Made by a Fabricista: Summer Dreaming

Summer Dreaming | A Tropical Faux Jumpsuit and Sheer Ruffled Duster

I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of spring with its promise of warmer temps and lots of sunshine. Anyone else? With that in mind, I choose to showcase two of the fabulous shirting fabrics offered by Fabric Mart Fabrics.

The combination of the semi-sheer shirting with the tropical print shirting has me dreaming of walking along a beach with the waves gently lapping against the shoreline and the sun shining brightly down on me.

The coral shirting is a beautiful piece of fabric with its hint of shimmer and tiny stripes alternating between opaque and sheer. I choose to sew a tiered maxi-length button front dress using Simplicity 9114. Because of the semi-sheer nature of the fabric, I will wear this as a duster.

If you’ve shied away from sewing sheers for fear of the difficulties you may face, this type of fabric is the perfect way to start! Because it is a cotton/nylon blend it was easier to sew than a silky chiffon.

I appreciate that Fabric Mart Fabrics offers the option to order matching thread. I ended up using almost two spools on the dress.

Because of the nylon content I needed to use the low heat setting on my iron as the cotton setting would have melted the fabric.

I finished most of them with a French seams because the fabric raveled slightly and because of the sheerness. This is a great option when sewing with sheer fabrics as it encloses the seam allowance on the inside of the garment leaving no raw edges visible. Because of the bulk of the ruffled tiers on the body of the shirt, I finished those seam edges with my serger.

I eliminated all interfacing as I didn’t want it to show through the fabric. Because of that I added stabilizer to the back side when stitching my buttonholes.

There is a lot of width to this shirt! There is some serious twirl factor going on as the bottom edge measures about 145”!

That width provides a lot of movement, but it also means the dress could become heavy. That’s why this lightweight shirting fabric worked so well.

Just because a fabric is labeled shirting doesn’t mean you have to make a shirt!

I used the tropical print shirting to sew a sleeveless top and wide leg pants, as I wanted the look of a jumpsuit with the wearing ease of pants. That also means I now have separates to mix and match throughout the summer.

The top is sewn with Butterick 6100, a pullover top pattern from 2014. I think everyone should have a basic woven top pattern that they can use over and over. For this version, I lowered the neckline by about 4”, narrowed the shoulder by 3/4”, and eliminated the neck and armhole facings. Instead, I finished those edges with narrow self-fabric bias bindings. That’s the beauty of sewing; you can change patterns to suit what works for you.

The pants are McCall’s 7786, one of my favorite wide-leg pants patterns. They are pull-on pants, but with a flat waistband in front and elastic in the back there isn’t a lot of extra bulk added.

And of course, I love a pocket!

The fabric is a designer cotton/lycra poplin shirting. The cotton makes it easy to cut and sew, and the lycra gives it a bit of stretch making it comfortable to wear. It would have been beautiful in a button-down shirt, but it worked well for this look also.