Made By A Fabricista: Breezy Summer Style with Rayon Challis from Fabric Mart.

Hey there my sewing friends! Summer is here and I am all for it. It has been exceptionally hot here in Southwest Florida. We have had temps in the high 90’s. I want to keep cool and comfortable and still look pulled together this summer. That’s why I chose rayon challis for this month’s summer make.

Rayon Challis is lightweight, flowy, soft and extremely comfortable to wear. It’s an excellent choice for summer outfits. It has a beautiful drape making it an excellent choice for maxis, tops, dresses, and shorts. The fabric is lightweight and depending upon your sewing project you may need to use a lining with this fabric. Also use a lightweight interfacing when working with rayon challis. If you are a beginner at sewing, you may find the fabric a bit fiddly to work with, but the end result is so worth it. Fabric Mart has beautiful challis fabric to choose from. I chose this fun tropical print on an off-white background.

This summer season vests are in. I love the ease of wearing a vest style top, so I chose one of my favorite patterns. New Look 6598 view E. I used self-covered buttons to elevate the look and not compete with the fun tropical print.

I paired the vest with elastic waist shorts from New Look 6737 for a fun summer short set. The challis fabric is perfect for the breezy style shorts. I love the movement and comfort of these shorts!

This set can be dressed up or down. When I wear a kitten heel shoe, I feel the outfit is perfect for a summer luncheon event or even to wear to church on a hot Sunday morning. If I’m on vacation, I can wear the two pieces with white tennis shoes as I stroll along window shopping.

With the fabric left over I made a quick wide elastic waist skirt using New Look 6354. The skirt is an easy 2 hour sew. I made view F. The skirt works with the vest beautifully.

Each piece can be mixed with other pieces in my closet. The shorts and skirt work well with tee shirts or button-up/tie front tops. The vest can be worn over a layering piece allowing for wear in cooler environments. Changing up jewelry and shoes makes it easy to transition from day to night with these fun summer pieces.

I have upcoming plans to make drawstring flowy pants and a sundress with a few other pieces of rayon challis that I recently acquired. Make sure you are following my Instagram or YouTube channel to see how they turn out. Thank you, Fabric Mart, for this fun fabric. This is my new favorite summer outfit.

CARMEN | @carmensalome

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

Made By A Fabricista: Did someone say FREE??? All about Free Sewing Patterns

Hi sewing friends! I am SEW excited to share this blog post with you today! This is my fifth post with Fabric Mart since I did a guest post late last year and then joined the blogging team in 2024 but I would say this is the post that 1) I worked the hardest to create, and 2) the one that has me the most excited! Today I am going to talk about FREE sewing patterns, showcase a few free patterns I’ve sewn, and then share some very exciting news at the end of this post about an upcoming! First, let’s talk about free patterns – where they come from, why they exist, and how you can find them. But first, here’s a recent free pattern I sewed. This is the Finn Crop Tee from Petite Stitchery . I used an ITY (Interlock Twist Yarn) for this one and I was able to squeeze it out a yard of a fabric. ITY is one of my favorite fabrics to dress up a t-shirt and it wears well across all seasons. And Fabric Mart gets the most AMAZING designer deadstock designs you will ever see! Petite Stitchery offers

Made By A Fabricista: Well Suited for Fall

Fall is my favorite time of the year! The weather is cooling down and I'm always excited to transition into the cooler weather. I get to create with some of my favorite fabrics and I'm always inspired by all the cool fashion trends for the season. So for this month's fabricista feature I snagged some cool medium-weight twill fabric in a beautiful warm cinnamon color. This fabric has a medium bottom weight feel to it, great for pants, outerwear, jackets, boiler suits and more. I used a needle suited for medium weighted woven fabrics and my serger for finishing raw edges. The color of this fabric is so warm and inviting. I think it is the perfect color for Fall. I couldn’t wait to create a fall ensemble with this fabric. I chose Simplicity Pattern S9893 because I’ve been dying to create this pattern since it launched. It is a cool cape with cargo pockets, storm flaps, hidden buttons at the shoulder, a collar with button tabs and even more button tabs at the underarm. This c

Made By A Fabricista: From Fabric to Finish Line: Creating My Running Gear

In 2021, I ran my first 5k; I was instantly hooked. I loved the instant sense of accomplishment of crossing the finish line & completing something, but all in all at the time I was absolutely no good at running. Now in 2024, I am an avid runner. I absolutely love running & I still love completing races. It had never crossed my mind to sew any running clothes until lately, but I’m sure glad I did. On Fabric Mart they had the most amazing windbreaker like animal fabric & I knew it would be a perfect match. For the jacket I decided to block it so that it would give it a bit of extra definition. The actual fabric was really easy to sew with & to cut, however, it was a bit hard to pin & left needle marks within the fabric so I suggest using clips instead. I absolutely loved how it turned out. The pattern that I used for the jacket is a free sewing pattern from Mood Fabrics called the Cory Jacket. It is a fairly simple sew & can be made in a day. For the shorts, I u

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