Fabric Mart Fabricistas

Meet Margy from the blog Fool 4 Fabric:  She has been sewing for 65+ years and is now enjoying life and blogging about her creations.  Margy caught our eye with her fun style and her passion for sewing.   When we asked her to be a guest blogger she happily accepted and whipped something up  from Fabric Mart fabric. We just love seeing projects made from our fabric!  So, here's Margy! "One of my favorite parts of travel is putting together a travel wardrobe. For an upcoming trip to Sicily, I am planning combinations of my favorite black and white, with a little touch of red. It will be quite warm in Sicily in September, so I am searching my fabric stash for lightweight and wrinkle-resistant fabrics.    I chose a Dana Buchman ikat print in black and white from Fabric Mart . I made a scarf/bandana out of it for a trip to Ethiopia last January...talk about hot! I was amazed that this fabric was lightweight, cool and never wrinkled. So...I made a

Being new to the social media scene can be confusing and overwhelming. But don’t let it discourage you! Fabric Mart offers various social media options to keep you informed and inspired. If you need a little kick start or a refresher course in how to do this, this is the post for you! We’re going to show you how to become a follower of our blog through Facebook and Pinterest using the social media accounts you already have!  How to follow from the Blog itself: Good news! If you are reading this post you are inches away from following us! On the left side bar there is a "Followers" gadget. By clicking "Join this site" you will be taken to a page that gives you several options for which account you can use to sign in and follow us. The most popular being Google, Twitter, or Yahoo. By following us here, you will be able to see our posts from your page. We use Google Reader to stay up to date on our favorite blogs. It allows you to read all of the

Working at Fabric Mart is rewarding in many aspects. Inspiration fills you when you are around so many fabrics. The colors, patterns and other characteristics of the fabrics take me to a world of imagination.  One of many the afternoons sitting at my desk in front of bolts of fabrics waiting for me to take them one by one and determine their information to describe them for the website, I suddenly pictured a dress made out of  the two fabrics that Brett had put together on the table. Sometimes I feel like he is doing it on purpose! I stopped describing and just had to run to my boss and ask her "Julie, may I sew a dress with two of the new children fabrics that came today?" She did not hesitate, "Sure! Whatever you need to do!" Immediately I grabbed my best friends: scissors, a ruler and a piece of paper. I drew a sketch and took the bolts to cut the pieces I needed. Very sleek as if I were doing something wrong I drew the patterns on the fabric and cut them

As you know by now I have been asking our fans to send us pictures of their sewing studio and we have been posting them in an album on our Facebook to show off each space. Look at the album here to see all the pretty spaces.  We have received many photos of rooms and are loving them! When I opened the email containing the pictures of Lisa's sewing room I literally had to catch my chin before it hit the desk. I can't help but love a pink room! But a sewing room?! Above all things! I could hang these pictures on a wall and look at them all day!  We wanted to tell you a little about Lisa and her gorgeous sewing room so we asked her a few questions:  What is your day job?    I work in marketing for a senior living community in Fort Worth, Texas.  We have Independent Living, Assisted Living and Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation.  Most of the ladies that live here know that I sew and love to see the new things I wear that I’ve made.   What is your dre

Recently, I was asked to make clutch purses for a wedding with five bridesmaids. When I was asked to do this, I had no problem...except for that she wanted metal frames on them! I confidently agreed to it, but in reality had never done it before! I had a kit I bought a few years ago, and decided this was probably a good time to try it out. After only 45 minutes, I had a cute little clutch and couldn't wait to make more! So I ordered some metal frames and got to work! What inspired me to make this tutorial was the fact that the bride's mother bought the fabric to make the clutches from Fabric Mart! She chose a beautiful champagne color silk dupioni that was paired with a rich teal polyester charmeuse. The teal charmeuse was leftover from the bridesmaid dresses.  Check out the silk dupioni available at Fabric Mart! These directions are for one metal-framed clutch made from silk dupioni. Please note that because I was making five different bags, you may see a differen

Fabric Mart has a small retail store in the front of the building used to sell our overflow and clearance located in Sinking Spring, PA. Customers can receive great deals on gorgeous fabrics such as silk chiffon and linen. Most of the fabrics are last chance and sell out quickly! If you are local to us and have yet to stop in, come see us soon! The ladies take turns running the store front. The store labels and prices all the retail store fabric based on fabric content. They take a swatch of every fabric placed in the store and burn test it in order to give you a great low price that is based on true quality. They also spend a lot of time making the bundle assortments for those who are not fortunate enough to be able to stop in a visit. (But we do get some travelers from different states if you are up for the adventure!) Sharon runs the store most of the week and is well known by most of our local customers. She spends her day bundling, cutting and helping others, whether it is the

