Fabric Mart Fabricistas

I love shirt dresses! My pattern collection reflects this (I may or may not have eight shirt dress patterns) but somehow my closet does not. I have just two DIY shirt dresses (Mimi G's Katie dress and Simplicity 8546 ) and maybe two RTW versions. So it's high time that I added some to my wardrobe. This polyester blouse weight twill by Milly has the perfect weight and drape for a relaxed shirt dress. If you prefer a more structured look, stick to a cotton shirting or light weight sateen. I loved this fabric and print so much that I grabbed both colorways. Unfortunately this fabric is sold out, but you can browse other shirtings and blouse weight fabrics here . This fabric has a somewhat slinky feel, but isn't truly slippery. There's also a slight sheen without being shiny like a satin. It was easy to cut and sew, but I did get a few snags when pinning so make sure you use sharp pins and a fresh machine needle. I serged my pieces before assembling the patt

Hi there! I'm sure your world has been turned upside down by Covid-19, just as mine has here in Florida. It is wild how quickly things can change...in a matter of days our house went from being so busy, shuttling kids here and there, to now, we have absolutely nothing on our schedule! It's been very nice to have a forced break, however I know that it is coming at a huge cost. Seven months ago, my dad passed away in a bicycling accident. Losing someone so quickly and unexpectedly is incredibly hard; that grief has been a tremendous weight that I carry around each day. If I can help prevent someone from having to lose their loved one to Covid-19, I will! Our family has taken the social distancing that the United States has implemented very seriously so that we can help alleviate the demand that has been placed on the hospitals and the medical industry. All that to say, I write this sewing post today, completely aware that there are serious, life altering current events happe

" Our ability to handle life's challenges is a measure of our strength of character." - Les Brown Happy Saturday Loves!  Life changes in the blink of an eye.  This past week has been a true test of our strength and faith and even with the roller coaster journey we all have been facing with the COVID-19 pandemic, my personal outlet and solace were to cut, sew and create.  I had so many great plans for this blog post in support of Women's History Month and even wanted to create a YouTube video for Part II of my collaboration.  Our life as educators were affected suddenly on March 12 when we were called into an emergency faculty meeting for a possible shut down of the schools in our district for a few weeks.   I sighed knowing that we could not meet and sew together for weeks to come. I honestly at the time did not truly understand the severity of what is going on. We made the best out of the situation and decided that we would all meet up at my home on Monday t

Hello, fellow fabric enthusiasts and sewers alike ! My name is Mary Martha and I am thrilled to be presenting a guest post for Fabric Mart's Fabricista blog. As a bit of background, I fell madly in love with opera in 2015 when I attended my first performance in a movie theater as part of the Metropolitan Opera's "Live in HD" simulcasts, which projects live staged operas in New York City into cinemas worldwide via satellite. (They're fantastic !) Since the start, I have dressed the part of the characters when attending these performances, beginning with outfits fashioned from scarves and skirts in my mother's closet to more ornate costumes. It was during this time that I taught myself to sew using a sewing machine and I haven't looked back ─ my life was changed forever ! In December 2018, I subscribed to Julie's Picks swatch club as an educational experience: I wanted to expand my knowledge of different fabrics besides the typical polyester sa

Hi all!  I have spring fever so bad right now that I simply had to make more separates for the upcoming weather change.  I found these lovely fabrics to make something from.  Sometimes when I order fabric, I know exactly what I am going to make and other times, I literally have either too many ideas or none.  This was the latter.  Although, I loved both choices and knew I’d love the finished product and my prediction was correct!  I really love this evergreen color right now and this floral chiffon caught my eye!  That color!  Plus, looking at various spring garments for purchase online, they are all so pretty, floral, and floaty so I knew this would end up in my cart.  I just had to bring it home with me.   It washed, dried, and behaved beautifully.  I chose a very unstructured, simple garment for the design.  Chiffon isn’t hard to sew, but I wanted a simple design to show off this lovely fabric. While this particular fabric seems to be sold out, there are so