Skip to main content

Made By A Fabricista: Fabric Mart, Flannel, and Friendship

Have you ever fallen for flannel? Maybe that sounds weird, but let me explain. It all started back in October during an in-person Fabric Mart shopping adventure with my sewing friend, Connie.  If you've ever been to the Fabric Mart retail store you know how amazing it is! I mean, what could be better than rows of beautiful, steeply discounted fabrics that you can touch, see, and pet (yes, I pet fabric)? If you think the Fabric Mart website is amazing, try taking an adventure to their shop and prepare to be wowed by the special in-store only fabric! 

After Connie and I spent over two hours petting all of the pretty fabric and wandering around the different rooms of the store, we found ourselves in the basement. The basement contains a lot of the designer website fabric, and I happened upon this beautiful midnight, eggshell, and red cotton plaid flannel fabric. I stopped dead and stared at it, scheming about the best way to bring it home with me. After what felt like an eternity of just staring at it, I decided I already had too much fabric so I let it go. At that moment, it felt like a good idea to walk away because Connie and I ended up purchasing around 80 yards of fabric (and you think I'm kidding!)


This next part will sound crazy, so go ahead and laugh at me if you must, but for the next few days after that trip, I couldn't stop picturing that beautiful midnight plaid flannel that I left behind! You can say that I had fallen for flannel! After a couple of days of waiting and stalking the Fabric Mart website, a cotton sale dropped and I knew it was my time! I snatched up a few yards of the beautiful midnight plaid flannel fabric, some 1/4 inch wide elastic, and two yards of interfacing to make a flannel shirt dress. 


I knew I wanted to make myself a flannel shirt dress with a straight-fitting skirt, elastic waistband, and buttons down the front. I just had this vision of a comfortable flannel shirt dress worn to do all kinds of fun holiday activities like picking out a Christmas Tree, exploring a Christmas Village, or seeing a Christmas light display.  After quite a bit of research to find the perfect pattern, I found the Seamwork Bertie dress and knew it would be perfect! I loved the tied sleeve cuffs, V neckline, and elasticated waist. 



I also loved how easy the Seamwork Bertie pattern was to sew! I didn't need to make any modifications to the pattern other than grading in between sizes to accomplish the correct fit for my measurements. After sewing the dress, it came time to sew the buttons and buttonholes.  I picked out some adorable little red-covered buttons that matched the red color in the flannel perfectly. These buttons were purchased from Fabric Mart's Bargain Bin a couple of years and I was amazed at how well they matched the dress. 

When I went to sew the buttonholes, my sewing machine had a meltdown and decided to strike. I do not give up easily, so I tried the second buttonhole and that one was just as bad. After about 20 minutes of seam ripping (you all know how painful ripping out buttonhole stitches can be) I decided to scrap the button idea and switch to plastic snaps. In the same amount of time as seam ripping those two dilapidated buttonholes, I had all of the snaps on the dress! Yay snaps for the win! 

When I finished making my flannel dress, I shared a quick photo of it with Connie and told her about my dreams of wearing this dress to fun holiday activities.  Thanks to Connie, her desire for adventure, and her photography skills, I now have tons of fun photos of my flannel dress! 



Connie was there at the start of my flannel obsession and there at the end, taking photos of the finished flannel dress for me.  I'm so thankful for Fabric Mart and the amazing deals, flannel for its softness and warmth, and a wonderful sewing friend! 

Special thanks to Connie from @thealiensewist for her photography skills!


SHAINA   @shaina_sews 


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

Comments

  1. I love your story about this dress and your friend. I also love the sleeve and neckline of this pattern. You wear your flannel well, enjoy! Happy Holidays to you and Connie.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love your dress! Cozy and festive at the same time! Thanks for posting!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi! Love your dress and your article! One question... why did you need two yards of interface? Is the whole dress "interfaced"? Thank you!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for leaving a comment! All comments are reviewed before posting to help us eliminate spam. Your comment will be posted within 24 hours.

Popular Posts You Might Like

Made By A Fabricista: Playing with Classic Silhouettes and Timeless Color Palettes

When it comes to sewing, few things excite me more than reimagining classic designs and breathing new life into timeless patterns. As someone who has been sewing for over 25 years, I thrive on exploring unique details and construction techniques that make each piece feel special. Recently, I found inspiration in a previous look I’d created and decided to take it a step further, crafting a full outfit that plays with volume, texture, and classic styling. See below my dress from 2011 that I drew inspiration from. The Fabric For this project, I chose a Glen Plaid Suiting fabric from Fabric Mart, a timeless yet versatile pattern that instantly elevates any garment. The fabric’s classic black-and-white palette gave me the perfect base to experiment with silhouettes and pairings while keeping the overall look chic and cohesive. I love how this fabric’s pattern gives off an air of sophistication yet lends itself beautifully to bold, modern designs. The Dress For the dress, I used the VikiSew...

Made By A Fabricista: Liberty Snow Day

Hi everyone! While we’ve been blanketed with snow out here in Southeastern PA, I decided to conquer my fear of button holes and make NewLook pattern N6749. I was able to snag a few yards of the Jess + Jean print Liberty of London Tana Lawn for it. It’s always exciting when Fabric Mart is able to get Liberty fabrics in! I always make sure to grab some.  Cutting into a beautiful piece of tana lawn is scary every time. The fabric is such good quality, I’m afraid to mess it up! I had to be extra careful as this is also the first directional pattern I’ve worked with. But one of my assistants made sure all of my pieces were laid correctly. Something I wanted to try out with this dress was finishing the inside seams using the overlock stitch on my domestic machine. Normally I would french seam, but it was nice to not have to worry about cutting seam allowance in half, sewing, trimming, flipping, and sewing again. Next time I would cut the seam allowance back before overlocking, but I thin...

Made By A Fabricista: Ghostly School Uniform

When Fabric Mart asked me what fabric I wanted for my first project I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to make, Nene Yashiro from Toilet Bound Hanako kun (a weird but cute anime) but as cute as the design was, I knew I'd need to adjust the colors to a slightly warmer tones to better suit my complexion and undertones. For the main dress I was so happy to find an off white cotton/Lycra stretch twill that was opaque enough to not need a lining and stretched enough that I could continue avoiding my nemesis; zippers. I wanted to try out having a seamless center front panel, so I modified one of my existing go-to bodice patterns, and after figuring out what length I wanted for the skirt, was able to have the center front panel incorporated into the center front panel of the skirt. I then had the rest of the bodice as their normal waist length so that I could add an additional panel to the skirt to be able to have enough width to have volume and gather it down evenly around my waist. The hem h...