Fabric Mart Fabricistas

Last weekend I made a big dent in the progress of my Burberry-inspired winter coat. There is not a lot to report back on, but I will highlight a few little things that I did to enhance the coat. - Did you ever use tailor's tacks? I'm sure many of you know this little trick, but I felt the need to share it in case some of you don't know about it! My mother taught me how to use these and they are one of the best ways to mark your fabric. I don't care for using chalk marks because it always seems like they disappear by the time I get to that section of a garment. Thread a needle with a contrasting thread. Make sure to meet the ends of the thread. This is a good time to use threads that you hardly use, or old threads that may be too brittle to use in your sewing machine. (I have some of these inherited from my grandmother.) Then poke the needle through the pattern paper and all layers (good fabric, lining, etc.) leaving about 6-7 inches on the top of your stack. Th...

  Hello friends!  We're wrapping up 2012 with the highlights from the blog the year!  Can you believe we've only been blogging for a few months?  We have enjoyed finding inspiration, writing posts, and most of all sharing with you.  And we love receiving comments and encouragement from our loving fabric friends! Let's take a look back at all our memories together:   We gave you a chance to blog with us! ( And the offer is still open! Email fabricmartblog@gmail.com )   We held a Halloween Costume Contest! We learned how to use rubber stamps to emboss velvet! We tempted you with gorgeous lace! And still tempting! Check out our lace on our website:  http://www.fabricmartfabrics.com/xcart/Lace-fabrics/ We tried our hand at taming the beast with our tutorial on one way to organize your fabric stash . We let our jaws drop when we saw this stunning dress made out of a challengin...

Hi all, Lisa D. here! You may not know me because I am typically behind the scenes shipping, billing, and doing Fabric Mart's accounting. That being said, I am also not one of our best sewers here. However, this wine bag is easy enough even I can make it! These wine bags are a great way to personalize my favorite "last minute gift "to give, wine! They only take about 15 minutes to make and you can use almost any scrap of fabric. I used a cow print woven raw silk here because this particular wine bag was for our CBE (Chief Blogging Executive) Katie who happens to be marrying a dairy farmer this Summer. But like I said you can use almost anything, I personally love metallics and silks to make them fancy or cotton prints to make them fun. The recipient will also love that they can re-use it next time they would like to gift a bottle of wine.  Materials: Fabric, you will need at least a 5" by 30" piece, so 1/8 of a yard would work  At least...

For those last minute Christmas shoppers or gift makers, here is a clever idea for the crochet lovers in your life. You can make this Crochet Hook Case in less than an hour with scraps of cotton fabric! You will need: - 4 - 9x12" scraps of cotton fabric (coordinating) - Thread to match - 9x12" piece of batting  - Sewing machine - 2 - 24" piece of ribbon - Point turner - Crochet hook(s) 1) Cut out three 9x12 rectangles.This will create a front, inside and a large pocket. Cut out a 6x12" rectangle. This will be the small pocket. 2) Fold the two pocket pieces in half the 12" way. One will be 3" tall, the other 4.5" tall. These will create the pockets of your case. Now you will be making the case "sandwich." Right sides up, lay the "inside" 9x12 piece first, then place the larger pocket down on the bottom half, then the smaller pocket. It should look like this when you are finished: 3) Fold the two ri...

Hello! Katie here with a fun Christmas craft!  Have you seen those cute garlands made out of wool? Well I'm going to show you how to make them!  I found a sweet and easy tutorial from the Purl Bee. I'm going to use her guidelines to show you how to make your own with our personal tips and tricks I discover along the way on our first wool felting project. I have wanted to try felting for a while but was always terrified I would spend hours on a project and it turn into more of a cat ball than a cuddly stuffed animal. But a felted garland seemed like a task I could handle and not screw up!  First cut a piece of wool about 8 inches long. Then pull the wool apart width-wise slightly as shown. Do this with two pieces of wool and then cross.  Start by folding the edges in and then make a loose ball out of the wool. (These were dyed by Julie!)  One at a time, place the wool into the stockings and tie a knot at th...

Since the last time I wrote about the Burberry-inspired winter coat I am making, I've made a small amount of progress, but it was well worth it. I was able to put together the muslin, which surprisingly only took me an hour or so to get fit. For those of you that do not like doing a muslin, I would say to try and overcome the dislike. (I don't "like" it either! But it will save me time and money in the long run.) It will really help you see what needs to be altered and adjusted. I had to bring the shoulders in a little bit. (This is something I notice in a lot of Simplicity patterns, so I was expecting it.) I also wanted to make my coat shorter, so it allowed me to see how long the coat should be. Overall I would say that making the muslin was fast for a few reasons:  1) I used a basting stitch on all seams so I could take them out if I needed to. 2) I did not make the coat in its entirety. There is no reason to construct the entire garment (facings and de...

Tis' the season to look dashing, fa la la la la, la la la la  ! Don we now our highest fashion, fa la la la la, la la la la.  I scoured the pages of Vogue to find the winter fashion trends and selected my 10 favorites for seasonal gatherings. These trends are easy to look great in and if you are like me, you would rather make these statement pieces rather than just buy them online! (So I listed some fabric suggestions from our site, check them out!) Oversized Handbag (But I also love the velvet leggings with the men's jacket! Make them with the velour on our website ) Winter Florals and Power Purple (Check out this Purple Satin on our website:  CWG4541 ) Oversized Coats and Cinched Waists Cobalt Blue (We have a great rayon knit in this color, perfect for a comfortable and casual cocktail dress!  Check out  BBC5670 )  Black Leather ( Check out the black leather on our website !) Pants in Colors and Patterns (We ha...