Made by a Fabricista: Joyous Brights and Vogue 1394

Days before I depart on vacation, I had several yards of this beautiful fabric from Fabric Mart (HERE) and no ideas of what to make. The fabric literally spoke to me! I searched and searched through my pattern stash and came across Vogue 1394. I opted to use this pattern as a challenge to my patience. I've had this pattern for quite some time, but as you may know if you follow me, I don't wear dresses that often. I tend to choose those easy and time friendly projects that I can whip up in one day and move on to the next.

I made the following adjustments to the pattern:

1) I shortened the shirt by 2 inches.

2) I lined the bodice of the dress only.

3) I extended the buttons in the back to the bottom of the dress,

The pleats on this dress alone took me an hour. In all, there are a total of 21 pleats!

The remainder of the dress was constructed as per the pattern instructions. I must say, I admired the 6 pieces that constructed the skirt, I might actually use it again for a nice flared skirt instead of the traditional circle skirt.

Happy Sewing!

Jenese

Needles and Fashion

Made by a Fabricista: Spring is for Shirtdress

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…

Fabricista Guest Post: "Julie's Picks" Goes to the Opera

Hello, fellow fabric enthusiasts and sewers alike ! My name is Mary Martha and I am thrilled to be presenting a guest post for Fabric Mart's Fabricista blog. As a bit of background, I fell madly in love with opera in 2015 when I attended my first performance in a movie theater as part of the Metropolitan Opera's "Live in HD" simulcasts, which projects live staged operas in New York City into cinemas worldwide via satellite. (They're fantastic !) Since the start, I have dressed the part of the characters when attending these performances, beginning with outfits fashioned from scarves and skirts in my mother's closet to more ornate costumes. It was during this time that I taught myself to sew using a sewing machine and I haven't looked back ─ my life was changed forever !
In December 2018, I subscribed to Julie's Picks swatch club as an educational experience: I wanted to expand my knowledge of different fabrics besides the typical polyester satins I h…

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