Fabric Mart Fabricistas

  I am so happy to still be a part of the Fabricista Blogger Team. I joined in the middle of the pandemic and have really enjoyed myself as a blogger.  Fabric Mart has truly been my go to place for shopping for fabulous fabrics that reflect my style.  I love that I get to shop deadstock fabric that will help give fabrics additional lifespan and fabric is typically limited quantities so you will be part of the few with that fabric.  As someone who is big on individuality this is such a plus for me.   Can we also talk about the great sales that Fabric Mart runs?  I literally stalk the site daily to find new fabrics and catch the featured sales.  During one of my daily visits to the site I came across this gorgeous  corduroy fabric  with a unique animal print.  At the time I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to make with it but I just knew I had to use this for my next featured make.  I was also able to get matching thread, another...

What comes first: the pattern or the fabric? How do you make your sewing plans? Throughout the month of January, my social media feeds were flooded by fabulous sewists sharing sewing resolutions and goals, and designing thoughtful plans for their 2025 makes.  While I am a big planner in my day-to-day life, when it comes to my creative hobby, I am much more spontaneous. I find that fabric design and texture often inspires me most so I typically look for fabulous prints or bold colors and let the fabric tell me what it wants to become. As I turned my attention to my first-ever (!) Fabricista make, I wanted something to get my creative juices flowing. One evening, Fabric Mart shared an Instagram story that highlighted their Dusty Mauve Sweatshirt Fleece . It had a nice stretch, was fleece-backed, and was a muted baby pink that spoke to me. It was soft and feminine, perfect for a cozy day or night by the fire. I immediately knew I wanted to make a cute pair of sweatpants for a fun Vale...

It’s not every day that I get to mix two of my favorite hobbies. Especially when one hobby is sewing and the other is running. You can’t sew and run at the same time, but, you can go running in something that you sewed! With this realization, I embarked on my first hobby-merging adventure.  We’ve had some frigid temperatures in Pennsylvania this winter. Since I’m an outside, stroller-pushing runner, I bundle up my son and myself before I hit the road. The temperature feels 20 degrees warmer for outside runners than the outside air. For the children being pushed in the stroller though, it feels about 20 degrees colder.  With these differences in temperature for each of us, layering is the only thing that ensures that we both stay perfectly warm. My running wardrobe has been lacking a warm top layer. My son’s wardrobe would also benefit from having another warm layer, so I knew pullovers were what I should make.  Inspired by a name-brand ¼ button-down fleece pullover I saw,...

As winter drags on, the cold weather is such a bummer to me and feeling uncomfortable and cold so often is rough. Meanwhile, I listened to a podcast all about how people in very northern countries deal better with the onset of dark, freezing winter with a radically different mindset of embracing the inevitable season by reframing the chill as refreshing and the opportunity to spend most time indoors as cozy. I can do that!  I found a gorgeous, quintessential wool boucle suiting in black and white to make myself a luxurious outer layer while I’m outside attempting to embrace the sting of dry winter air… It’s kind of working. So classic, so chic! Wearing boucle is always an uptown move and I certainly do feel sophisticated in it. This black and white houndstooth combination feels especially Old Hollywood, and what a treat to make something with this!  I sewed the Daphne Jacket from Vivian Shao Chen. There are no closures, and the shape is boxy and very easy to wear over multipl...

It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly a decade since I first discovered Fabric Mart Fabrics. At the time, I lived in the Lehigh Valley, specifically Allentown, and regularly traveled 90 miles south to York City, near the Maryland line. During one of these trips, I stumbled upon this gem of a store. The excitement I felt walking through its doors was quickly met with a pang of disappointment—how could such a treasure have existed for over 20 years before I found it? Since that day, it has been a love affair, one that has only grown stronger over the years. Fabric Mart has become an essential part of my creative journey, providing me with not just fabric but the building blocks of stories, resilience, and beauty. Now, as a small business owner with a retail studio serving my community, I take pride in saying that 95% of the fabric in my studio comes from Fabric Mart. Their commitment to offering exquisite deadstock fabric resonates deeply with my mission to create with sustainabilit...

I know it’s been super cold over most of the US recently and even South Florida got a cold front a few weeks go.  It got so cold it snowed several inches in Orlando and Northern Florida! It was during the winter freeze that I was looking for fabric for my next make and came across this Black 100% Polyester Double Faced Faux Fur that is 64W.  This fabric is so soft and luxurious to touch. More on the fabric later though, because I have some tips and tricks I learned along the way. I knew I wanted to make a vest so I started looking through my pattern stash and I came across McCall’s M7695. This is a Palmer/Pletsch pattern that uses the Tissue Fitting Method.  I honestly didn’t use the method.  I just looked at the measurements and decided on making the size 22 because I wanted the vest to be oversized.  This pattern comes with 4 different views.  The view I chose to make was View C with a minor adjustment. I chose to omit using the zipper and just followed ...