Fabric Mart Fabricistas

Today we are continuing to show a little more behind the scenes of what makes Fabric Mart so special. Aden, whom we featured last week, isn't alone in his fabric describing adventures. We sat down & asked another one of our lovely fabric describers the same questions... Let's get to know Kayla! Who are you? Tell us a little bit about yourself. I'm originally from the east end of Long Island! A mom to two cats, I spend most of my time playing video games, watching soccer (go NYCFC!), prepping a Dungeons and Dragons game, and thinking about various sewing projects. If I'm lucky I might even start one of those projects! Currently planning costumes for PAX Unplugged in December! How long have you worked at Fabric Mart? It'll be 2 years this October! What are your main responsibilities? What do you do? Photographing new fabrics for the website, running them through photoshop to make sure the photos accurately reflect the fabric, and describing said fabrics. What’s yo

Hello Sewing Friends! Sharon here with my latest Fabricista make, two dresses that will transition into fall.   You probably noticed I didn’t choose traditional autumn prints or colors.  I planned to, but just couldn’t bring myself to think about cool weather colors and fabrics when the temperatures were still over 100 degrees F.  Instead, I decided to sew a couple of late summer dresses that I can wear when the temps begin to dip into the 80s.   The first is a maxi shirt dress sewn out of this amazing rayon twill . Oh, the drape on this one is divine! The stylized white hearts really pop against the black background. Even though the print is bold, the colors are classic making it easy to accessorize with any color.  My big puppy like to hang close to me when I take photos, but she accessorizes well with whatever I’m wearing 😊 The pattern is the Style Arc Anais Dress. I’ve had my eye on this pattern for some time just waiting for the perfect fabric.  Now that I’ve sewn the dress, I wa

  Today we thought we would give you access to a little behind the scenes of what makes Fabric Mart so special.  We sat down & asked one of our lovely fabric describers a few questions... Let's get to know Aden! Who are you? Tell us a little bit about yourself. I'm Aden. Pennsylvania native. Family man. Choir nerd. Potato chip addict. I identify as Cyan/Blue. Textured beard. Opaque brain. Slight sheen from forehead sweat. How long have you worked at Fabric Mart? 5+ Years. What are your main responsibilities? What do you do? Photographin', Photoshoppin' and Hip-Hoppin'. I make sure that what you see online is what you get at your door. What’s your favorite thing about working at Fabric Mart? Best family of hard working, unique and loving individuals I'll ever be part of. What question are you asked the most? (Once customers go up to the second floor and see me at the top) "Are we allowed up here?" Do you consider yourself crafty? In a craft beer kin

I feel like I always take on more than I should, especially with these projects. BUT I do love how these pieces turned out. I feel like I have been workshopping them since November of last year.... You know, this project?  I feel like I have grown so much in my patterning in the past year and I am very excited to see where I'll be in another year! I have also learned a lot about what I do and don't like in my casual clothing. And I think my next project will be more of the same. Mostly because it's getting time for cozy fall nights where I can sit on my patio with a book and hot cocoa. And I need equally cozy clothing. The three garments I made are the Lydia Crop, the Hind Pant, and the Maya Pullover. And when comparing them to their first iterations last year, I couldn't be happier. Honestly... just look at the difference! The fit, the construction... I could go for days. For the Lydia Crop I wanted something that could be very functional all year, but also fit the pro

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

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

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