Fabric Mart Fabricistas

There’s something especially motivating about refreshing your workout wardrobe with pieces that feel like you. As part of my ongoing athletic wear refresh, I’m adding another handmade set to my gym wardrobe—and this one might be the boldest yet. Lately, I’ve been taking a closer look at my handmade wardrobe and thinking more intentionally about what I actually wear in this season of my life. Athletic wear has become a big part of that. Instead of treating workout clothes as an afterthought, I want my gym wardrobe to have the same personality, color, and style as everything else I make. And this fabric made that very easy.  The Fabric That Started It All   The moment I saw this vibrant multicolored paisley, I was immediately drawn to it. The mix of warm reds, oranges, greens, turquoise, and golden yellow against the light background feels bold, energetic, and a little unexpected for athletic wear . There’s something about the print that reminds me of Etro and other higher-end f...

 Dee: Thank you Fabric Mart for this wonderful ITY fabric that has a marvelous stretch and recovery!! I would call it a travel knit because you can just throw the dress all crumpled up and there will not be a wrinkle in it when you go wear it.  It is a Polyester/Lycra blend and drapes beautifully. I used it to make McCalls 7561. The fabric makes for a very comfortable wear. This dress will be perfect for transition into fall as cooler weather approaches. But right now we’re in the middle of summer and I find it perfect to wear in those really chilly air-conditioned buildings. The issue that I had with the fabric, being that it is so silky and luscious, was that it was very slippery to work with. I needed to be very careful and patient when cutting out the fabric and throughout the sewing process. Be sure to use the correct needle for the fabric!! I would advise walking foot. Happy Sewing!!! Dory: Dory’s fabricista make is from a beautiful Rayon/Linen blend fabric.  It’...

Do you have a fabric that you love and has been hanging around but is too small to use? Maybe you found a wonderful fabric with a super cute print but there's only a yard left.  I've got a few projects I worked on all with roughly a yard of fabric. And I have a few tips for making that yard and change go further! Cutting Layout: You can get a lot more mileage out of a yard of fabric if you can get creative with how you lay out your fabric. Cutting things single layer will give you the most control. My favorite thing to do is unfold the fabric and fold the selvages in to meet in the middle. That gives me two folded edges to work with. I had to overlap these to get enough width for the tank top. Just make sure that your pattern pieces don't also overlap!  This one was especially fun for me because I really loved the print on this swimwear knit but am not yet up to sewing swimwear. But a nice flowy hiking tank is perfect for this! In the future I'd love to experiment with...

For the past seven-ish years, I have done one court gown a year focusing on the 1540s Florentine era for the sole purpose of learning how to make these garments and everything I can about the Noble Ladies wardrobe. But in this mad dash refinery, I neglected one important piece of what a wardrobe includes and that is the home clothes. So this is going to be part of a project where I am trying to rectify that and I'm looking for the clothes that you wear when you curl up with a good book in the rain, or the clothes that you wear when you are having a busy morning running all of your errands before you put on your finery and the gowns later that evening. What did the average everyday woman wear regardless of social class? When you look through the inventories in Moda a Firenze, it doesn't reference a lot of sonatas and embustos, which are petticoats and stiffened bouse, sometimes they're mentioned together. Sometimes they're mentioned separate, which leads to the idea that...