Made by a Fabricista: Fall is Coming! Are You Sewing for Fall Yet?

Fall has to be my most favorite season of the year. In South Dakota typically the weather is at its best. The trees, flowers, shrubs are filled with color, and the cool evenings and warm days are delightful. What's a girl to do besides sew some garments that take us from summer to fall and even winter?

In swoops a gorgeous suiting from Fabric Mart in black/blue and ivory novelty weave with great body and weight. I knew it would be perfect for the Style Arc Livia jacket. The colors stated were black and white, but I think the black has a lot of blue in it and found my leather pieces, also from Fabric Mart, were a perfect match! More on that later!

I wanted a jacket that would work with jeans for casual Fridays or a skirt or dressier pants for the work week. I love the clean and classic lines and the simple fit. Not too boxy but not fitted either.

Cutting and sewing the pattern was simple! There are only nine pattern pieces which include the front and back facings, two sizes of patch pockets, two piece sleeves front, back and side back. Seriously, this took about 30 minutes to cut and I am a slow poke when it comes to that step! This fabric fused just beautifully to the interfacing I used on the front and back facings.

I love the patch pockets on the front. I mentioned I used garment leather for the top portions of the pockets. The leather is hand washable and the suiting fabric is washable on gentle. I think this will be a win-win fabric combination.

Sewing this up is fast and easy as well. There are minimal seams to put together which is a bonus.

Look at those sleeves. Are they not hanging beautifully or what? I added 1/4" shoulder pads and found that they rounded out the area perfectly and help the sleeve hang just like it is on a hanger or dress form.

This jacket is unlined and look at how beautifully the fabric is suited for this! Sometimes I feel like I nail it for fabric and patterns combos and yes, this is one of those times!

Here is a glimpse of the hook and eye type of treatment I used at the neckline. This was in the button section of JoAnn's fabrics and I thought it would be a tad bit nicer than a regular hook and eye the pattern calls for.

I love this fabric, I love my jacket so pick up some suiting fabric from Fabric Mart, match it to a pattern and show the world what you've created! (You can find FM's suiting fabric HERE.)

Thanks for reading!

Sue from Ilove2sew!

Made By A Fabricista: Comfort Dressing with Style

As 2021 draws to a close, I don’t think it comes as a surprise that comfort dressing is here to stay, at least for a while. Now the definition of comfort dressing is different for all of us, and for me it means knits. However, I don’t always want to be in yoga pants and tees. That’s why I chose to sew a knit skirt and top using Vogue 1820. This two-piece ensemble gives me the comfort of yoga pants but in a more stylish way. The beauty of this design is that you can mix-and-match prints and/or solids, creating a one-of-a-kind look. Fabric Mart Fabrics has a multitude of knits to choose from at any given time which made it easy to choose coordinating fabrics. I knew I wanted to use prints in a monochromatic color scheme. To find the five fabrics needed, I started by browsing the knit section on Fabric Mart’s website. I knew I wanted black as my base color. As I found fabrics I thought would coordinate, I put them in my shopping cart. That way I could look at the shopping cart and eas

Made By A Fabricista: Ready For A Cruise

Happy new year! This year my husband and I are looking forward to a late spring river cruise to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. Since I started last year sewing my outfits for the various excursions on land, the only garment pieces left to sew were those I will wear on the ship. I wanted these to be interchangeable, so I picked gray as my base color. I wanted very comfortable garments for ease of movement around the ship. Luckily Fabric Mart was running a huge knit sale and pattern sales were going on in many stores and online. For lounge wear, the heathered medium gray polyester/lycra double brushed knit (SKU: DLD3889d) was perfect for a jacket and a pair of pants. I used McCall’s M7294 pattern for the loose-fitting unlined jacket and Butterick B6137 for the semi-fitting pants with elasticized waistband, pockets, and leg bands. For me, attaching the leg bands gave a better finish than hemming. For the top, the golden yellow/off-white polyester/rayon/lycra tie-dye French ter

Made By A Fabricista: A Year of Reflection

I can’t believe we have made it to the end of another year. Since this post is coming out right around the holidays, I wanted to create something with a bit more glam. I found this velvet sequin knit and I will say it is even more gorgeous in person. For my look I decided to make the Mimi G x Simplicity S9370 but I decided to turn it into a gown! To do this I measured from my waist to floor to add the additional length that I needed and added additional to the back to make it have a small train. I spread the hem of the skirt to create more of a trumpet style silhouette which made the perfect gown. This fabric was actually very easy to work with, since it is a velvet, it does have nap, so I had to make sure that I cut in the correct direction. I also noted that I should have pre-washed this fabric before using because the fabric dye did rub off a lot as I was working on it. Once I tried my dress on to check the fit I was in love! It was so comfortable and fit perfectly. The waist

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