Made By A Fabricista: The Perfect Plus Size Dress

Hi everyone!

Fall is here & even though it’s technically fall, the weather in Indiana hasn’t caught up yet. I’m not really complaining though, because this is my favorite time to wear all my favorite fall dresses, before it gets too windy & cold.

Today I am sharing one of my new favorite dresses. This dress can easily be worn in a dressy style on date nights or to weddings, or even dressed down with sneakers for a walk in the park. I made this dress using a very beautiful floral bubble crepe. The fabric is a light lavender purple with flowers going multidirectional. This made it simple when considering pattern matching & cutting pieces out. For this particular dress I used 3.5 yards & had no fabric left after cutting. I would not consider this crepe to be a beginner’s fabric, because it was very slippery when cutting and also when sewing, however with patience and ample time many things can be achieved. There are also ways to help stiffen a fabric when cutting or sewing such as: light starch, but the crepe material is intentional for having a soft hand, so it would defeat the purpose.

The pattern that I chose for this dress was McCall's 8195. This pattern has many options to create different variations of this dress and/or “hack it” and create something completely new. For my dress I chose pattern C, which was fitting for fall. It has a fitted bodice that flares into a circle skirt & is zipped in the back to enclose it all. The pattern was very simple to follow and was not difficult to sew at all. I didn’t find myself stopping much, because I didn’t understand something, but the dress pattern did not extend to my size, so I graded it a few sizes up & to my surprise it ended up being too big. Usually I do pretty good with grading patterns considering that I used to professionally do this, however sometimes I run into issues when I grade patterns made by other people.

My favorite part of this dress is the overall silhouette. When being plus size, sometimes it can be hard finding things that flatter your body especially in relation to patterns or even resources in the sewing community. This dress defined my wait & enhanced my curves, while still being very moderate & appropriate. The circle skirt also was very flattering & the fabric draped over everything perfectly.

MACY | @macycamile

Unfortunately Fabric Mart Fabrics sell out quickly!
You can find similar fabrics by shopping the following categories: CREPE.

Made by a Fabricista: What's Black and Gold with Chevron All Over? This DIY Pant Suit, That's What!

Hope you're having a Golden day, get it? [I crack myself up sometimes!] This DIY pant suit is golden for sure. So tell me this, were you one of the lucky ones who were able to grab some of this fabric when Fabric Mart posted their new arrivals? I jumped on it so fast it was crazy and before you know it "poof" it was gone. So sorry I don't have any links to this fabric but all is not lost, you can use something else for these patterns. Try looking in the suiting selection for the blazer. The other awesome option is denim and as always check the New Arrivals. I went to my "tnt" blazer pattern for this project because I knew the metallic bias around the edges would look fab and I was on a mission to make another pair of mimi g's jeans and trim the seams in metallic bias as well. I recommend both of these patterns to any level sewist. I did a little pattern hack on the blazer pockets to make them a little more interesting and I made a pic...

Made By A Fabricista: The Skirt that Brought my Sewjo Back

I know it can’t just be me. My sewjo has gone away and I’ve been having such a hard time trying to get it back. I remember the days when I used to sew every single day without fail and now, not so much. I think about sewing and all the things I’d love to make, but I just haven’t found the motivation. I kind of know what the issue is. I started a new job last October and ever since I started, I’ve been sewing less and less and I don’t like it! Well, in comes Simplicity S3237. Summertime is here and it’s time to bring out all the skirts. Simplicity recently released S3237 as part of their summer patterns. This skirt is a full, gathered skirt with a bias-cut yoke with side seam pockets and an invisible back zipper. The skirt comes in 3 different lengths – mini, midi and maxi. I decided to make View B which is the midi length. I’m not much of a maxi length kind of girl and that mini was a little too small for me. I sewed up a size 22 with a few modifications. Let’s talk about th...

Made By A Fabricista: Check on It

We are getting close to the start of summer and I am coming to you with this checkered look to start the season. I had an inspiration saved of a full checkered set which I absolutely loved and said if I ever find the perfect fabric I would make it. I was so happy to see exactly what I was looking for one day when I was checking out Fabric Mart’s site. Not only did I find the exact big check but I also saw the traditional gingham shirting in a very close colorway. I thought it would be fun to work the two scales together to create a look. I’ll admit sometimes I overthink things and end up going down a deep rabbit hole trying to find a new inspiration that would work. I wanted to make something that still would reflect my personal style and could continuously rework in my wardrobe without it looking too “countrytime” or “clownish”. My other goal was to try to use a pattern that wouldn’t be too cumbersome as I am still working out of a temporary space a...

Fabric Mart Fabricistas

Search This Blog