Made By A Fabricista: When in doubt, trust the description!

So happy to be back this year, posting on a blog that has taught me so much! If you have read any of my previous posts, THANK YOU! If not, let me make a quick and honest introduction. Actually, these three last words can define my sewing tendencies: quick (I love instant gratification projects), honest (I acknowledge flaws and errors), introduction (I am far from being a pro). And one last thing: I love colorful and flowy fabrics that go so well with the eternal Floridian summer.

The project I am sharing today has all these qualities! I made it a couple of years ago with one of my first Fabric Mart purchases. I found the fabric sticker to tell you precisely what it is: a great Polyester/Lycra Tropical Floral Print ITY Knit. At the time, I was an absolute beginner, so I purchased fabrics by just trusting 100% of the website description. Let me tell you: it works!

The ITY Knit Fabric section on the website says that “ITY knits are easy to sew with and quite popular for tops, dresses, skirts, and flowy pants. They come in a wide array of prints and solids. It’s great for traveling too because it does not wrinkle.” All true!

This fabric was definitely easy to sew. I had little-to-no experience with knits at the time I made this dress. I followed a free tutorial from BBlueDIY, which includes instructions to make your pattern. Knit doesn’t fray, and this one doesn’t even roll up, so I could sew it quickly. You can make this dress if you only know how to sew straight lines! I slightly modified the pattern by adding a waistbelt (in a beginner’s world, that counts as a modification). I opted to sew the bottom hemline with a decorative stitch for some reason. I guess I was still discovering my sewing machine and wanted to innovate a little! In hindsight, I would probably have made a subtler choice. Even an invisible stitch would have made the dress more elegant.

The colors on this fabric are vibrant, and the flowers are very detailed. The colors described on the website were: “Cool Silver/Amber/Ocean Blue/Sea Green.” I wasn’t sure about that “silver” component: the fabric looked white to me. Even in the pictures, under the sun, this dress looks white. But in person, the fabric base is - very light – silver, indeed! Unfortunately, there was no way to reflect that in my photographs. But one more time: the fabric description was on point.

Finally, saying that this fabric is “great for traveling because it does not wrinkle” is an understatement. My dress looks freshly ironed in these pictures, right? The truth is: it had been rolled up and squished at the bottom of my suitcase for a week, just before I took these shots! Another truth: it may look like a sunny summer day, but it was 44 degrees at that moment! But I was traveling, the setting was dreamy, and it was worth it! As they say in French: “il faut souffrir pour être belle [No pain, no gain!]”

As I usually do, I want to end this post with some “thank yous”. First, thanks to my photographer. This time, I was lucky to be photographed by my dad, on a beautiful winter morning, in a quaint street of Torroella de Montgrí in Spain. Yet another great thing about posting on this blog: it creates memories with the people I love. Thank you, Fabric Mart, for keeping me on board for one more year! And thanks to you, for reading! See you in my next post!

INES | @bynunis

Unfortunately Fabric Mart Fabrics sell out quickly!
You can find similar fabrics by shopping the following category, ITY KNITS.

Made By A Fabricista: Revisiting a Pattern After Five Years

Have you ever used a sewing pattern and then immediately vowed never to sew it again? Well, I have. It all began in the spring of 2020 at the start of the pandemic lockdown. I tackled sewing projects that were more challenging to help me grow as a seamstress. There was one pattern in particular that almost did me in, the Seamwork Penny shirt dress. The Penny dress pattern has a classic button-up dress shirt style bodice with a gathered skirt and pockets. It is a beautiful take on a shirt dress, and my sister and I loved it. The only downside is that it was recommended for intermediate-level sewists and I was only an adventurous beginner back then. I think I had only ever made one button-up shirt before attempting this Penny Dress and it didn’t even have a collar! Despite all of this, I thought “Why not try it, what’s the worst that can happen?” Thankfully the worst didn’t happen, and the dress turned out surprisingly wearable, but I had some intense frustration at the end. I...

Made By A Fabricista: A Simple Frock for Spring

Hello friends! I’m really into sewing and wearing tent dresses at the moment. A tent dress is basically a wide A-line style gown. For this month’s project, I’ve opted to try out The Assembly Line’s Square Neck Dress. This style is a little avant-garde in its enormity and shape, and boasts the squared neckline it’s named after, plus some cute hem side slits. All that volume is fun to move around in, plus there’s loads of air circulation which is cooling. This dress’s main feature–its wide and high squared neckline–really piqued my interest recently, and I added it to my Make Nine plans for 2025. I find it so satisfying to check off those boxes as I sew! This beautiful shirtweight linen is a color I simply adore; a muted medium blue. Stormy skies, worn-in denim, and ocean waves all come to mind, and that is exactly what I want to be all wrapped up in. While I think a wild or large print would be amazingly on display in this big canvas of a dress, I also thought that a subtle ...

Made By A Fabricista: Bold Aspen Dress for Spring

As I write this in mid-April, central New Jersey weather is showing small signs of spring. My neighbor’s daffodils are blooming and our magnolia tree is trying to unfold its vibrant magenta petals. I am in the midst of preparing my wardrobe for the warmer months, even if we are still huddling against windy 30 degree days. For me, warm weather means linen. I love breathable, floaty linen sundresses and drapey, loose linen wide-leg pants. My vision for a spring piece was something bold and bright, inspired by the natural colors of blooming flowers, but also something that could transition well between the warmer and cooler months. When I saw Fabric Godmother’s Apsen Dress, I knew that it had the sensible transitional opportunities I was looking for while also providing a blank canvas for fun prints, patterns and colors. With the pattern in mind, I then turned to the stunning linen collection that Fabric Mart always has on hand to see what colors or patterns would best suit my visio...

Fabric Mart Fabricistas

Search This Blog