Have you ever seen a beautiful fabric on our website and fell in love and then discovered it was a panel and thought, now what the heck am I going to make with that?! Well, wonderful things are possible and our guest today, Erika from erikamadeit.blogspot.com shows us how it is done.  We found Erika while prowling the interweb for great sewers.  I was shocked and amazed when I came across Erika wearing Fabric Mart fabric! And even more impressed when I realized that the fabric she chose was in fact a panel.  Enough of me talking...check out this gorgeous dress will ya?! I love this dress! My maid of honor told me to get sewing, and make myself a dress for my bridal shower. Everything about the shower is a surprise, so I handed off the dress to her right after I finished it, and won't see it again until after the surprise.  This dress is all about the fabric. When I saw this double paneled floral cotton from  Fabric Mart's  daily pick on facebook,  I snapped it up

Yup, you caught me. I couldn't resist finding more sewing spaces to fall in love with. But who doesn't love more inspiration?! Check out this lovely spaces: What a colorful sewing room from Texas Freckles! A space that is a little unorganized can be gorgeous in a sewer's eyes. So don't be afraid to show it off! A sewing well used is admirable. This is the sewing room of Diana Eng (remember her from Project Runway?!)  Your sewing space doesn't need to be huge to be a wonderful space. If only my space could be this clean! This sewing room is from Sydney Davis. I love the use of clipboards in this sewing studio! This is the studio of Make Workshop in NYC. Look how modern and chic this space is! This is at Modern Domestic in Portland.  Don't forget to send us pictures of your sewing space to fabricmartblog@gmail.com . Please submit them by August 31st, 2012 so we can show your space off on our Facebook. Take a look at t

As you oooo and ahhh over all the beautiful fabrics on our website you might never think about how it got to this point online. It takes a lot of time and care to buy the fabric, prepare it for the site and post it online for all of our customers to see. You've met the buyers but now it is time to meet the warehouse staff who play a critical part in preparing our fabrics for the cutters to fulfill your orders. They unload the trucks, sort the fabric, sample it, measure it, roll it onto bolts and put it in its temporary resting place until it gets sent to a cozy spot in your house to be made into a gorgeous garment for your lifestyle. Around Fabric Mart they are known as "The Guys."  There are not too many guys that work at Fabric Mart but they have a VERY important job that cannot be overlooked. So here are....The Guys! Brett is our Inventory Control Manager. He assigns the fabric item numbers and locations and takes one bolt of each fabric to our description/photog

Now this is awesome! I stumbled upon Victory Pattern's blog while admiring their patterns and  found this tutorial on how to make your own custom clothing labels. I just had to share! So today we welcome our guest blogger, Kristiann from Victory Patterns. Add an extra touch of class to your hand made item by making your own clothing labels! Making tags is quick and easy, all you need is a photocopy version of your own logo, name or artwork, and a few supplies.  Make sure that your artwork or text is in mirror image to the original format.  These tags use a chemical called xylene from blender markers to dissolve photocopy toner onto fabric. When the toner is transferred onto natural fibre, it creates a wash-fast transfer. You can expand on this idea and transfer images to clothing!   Materials List Photocopy of logo or your name in mirror image 100% Cotton fabric or 1″ twill tape Xylene blender marker from your art store Scotch tape Thread

And we're back! The past two days Julie and I visited and worked in the big apple to show Fabric Mart's wholesale collection at the DG Expo. It was my first trip with Fabric Mart and I had a wonderful time seeing new places in New York and meeting our customers and friends at the show.  Of course I took a few pictures along the way! Julie and I grabbed a quick picture after we successfully finished our first long day working in the city! And did I mention that we had an amazing view from our room of the Empire State building? We ate a lot of good food!   Here's Julie at our booth. We had two tables full of fabric! It was quite the selection.   We came prepared with our entire inventory of headers.  (If you need any fabric, we have it. Visit our wholesale website if you are a designer, manufacturer, or fabric store. www.fabricmartwholesale.com ) I can't wait until our next adventure! Till next time New York. - Kaitlin

Yep. I have a weakness for stalking adorable sewing rooms. Don't act like you don't! Ever since I found Pinterest I have been keeping a collection of beautiful sewing spaces. We have an album on the Fabric Mart Pinterest!  http://pinterest.com/fmfabrics/sewing-studios/ I picked a few of my favorites to show you as I daydream about what  I want my own future sewing studio to look like.  I love these pops of color and cute chairs! http://www.blogforbettersewing.com/2010/12/my-new-gig-teaching.html http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/the-thompson-familys-sewing-ro-118141 http://plainlyjaneblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/dream-sewing-rooms.html http://plainlyjaneblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/dream-sewing-rooms.html http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/the-thompson-familys-sewing-ro-118141 This one I absolutely adore!  I would love to work in any of these charming rooms. Now guess what! I want to see your sewing room! Send us a picture of your studio, room, space