Fabric Mart Fabricistas

How do you use those lovely home decor prints that are everywhere?  Every fabric store I enter has eons of choices...so many pretty colors, textures, and the heft is just awesome, especially if you want to make something that will withstand some wear and possible tear...enter the overnight bag! Bag 'Front' pocket This is a cute little pattern from Simplicity 2274 , to be precise. I've made duffle bags for the men in my family a few years ago. The girls were a little chuffed to say the least. When I spied this pretty home decor print on Fabric Mart's site, I knew it had to be and now one lucky lady would get her own bag! Plenty of room, even if you are a messy packer, like me! Home decor fabric is lovely to work with. I used two yards of it for the bag and enough left over to make a little matching clutch to use for whatever the lucky daughter or daughter-in-law likes. The colors are vibrant and the design is woven into the fabric. This is a nice, quality...

Are you familiar with voile? Voile is a lightweight, soft fabric that you can see through slightly and can be made from cotton, silk or wool.   It is the French word for veil, pronounced “vwal”, but here in the states, we pronounce it with a long “o”, like in boil. It’s significantly lighter weight than quilting cottons, but not as sheer as chiffon, making it the perfect fabric for summer weight clothing.    Fabric Mart has a huge selection of it right now , and I grabbed up three coordinating prints to make myself a deluxe set of summer pajamas and coordinating robe.   I had purchased a coordinating pajama/robe set like this many years ago, and it was very expensive.   I loved it and wore it until it was faded and threadbare.   I haven’t seen a similar set in stores since then, but I knew that I could easily duplicate it if I could ever find the perfect fabric. This voile had a crisp hand, which made it easy to sew.   I did nee...

How often have you done any home dec sewing?! I can count on both hands how many sewing projects I've completed over the years for the apartments I've lived in or my itty bitty mid-century rowhouse I've been in for about seven years now. Sewing up a pair of panel curtains is really quite simple and doesn't need a pattern. THE most difficult part of making these curtain panels: taking photos of them!! I have just this one window in the room & it's like photographing directly into the sun since I have no other windows nearby or good sources of light. I wanted to get rid of my plain, thin, boring beige Ikea curtains for a while. (Official Before & After photos are at the end of the post!) Fabric Mart has a sizable selection of  Home Decor fabrics , mine of course is sold out. Sad face. I used a geometric print with a juicy assortment of citrus colors like fuchsia, lime and orange! It feels like an upholstery weight material and has a wicked cool print o...

Whenever I'm working with customers, whether it is on the phone, at a guild presentation or in the store, I hear a lot of people say that they don't feel comfortable buying fabric online. They want to see, feel and contemplate what they can do with the fabric before they make a purchase. You may be thinking this is a funny topic for an online fabric store to be talking about, but it's not! We completely understand and that's why we've taken the steps to ensure that you have a great shopping experience.  I recently polled our Facebook fans, asking them,  " I'm in the process of writing a blog post about tips on how to buy fabric  online. And what better way to get feedback than from our customers! So, what are some things you consider when buying fabric online? What is helpful about our site? What could we improve upon? I can't wait to hear what you have to say! " And was I surprised! There were so many comments praising how we do ...

I'm happy to be back this month with a summer Fabricista project and some exciting news... There's nothing more rewarding for a sewist than having a TNT (tried and true) pattern you love to make, is easy to wear and versatile enough that you can make it over and over with great results. I decided to set out and do just that: design a line of modern patterns with friendly, fully illustrated instructions that sewers could use to build their sewing skills, fill their closets and add to their TNT pattern list. So with that, I'm excited to announce  Blue Dot Patterns, my new sewing patterns! For my summer outfit, I used one of Blue Dot's first patterns,  the Dover Jacket  which comes with two views. View A is short sleeved with a single button closure and view B has a 3/4 length sleeve, gathered bodice and a three button closure. I chose a lightweight stretch denim from Fabric Mart (sadly it sold out) would be perfect for view A because it would look great wi...

Disclaimer:  In no way am I tired of this summer weather! I have been traveling a great deal lately, and honestly, a little low on inspiration. I came across a jumpsuit (big surprise) and completely fell in love. I love anything with top stitching, so this was right up my alley! The fabric used for this post is a 100% Wool Gabardine fabric from Fabric Mart. Although this color is no longer available, here are some other options... HERE ,  HERE , &  HERE . The color options are endless! Of course, I am always mixing patterns, the ones used for this garment are Vogue 9103 and McCall's 6930 . I installed exposed zippers for a unique finish in the front and back. At first thought, I was going to use an invisible zipper, but considering the bodice and waistband was doubled, I didn't want to risk the zipper breaking. Ironically enough, I had a 24" zipper in my stash and it work out! The only adjustments I had to make was with the back bodice. I ended up having ...