Fabric Mart Fabricistas

Yes, I am a pattern repeater...there, I said it!  I don't even feel badly about it as I feel like repeats are the way you perfect a pattern, play with different fabric weights and types and just have fun experimenting!   I’ve made two of these jackets and are made from Fabric Mart beauties.  My first was a lacey, wavy, striped knit that I am just so pleased with!  I've worn it and received many compliments on it! That is a winner in my book! This lace behaved so beautifully as it didn't stretch out of shape, washed and dried like a champ and also was perfect for the little details of this jacket such as the more fitted sleeves and armhole areas.   I HAD to make another and so I choose this fun and funky floral that is off white with shades of brown, coffee, and black.  Neutrals are my friend!  I love sewing with colors such as these but also knew my wardrobe needed some color too!  I decided to use contrasting fabric for the f...

Isn't it time for Spring already?  Even though it's not warm outside yet, this is the time of year that I switch gears into warm weather sewing.  And there is nothing that feels Spring-ier than a beautiful silk chiffon skirt!  There is nothing nicer than shedding those winter boots and tights and feeling the lightness of silk against your skin!  Have you checked out the Buy the Piece section at Fabric Mart lately? They have some nice size cuts of gorgeous silk chiffons.  I got this 4 yard piece of  Blue Tie Dye look silk chiffon from that section.  I knew that I wanted to make a skirt out of it, but I debated on what kind.  Midi or Maxi, pleated or straight?  With such a pretty and delicate fabric, I thought it would be best to choose the simplest design possible, and let the fabric do the talking. I decided on a bias cut maxi skirt pattern,  Kwik Sew 3097.  It's not longer in print, but just about every pattern compan...

If you've been following along, you may have seen that the fabrics I use on each tutorial are different. That's because I made four versions of the Pretty Peplum Top! All the fabrics I used are either sold out from our website or from my stash, sorry, we don't have them available for sale! When someone is doing a sew along, they have to practice the pattern until they understand it well enough to help other people. I learned a lot about this pattern and I have to say the fourth one was my best because I worked out all the issues in the first three! The first top I made was from a ponte knit. When making this top, I cut out a size medium rather than a small. I have no idea why I did this because my high bust was a small. I guess I got scared! I ended up altering the pattern a lot and ended up with size small alterations. I used the un-darted bodice pattern piece for this top. I really wish I would have cut the darted piece because I have some folds around the underarms tha...

We're in the home stretch! All we have to do is stitch the bottom hem and sleeve hem, then we're finished! I wouldn't normally talk about what to do for this, but Pamela has an ingenious way to get a really nice hem. I have been using it on other projects too and it's been great! Pamela uses stay tape to finish all her hems. She likes to use SewkeysE brand, which we talked about HERE . You can also refer to the video on stay tapes in that blog post. SewkeysE has a 1" Double sided Fusible Stay Tape. If you are using this brand of stay tape for this project, you will need to cut the stay tape down to 1/2". I did not have this brand of stay tape at the time, so I found Pellon EZ- Steam II - a Two sided pressure sensitive Fusible Tape at a local fabric store. You will see that I used it in the photos below, but I'd like to try SewkeysE in the future. It was hard to get the tape off of the fusible part once it is fused down. But once you got it apart, it peel...

I'm glad to be back to Fabric Mart's blog with my new cozy flannel.  Sewaholic's latest PDF pattern, the  Granville Shirt,  is the perfect fitted shirt pattern to make a classic flannel shirt while still looking like a girl.  I used  this soft plaid 100% cotton flannel  from Fabric Mart.  It's lightweight and dreamy to wear but it also holds it's shape like a good quality flannel should. So...it didn't actually take me 15 minutes to make this shirt so why call it the "15 Minute Flannel", you ask?  Time being what it is in my life right now, I didn't have the opportunity to set aside large blocks of sewing time so I decided to make this shirt in short, 15-20 minute sewing spurts. A shirt like this, with lots of details, is the perfect project to break up into smaller parts.  I found sewing this way made me take my time and focus on each part to be sure everything was done right. In just 15 minutes or so I could do quite a ...