Skip to main content

Made By A Fabricista: Ready for Sun-Drenched Days with Rayon Challis Separates

Hello Sewing Friends! Summer has arrived bringing sunshine and hot, humid weather.  Where I live there are days when the heat is downright oppressive, but I still want to look stylish.

That’s why I choose to use rayon challis to sew myself a few summer pieces.  It’s lightweight and breathable with a lovely drape, making it a great choice for flowing, loose, unstructured garments that are comfortable to wear in warm weather.

I sewed a top as well as a matching set consisting of a top and wide-leg pants.

For my top, I chose the Style Arc Selina Top sewn out of a dusty cherry blossom print rayon challis.

I did make a few minor changes to the pattern.   I added a small dart, lowered the neckline making it a scoop neck, increased the narrow ruffles by 3/4”, and added an additional 2” to the back gathered section. The extra fullness in the back really showcases the drape of this fabric.  

By the way, I ordered matching thread along with my fabric. I love that Fabric Mart offers that service as I have to do the majority of my fabric and notions shopping online due to limited availability locally.

Once my Selina Top was completed, I sent a photo of it to my daughter, who liked it as much as I did. Guess who now owns this top.  Yep, my daughter.   

For my matching set, I picked a primarily pink floral rayon challis. I’m glad I ordered coordinating thread as I would have used pink thread, but Fabric Mart sent orange thread, and it was perfect!

The top and pants are from the April 2016 issue of Burda Style magazine, top #114 and pants #106.

As I sewed, my mind wandered to visions of me wearing my matching set – or faux jumpsuit - to dinner with friends, strolling through the Farmer’s Market, or enjoying a free concert at the park.

With the last seam stitched and pressed, I quickly donned my new creation and turned to my full-length mirror. Only to realize it appeared that I had sewn myself a pair of extremely cute summer pajamas. 

And I love it!  With costume jewelry, a pair of cute sandals, and a hat, I’m ready for my trip to the local winery or an afternoon tea with my girlfriends.

Look at the cute detail on the back of the top.


Now excuse me while I go shop the rayon challis fabrics to sew myself another Selina Top to replace the one my daughter now owns.

Until next time, Happy Sewing!

SHARON  @thesharonsews


Unfortunately Fabric Mart Fabrics sell out quickly!
You can find similar fabrics by shopping the following categories CHALLIS.

Comments

  1. Your new pieces are perfect for hot weather, and they are very flattering too. Easy to see why you want to replace your gifted top!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful. Grand job. Rayon challis is my favorite fabric.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love this top. Pink is my go to color and she did a wonderful job with this!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nice. Challis is great for hot days.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for leaving a comment! All comments are reviewed before posting to help us eliminate spam. Your comment will be posted within 24 hours.

Popular Posts You Might Like

Made By A Fabricista: Why Sew A Muslin

Here it is, my September blog post featuring Newlook N6692 and this pretty rayon challis from Fabric Mart! This pattern style is so in right now. The square neckline, cute puff sleeves and the tiered skirt are all exactly what I was looking for in a summer dress. As always I started with making a muslin first!  Let’s get into why it’s important to start with a muslin.  A muslin is basically a practice garment. It prevents you from cutting into your good fabric prematurely.  I usually use a muslin fabric (natural cotton) but you should also consider using a fabric that is the same weight as your fashion fabric. This will give you a truer gauge of how the garment is going to lay in the final fabric. Anytime I try out a new pattern company I make a muslin. This was my first time using a Newlook pattern so I need to know what the ease would be like for this pattern. Also I need to see how the bust would fit me and where I would need to make adjustments. Plus there were some new techniques

Made By A Fabricista: The Love of Sewing - Basic Pieces for a Beginner

Happy Friday All! It has been a while since I made myself a dress. I am excited to sew after not making anything since my last post (whew) and finally sharing some photos.  This past summer has been a roller coaster journey with plans to release a small collection and then deciding that right before the launch to postpone. Sewing has brought me joy over the past 8 years and the mere fact to sew daily for orders had me in a panic mode. I really don’t want to walk away from my craft due to burn out  and decided that if I do sew for others, it would be only for local clients. Moreover, If next year I decide to launch, it would be seasonal and not year round. I really want to share my talent and love for sewing with others but don’t want it to be a full time job and lose the passion in me.  After a bit of soul searching, teaching and sharing my talent with my community will always be my first love. For the past 2 summers, I was blessed to partner with two nonprofit organizations’ local sum

Made By A Fabricista: End of Summer

Summer is nearing to an end but here where I am in Texas the heat isn’t letting up any time soon!  I still have plenty of time to get a few more summer looks out of the way.  In this blog I will be sharing two separate projects. The first project is this denim set; I had the inspiration saved on my list of makes to make.  For this project I got this gorgeous denim and matching thread to start my project. Yes, Fabric Mart will match the thread to your fabric perfectly and with my favorite thread brand Gutermann.  The denim had a very great weight and wasn’t too stiff.  It was very starchy when it arrived, so I did a prewash before working with it.  I’m so glad I did because it had a lot of dye saturated in which would not have been great for the skin and other clothes. For the first part of the set, I drafted a corset with the scallop edge cups, such a cute detail!   To start I used my bodice sloper to make the corset, I was not worried about the design details and focused more on