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: What's Black and Gold with Chevron All Over? This DIY Pant Suit, That's What!

Hope you're having a Golden day, get it? [I crack myself up sometimes!] This DIY pant suit is golden for sure. So tell me this, were you one of the lucky ones who were able to grab some of this fabric when Fabric Mart posted their new arrivals? I jumped on it so fast it was crazy and before you know it "poof" it was gone. So sorry I don't have any links to this fabric but all is not lost, you can use something else for these patterns. Try looking in the suiting selection for the blazer. The other awesome option is denim and as always check the New Arrivals. I went to my "tnt" blazer pattern for this project because I knew the metallic bias around the edges would look fab and I was on a mission to make another pair of mimi g's jeans and trim the seams in metallic bias as well. I recommend both of these patterns to any level sewist. I did a little pattern hack on the blazer pockets to make them a little more interesting and I made a pic...

Made By A Fabricista: Blouse with a Unique Neckline? McCall’s 8658 Is It!

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I know it can’t just be me. My sewjo has gone away and I’ve been having such a hard time trying to get it back. I remember the days when I used to sew every single day without fail and now, not so much. I think about sewing and all the things I’d love to make, but I just haven’t found the motivation. I kind of know what the issue is. I started a new job last October and ever since I started, I’ve been sewing less and less and I don’t like it! Well, in comes Simplicity S3237. Summertime is here and it’s time to bring out all the skirts. Simplicity recently released S3237 as part of their summer patterns. This skirt is a full, gathered skirt with a bias-cut yoke with side seam pockets and an invisible back zipper. The skirt comes in 3 different lengths – mini, midi and maxi. I decided to make View B which is the midi length. I’m not much of a maxi length kind of girl and that mini was a little too small for me. I sewed up a size 22 with a few modifications. Let’s talk about th...

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