Made By A Fabricista: Fabric Kits

For this month's post, I decided to show you a wonderful product on Fabric Mart's site. Fabric Kits! Did you know Fabric Mart has these? If you've never used a Fabric Kit, it is a great opportunity to try a new pattern company with a fabric that is perfect for that make.

Here is a link so you can browse for yourself! Fabric-Kits

I chose a kit in my favorite color to wear, black. My kit is by The Sewing Workshop and I made the Eureka skirt in a ponte knit in black.

As I mentioned earlier, the pattern and fabric pairing is really nice. This skirt is perfect in a rather stable ponte knit. This fabric washes and dries really well and holds its shape when you wear it all day.

I always forget how difficult it is to photograph black inside. The details on this skirt are fun. This is different than a regular straight skirt. I hope you can see the seaming on this skirt. There are no side seams and the V in the front forms a bit of a pleat at the center front and back. It also has an elastic waistline and this time of year, who doesn't love that?

To go with this skirt, I choose this gray and black striped knit. This was very nice to work with and even nicer on my skin! I used a free pattern I found on-line and I quite like it and thought the casual styling was really nice with the skirt, plus it hides the elastic waistband so I am the only one who knows!

Fabric Mart has a nice selection of notions and one I want to highlight is the SewkeysE tape. If you've never tried this, do! It is amazing on knits and I am so sold on it I won't use any other brand. I used it on the hems of my top and skirt and also to stabilize the neckline of the top. It works like a dream!

After fusing the SewkeysE tape, it is simple to just turn the hem up and then stitch. Since I am not loving my coverstitch, I use a stretch stitch on my regular Bernina sewing machine and it worked beautifully.

I hope if you're not too sure about sewing with knit fabric you'll give a Fabric kit a try. I also hope you'll try the SewkeysE tape! It applies so easily and makes a nice clean edge if you like to use it as a guide for pressing a perfect hem length. See below for that!

Thanks for reading!
Sue from Ilove2sew!

Made By A Fabricista: Liberty Snow Day

Hi everyone! While we’ve been blanketed with snow out here in Southeastern PA, I decided to conquer my fear of button holes and make NewLook pattern N6749. I was able to snag a few yards of the Jess + Jean print Liberty of London Tana Lawn for it. It’s always exciting when Fabric Mart is able to get Liberty fabrics in! I always make sure to grab some. Cutting into a beautiful piece of tana lawn is scary every time. The fabric is such good quality, I’m afraid to mess it up! I had to be extra careful as this is also the first directional pattern I’ve worked with. But one of my assistants made sure all of my pieces were laid correctly. Something I wanted to try out with this dress was finishing the inside seams using the overlock stitch on my domestic machine. Normally I would french seam, but it was nice to not have to worry about cutting seam allowance in half, sewing, trimming, flipping, and sewing again. Next time I would cut the seam allowance back before overlocking, but I thin...

Made By A Fabricista: Embracing Winter in Wool Boucle

As winter drags on, the cold weather is such a bummer to me and feeling uncomfortable and cold so often is rough. Meanwhile, I listened to a podcast all about how people in very northern countries deal better with the onset of dark, freezing winter with a radically different mindset of embracing the inevitable season by reframing the chill as refreshing and the opportunity to spend most time indoors as cozy. I can do that! I found a gorgeous, quintessential wool boucle suiting in black and white to make myself a luxurious outer layer while I’m outside attempting to embrace the sting of dry winter air… It’s kind of working. So classic, so chic! Wearing boucle is always an uptown move and I certainly do feel sophisticated in it. This black and white houndstooth combination feels especially Old Hollywood, and what a treat to make something with this! I sewed the Daphne Jacket from Vivian Shao Chen. There are no closures, and the shape is boxy and very easy to wear over multipl...

Made By A Fabricista: Sewing + Running

It’s not every day that I get to mix two of my favorite hobbies. Especially when one hobby is sewing and the other is running. You can’t sew and run at the same time, but, you can go running in something that you sewed! With this realization, I embarked on my first hobby-merging adventure. We’ve had some frigid temperatures in Pennsylvania this winter. Since I’m an outside, stroller-pushing runner, I bundle up my son and myself before I hit the road. The temperature feels 20 degrees warmer for outside runners than the outside air. For the children being pushed in the stroller though, it feels about 20 degrees colder. With these differences in temperature for each of us, layering is the only thing that ensures that we both stay perfectly warm. My running wardrobe has been lacking a warm top layer. My son’s wardrobe would also benefit from having another warm layer, so I knew pullovers were what I should make. Inspired by a name-brand ¼ button-down fleece pullover I saw,...

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