Made by a Fabricista: Border Prints Are The Best!

Happy fall everyone! I love making dresses for the cold months. You can layer them with a jacket, wear tights and show off cute boots. I found this gorgeous border print and knew it would be a dress. Right? Aren't the colors just beautiful? This appears to be sold out, but FM always has gorgeous ITY knits (Which are on sale this weekend 11/10-11/11!) and if you search the designer section often, you'll come across some pretty, pretty pieces.

I used my trusty old McCall's 6886 to create this dress, but this time with long sleeves and the midi-length. If you've never seen this pattern, you need to get out more! It's well drafted and ripe for creativity.

Playing with this print was great fun! This time, I decided to use the border on the sleeves and I cut the dress out on the lengthwise grain, paying careful attention to where the various parts of the print matched certain prominent body parts, know what I mean? ;)

I knew I wanted to use some of that fun border on the neckband and that was the highlight (I think) of the front. It gives the dress some contrast and I think it ties the design of the sleeves to the remainder of the dress.

One thing to mention...test the lengthwise and cross-wise grains as you are planning your layout and design. With this particular knit, the lengthwise grain had a lot more stretch than the crosswise, and I knew in the finished garment it would effect the stretch if I didn't pay close attention. With a close-fitting dress, you want the greatest amount of stretch going around your body. That greatly effected my decision on how to lay this out. You can make it work either way, but just know you'll need to adjust somewhat depending on how much difference there is when you compare stretchyness across both grains.

I love sewing tools and FM has some great ones to use with knits. SewKeysE tapes are amazing to work with and allow you to sew with precision!

This was a fun make! I hope you'll try a border print...they are so inspiring!

Thanks for reading!

Sue from Ilove2sew!

Made By A Fabricista: Speaking My Truth

Happy Saturday All! In these unsettling times, I hug my children a little tighter, spend quality time embracing them, and cherish every moment even more. This pandemic has allowed me to appreciate deep conversations about racial injustice, police brutality, and their feelings about growing up black.
My daughter Arielle, a happy go lucky child, shuns away as she is always being questioned about her race and which box she checks off on an application. She hates the fact that she is consistently asked by her peers and teachers at school if she is biracial, Hispanic, or Black. She has often times questioned her own identity, yet she gladly responds to anyone who asks, “ I am black and I am a part of the human race”.

My son despises the news media (especially social media) and doesn't watch it at all. The death of his older brother and guns triggers a fear that we pray he overcomes. Over the past few weeks, I have read some of the most unreal remarks and comments about "all lives ma…

Made by a Fabricista: Summer Time Blues

Hello again and happy July! In April, I started sewing a work wardrobe in red and black, and I decided to expand that work wardrobe to include blue and white. I just love the combination of blue and white especially in the summer! For my work wardrobe, I want fabrics that do not wrinkle easily, can be laundered, and can mix and match with other fabrics. I ordered several coordinating fabrics- a white ponte, a blue chiffon print, a blue geometric crepe de chine, and a blue double weave suiting. Most of these are still available as I write this, but are in the 60-70% off categories, so if you like any, I would order soon!

Have you ever used a Burda Style pattern magazine? I used to always subscribe the Burda Plus magazine which is for larger sizes, but they stopped making it in English and I stopped my subscription. I missed it so much, that I took a chance and ordered it in French directly from France on burdastyle.fr. It wasn't expensive- about $15 total including the po…

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