is everyone doing? I know some of you might have played catch up over the weekend. Any issues you need to discuss? Let me know, I'd be happy to help!  Whether you're sewing along or just watching from a far, check out our Flickr page . Participants have uploaded photos of the fabrics they are using.  Today's step is quite easy. I don't have very much advice on this one, but I do have photos of some steps! Find your pocket pieces. With right sides together, place one pocket on the skirt front and stitch. Press seam toward pocket. You will need to under-stitch the pocket. What does understitch mean? You are actually stitching the seam to the pocket. The stitch is not visible from the outside. It is there to hold your pocket inside the skirt. You don't want a floppy pocket on a pretty dress!  Once you have under-stitched, press the pocket to the inside and pin the pocket and top-stitch.  Fold your pocket piece in half, matching notc

We're moving along nicely in the sew-along and next we are working on the collar and neckline. If you are not putting a collar on your dress, skip to the neckline facing step. We'll see you there! Collar: The collar needs to be stabilized with some interfacing. First you want to start with an interfacing suitable for knits. I wrote a post on interfacing last year, check it out here.  Sew the collar pieces, right sides together. Clip corners and turn face out. Use a point turner to push out the collar points.  The directions tell you to under-stitch the collar facing. To be honest with you, I tried to, but was unsuccessful! I don't feel this step is necessary, especially since you're going to be top-stitching the collar piece. Did anyone successfully under-stitch the collar facing? What do you think the reasoning behind this was? I could see it being helpful for stability, but the top stitching was good enough for me. When I top-stitched, I did that fir

On Monday when I introduced Step #1 - Cutting, Alterations and Thread, I mentioned about lengthening and shortening the bodice piece. Since then, the person that asked about this tried it out, using the directions from Handmade by Heather B , and it worked! So if you haven't cut out of your good fabric yet and need to do this step, give it a try! Since we are working with knits, it is important to make sure you have a STRETCH NEEDLE. One thing I found when I was starting to sew with knits, was that my seams and hems would break because there was no give. Knits stretch with you, the thread does not. Some sewing machines have a knit stitch. (Check your manual for this info.) If your sewing machine doesn't, set your machine to a straight stitch, but modify your zig-zag stitch ever so slightly. (Or use the zig-zag, but on a very fine zig-zag, almost straight! This setting depends on your sewing machine.) I have a Bernina and it comes with a knit stitch. I don't care for it

Ready, set, sew! Hold on, hold on. We can't get started with the sew-along until we cut out our pieces! Now some of you might have done this already, and some of you might have already made a muslin of this dress. (I did!) But for good reason...I needed to know what I was doing so I could help you! I do not consider myself an expert at this pattern, or anything for that matter, but I'm here to help answer your questions and guide you the best I know. Plus, I'm hoping to have fun with this too! Please note that I will be somewhat detailed in my directions, so some things you may want to pay attention to and other parts you may not-- it all depends on your skill level. As someone who went to school to be a teacher, I have to always assume that I'm working with various skill levels-- beginner to advanced! And if you are advanced and I miss something, please chime in! I'm learning a lot doing this sew-along! (I may also share with you a few of my mistakes, because I&#

Does this dress scream Spring or what?! I love it! I have to admit I sewed this back in February to keep my spirits up during the frigid weather. But have not had time to blog about it! I used Colette Pattern's Macaron dress. This was my first attempt at a Colette Pattern. I saw a lot of good reviews, so I felt like I couldn't go wrong. Once I figured out whether I was making the correct size or not, the dress sewed together like a breeze. I had a lot of trouble getting the bust to fit correctly. I made multiple muslins only to get frustrated and take a breather for a week. I did not want this to be left in the pile of unfinished projects because I really had my heart set on it working. With a lot of patience, I made it work!  I chose the Joyful Garden Cotton Pique for the dress fabric. It has some stretch to it, which makes fitting it nice because you can make it fitted and still have the stretch for movement. For the yoke, I found a beau