Fabric Mart Fabricistas

It's only days into Spring and I'm ready for my beach vacation, guys!  I've had this two-piece swimsuit pattern combo on my mind for well over a year.  I'm a curvy gal, so I thought I'd play it up with this retro pin-up style two-piece with a bold tropical floral print.  This is a nylon/spandex swimwear fabric with a four-way stretch.  I've lined it with a solid black swimwear knit.  There is a growing list of really nice fabrics here on Fabric Mart perfect for bathing suits ... and it's perfect for other activewear-- I've made numerous running leggings with fabric labeled for swimwear. For my top I used Simplicity 1374 , View B.  I cut and sewed a straight size 16 with zero alterations... besides the addition of cups (more on those in a moment).  It's a great little pattern that took me just over two hours to sew up.  I picked up my swimwear elastic and cups from the local big box fabric store.  I used 3/8" wide elastic for the edg...

Hello everyone and happy Spring!  This is the first time that I've taken photos outdoors since October.  It feels so nice to be outside again!  To celebrate the arrival of Spring, I wanted to make a new dress.  One of the most versatile dresses that I think you can own is a knit wrap dress.  They work for all seasons- just throw on a jacket or cardigan in the winter, and you can make a wrap dress work all year long.  Fabric Mart has all of their knits on sale this week, so this would be the perfect time to try making a wrap dress! The wrap dress was made popular by Diane Von Furstenberg in the 70's.  Have you ever seen a real DVF Wrap dress?  If you go to the Wrap Shop you can see that the average price is $400, and all of the gorgeous variations that they offer.  The one thing that I noticed that they all have in common, is that they are made from silk jersey knit.  I actually tried on an authentic DVF wrap dress once,...

I'm so happy to be back this month on the Fabric Mart blog with my first spring projects, simple and lightweight black pants and a flowy and sophisticated print top. Inspiration for sewing comes from everywhere and I'm thrilled (like everyone else) that I no longer have to organize stacks of torn out pages from catalogs and magazines but now can save anything that inspires me to my  "I Wanna Make This" board  on Pinterest, no papers, no mess.  And this outfit today is inspired by one of those pins. The top is  McCall's 7093 , a brand new tunic pattern with different color block variations.  I made View A (without the slits) in  this geometric viscose print from Fabric Mart. The top is a quick and easy sew and the only changes I made were omitting the slits in the front, taking in the sides 1/2", and adding black bias trim to the neck.  I used the wrong side of a black silk charmeuse I had in my stash.  It can be tricky to ...

I got it into my head after seeing the faux Persian lamb on the Fabric Mart site a few months back that I would be using one of my blog posts to make *something anything* with the amazing fabric that I rarely see at fabric stores and heck, rarely see in real life.  ( And now all of their faux Persian lamb is gone, but maybe they will get it back in one day! ) Confession time, though...I already OWN a faux Persian lamb jacket, a black car coat that I purchased at Macy's in 2003.  So why in the world would I want to make another one?  Well, the colors that Fabric Mart offered were stunning, not the basic black that I owned, but a gorgeous light tan/golden color and a baby pink.  And since I love retro fashion, I knew I had seen many jackets/coats made in the mid-century from the more atypical hues .  I chose to use the golden color, since I feel like it is more versatile, but I was very tempted to try the baby pink.  In the end, I bought a small amount...

As the snow begins to melt, and the temperature rises above freezing, spring prep is in full swing!  I got off to a late start this year, but in any event, I thought this would be a great way to leap into spring wear! One of the great things about having or being part of a sewing group are inspirations.  There is no question, I live for jumpsuits!  Because of this, I jump at every opportunity to recreate or design jumpsuits that are unique in their own right. The inspiration for this jumpsuit came from Escada's Spring 2015 line.  An actress (Tracee Ellis Ross) wore the jumpsuit in green and I was instantly in love.  I could not think of any patterns that I could use to recreate the top of the jumpsuit, so I decided to draft a pattern by draping on my dress form.   The bottom of the jumpsuit is a drafted wide leg pant from McCalls 6930 (my go to sloper) for a close fit.  Inspiration: I choose 4 yards of a Coral, light weight linen ...