Skip to main content

Made By A Fabricista: Spring & Summer Knit Vibes

Spring/Summer looks like knits, puff sleeves and even more fun color combos and prints. I got my hand on a couple of knit fabrics from Fabric Mart to kick start Spring / Summer looks and I couldn't be more excited.

The first fabric is a beautiful medium weight red knit with a two-way stretch. This is a great knit that offers a bit more stability for pieces such as pants and activewear. I felt it was a great fabric to pull off the puff sleeves and structure of this knit top from McCalls pattern 8364. 


What I love the most about this pattern is the seams throughout the bodice that gives it a corset appeal and I love a good corset. Also the fact that it's knit and doesn't require any closures is a plus too. This was a pretty quick and easy piece to create if you enjoy sewing knits. I used my serger to bring this piece together and needles suited for knit fabrics to sew the topstitch.

I created view C and I didn't make any modifications to this pattern however, I 0thought a cute little flirty peplum would be a great addition so I drafted a peplum to add to the hem of the top and turned under the peplum edges to finish.

For my second fabric I chose a four way stretch fabric in a chevron multi color print. The print on this fabric was serving 80's summer vibes for me and its bold print drew me in.  It's a very drapey knit which may be a little more difficult to manage for those sewing knits for the first time

  


I chose a pattern with a more simple silhouette for this make like McCalls 8327 . I wanted to be able to take this piece from the street to the beach. I must admit this skirt makes a great cover up. It was a bit see-through and in order to be able to wear it away from the beach with a little modesty I doubled up the skirt and lined it. My favorite part of this piece is the twist detail on the waistband of the pattern. The whole piece is such an easy to wear look that I'm here for.


I also used the serger to sew this skirt and needle suited for knits for any other details. This was a pattern with few pattern pieces which makes it a pretty quick sew. I suggest using pins instead of clips while sewing your fabric if it is as stretchy and drapey as mine is. 

Knits make great pieces for Spring and Summer. Not to mention they travel pretty well. I can't wait to add more pieces like this to my wardrobe for the season.


Until Next Time!


MARCIA  @keechiibstyle 


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

Comments

Recent Posts You Might Like

Made by a Fabricista: What to Make with Silk Taffeta

You may have noticed that Fabric Mart has a *HUGE* selection of silk taffeta right now.  A lot of it is either large plaid or large stripes.   I was curious about it, and not really sure what I could make with it, but I just knew it would be gorgeous fabric and had to play around with it.  Turns out, it's actually great for quite a range of projects!  The dress above is my third project. Let me show you the first two. My first was to make some queen size pillow shams.  They are the plaid ones in the back of the photo.  I also made the two printed ones in the center from another Fabric Mart home dec fabric special!  I wanted to make the covers removable with a zipper, and include a braided trim.  As luck would have it, I found a whole card of braided trim at an estate sale that worked with my taffeta for just $2! To start, I used a zipper foot to stitch down the braided trim all around one side of the pillow. Then I serged ...

Made By A Fabricista: Mechanic Chic!

When it comes to buying ready-to-wear garments as a sewist, I only ever spend in three categories: heavy duty winter jackets (life in Maine!), bras… and jumpsuits! I love a good jumpsuit, but unfortunately the ones I used to buy have been impacted by the tariff situation and I can’t get them affordably anymore. This can only mean one thing, folks: it’s time to roll up my sleeves and sew my very first jumpsuit!  When I started planning for this project, I knew I wanted to use a heavyweight linen for cozy comfort in the fall and breathability in the summer. I wanted something that would wear beautifully and soften with age, and something with neutral tones that could go with everything. Naturally, when I came across this 100% linen canvas on Fabric Mart, my heart skipped a beat! I love the ikat-inspired geometry and something about it reminds me of leopard spots too. Bold yet wearable! I am pretty sure this fabric was intended for home decor which I don’t mind at all and in fact of...

Made By A Fabricista: Tried and true summer basics that fit.

Happy Summer Friends! As I am writing this, we are headed into a nasty heat wave…so the timing could not be better to share two of my favorite summer patterns and fabrics.  But first, let me tell you about the fail I had heading into this month’s blog… As Fabricista’s, we get to pick out fabric for each of our blog submissions. I fell in love with this gorgeous lilac jacquard knit that I thought would be perfect for a pop of color in my summer wardrobe. But I made a fatal error - I grabbed a pattern I haven’t made for years, quickly went up one size to account for a few new pounds, and sewed them up. And they don’t fit, will NEVER fit, and will never be worn. Sigh…when will I learn?? Here’s a flat lay pic so we can at least look at the lovely fabric: The lesson I learned (relearned!) is that just like with off the rack clothes, the things that worked well for me years ago don’t work well for me today.  And that’s the case with both tops and bottoms. So I went back to two patt...

A Yard And Change

Do you have a fabric that you love and has been hanging around but is too small to use? Maybe you found a wonderful fabric with a super cute print but there's only a yard left.  I've got a few projects I worked on all with roughly a yard of fabric. And I have a few tips for making that yard and change go further! Cutting Layout: You can get a lot more mileage out of a yard of fabric if you can get creative with how you lay out your fabric. Cutting things single layer will give you the most control. My favorite thing to do is unfold the fabric and fold the selvages in to meet in the middle. That gives me two folded edges to work with. I had to overlap these to get enough width for the tank top. Just make sure that your pattern pieces don't also overlap!  This one was especially fun for me because I really loved the print on this swimwear knit but am not yet up to sewing swimwear. But a nice flowy hiking tank is perfect for this! In the future I'd love to experiment with...