Made By A Fabricista (And Fabric Describer!): Snow Day Pinafore

Hi everyone! I’m Kayla, one of the fabric describers here at Fabric Mart. But today I’m coming to you from the blog! I made this Gambit Dress from Mood Fabrics (shh don’t tell) in a small plaid cotton. This fabric actually never went up online! We bought out a store in Scranton and got a bunch of smaller bolts of fabric. These bolts went out into our retail store! Our retail store has a whole bunch of racks of fabric that range from $1-$4, and right now we have a $5 wool rack. The fabric I grabbed was on the $3.99 rack! Because the store fabric tends to be smaller quantities and leftover online fabric, we typically don’t get information on content. A quick burn test told me it was indeed cotton!

I was originally aiming for a wool for this project, but knew the cotton would be a little bit easier to work with and maintain. One of the sides is brushed, which I decided to use as the wrong side.

With my fabric washed and dried I got to work on the pattern. I hadn’t used a pattern printed from the web before and thought lining up all the pages was a bit tricky. But I got it taped and cut and went to work on the skirt!

Hm. Well. Didn’t consider that. But that’s ok! As the lovely Bernadette Banner would say, “piecing is period”, so let’s try to piece that bit on. I folded back the pattern (leaving extra room for seam allowance).

Flipped the pattern for the piece, using only the best pattern weight I had available.

And cut out so many skirt panels and the bodice.

I cut those extra bits on the selvedge, so I didn’t feel the need to finish them off. I did do French seams on the rest of the skirt!

The sewing up of this piece is fairly straight forward. Except for the armscyes. The actual written directions are pretty vague and I could not figure out how I was supposed to do them. “Fold the raw edges of your armscyes inward 1/2″ and press. With the folded seam allowances together, pull the armscyes to be partially inside out to sew along the pressed fold.” Partially inside out? Completely lost on me. I scoured youtube looking for videos of other people making this dress and the few I found conveniently didn’t discuss finishing these off. Trying not to get bogged down I decided to just fold in the seam allowance and top stitch them. Not as clean as whatever wizardry Mood used but it gets the job done!

All that’s left is to attach the bodice to the skirt, insert the zipper, and hem! Fabric Mart got in a ton of invisible zippers in all sorts of colors from that store buy out, so I was able to snag the perfect zipper.

(A little birdy told me we might be doing zipper bundles for the website soon, so keep an eye out!)

And it’s done! I’ve got a couple fit issues in the bust area but since I intend on wearing shirts and sweaters under this I’m not too concerned. I’d rather it be a little baggy. The skirt is full and beautifully swooshy. I’ll definitely be using the skirt pattern for other things. My pieced skirt isn’t invisible but I think it blends in pretty well! Definitely shows that this piece was hand made, and in my opinion not in a bad way!

If you’re ever in the southeastern PA area and want to visit us, the retail store is open Monday-Friday 8a-4:30p! It’s the same building where we store all the online fabrics, and where your orders are cut and shipped! Come see and touch all the wonderful fabrics we have in, and find your next project hidden in the fabric racks!

KAYLA | @nebulanovem

You can find similar fabrics by shopping the following categories: COTTON.

Made By A Fabricista: A Tipsy Martini Transitional Three Piece Look

Hello Sewing Friends! It’s Sharon with Sharon Sews with my latest Fabricista make – a three-piece set I can wear as the weather transitions to fall here in Texas. It may look like a summer outfit but there will days filled with sunshine and high temps well into November. At first glance it looks like a nice, lightweight jacket, top and pants. But look closer – it’s sewn from the designer Tipsy Martini cotton sateen that was originally used by the designer for a pajama set. Now I could have sewn myself a pair of pajamas using the Closet Core Carolyn Pajama pattern (available at Fabric Mart) and replicated the designer pajamas. But if I had gone that route the only ones who would have seen this adorable kitschy fabric would be my family. This print is much too cute to hide out at home. This Tipsy Martini cotton sateen fabric was lovely to sew. I used black thread, an 80/12 universal needle, and Palmer/Pletsch Perfect Fuse Medium interfacing (link here). Note that this is a rayon fu

Made By A Fabricista: Hooray for Cozy Fall Sews!

Greetings, all! I am in such high spirits with the best-of-all-seasons just beginning and change is finally in the air. I always rejoice when the sweatiest time of the year passes and we can all take a deep breath and gear up for cozier times. Neighborhood Patterns is a new-to-me designer, and I came across them on Instagram in late summer and fell in love with the Plain Jane Skirt. This is such a simple A-line skirt, but with nice details like large inseam pockets and an optional drawstring, and though I’m sure I could draft this style myself, the appeal of having it all done for me was too tempting to pass up. A sew such as this is a lovely palate-cleanser and this was the first project I sewed after returning from a cross-country trip. Perfect! The gorgeous plaid flannel is exactly what I want to be wearing in the fall. The fabric is SO soft and a pleasure to snuggle up in. Because flannel does not have much body and is prone to stretching or shifting with all its mechanical give,

Made By A Fabricista: Quilted Jacket Chronicle

What do you get when mixing the best things about apparel sewing and machine quilting? A quilted jacket! It's funny that I elected to sew myself a quilted jacket for this Fabricista blog because I don't consider myself much of a quilter. I can count on my hands the number of quilted projects I've made over the last few years. While I fully appreciate the end product of quilting, I don't normally gravitate toward starting quilting projects. That's why making a quilted jacket is a new and exciting project for me! It gives me the fun of making a quilt on a much smaller scale. If you are an avid apparel sewist and are new to quilting, this is the perfect project to take for a quilting test drive! For my quilted jacket, I used the Seamwork Easton Jacket pattern. I decided to stick with a solid-colored fabric for the jacket's exterior and ordered 4 yards of Dark Umber Brown Lycra Stretch Canvas Suiting from the Fabric Mart website. I wanted a contrasting color for the

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