Fabric Mart Fabricistas

Hello Sewing Friends, I am excited to share my May Fabric Mart Fabricista projects with you all. I stumbled upon two beautiful Ikat inspired printed fabrics and knew I needed to sew something for my Spring/Summer wardrobe.  The fabric with the black background is a double border print cotton sateen shirting.   The other fabric is a rayon/cotton print voile. Originally, I was considering using them together to make a garment. But when they arrived I realized they did not work well together and needed to stand alone.  I decided to make dresses using Butterick 6677, and make some modifications.  I made version A with hemline variations and love how both dresses turned out. For my first dress, I wanted a midi length dress and a ruffle hemline. So I cut out view A as well as the ruffle for vies B & C. Then, instead of creating a single layer ruffle, I folded my assembled ruffle piece in half, creating a double layered and shorter ruffle. This created the exact le...

While much of the northern hemisphere is already in flip flops and tank tops, here in Western Canada we are just beginning to have a taste of springtime weather. While I am anxiously waiting for warmer days, I decided it was time to make something outside of my wheelhouse - a spring/girly dress. I searched through Fabric Mart Fabric’s website for a piece of fabric that would be the right weight for a warm-weather dress, and also for a print that was different from what is in my closet - which is pretty much a long rack of various shades of blue. I selected a floral rayon crinkle challis in pale yellow with flowers in various shades of pink and seafoam green foliage. As always, I washed the fabric before cutting and was happy to see that there was only minuscule shrinkage and even better, it barely needed pressing after being hung to dry. Those crinkles must attract all the wrinkles! LOL The pattern I used is Butterick 6873 from the Spring 2022 catalogue. This is a wrap-dress with opti...

This time around, I realized that half of all of my Fabricista post included linen makes–which did not stop me from selecting another linen! I had never sewed with linen before this partnership, and am really glad that Fabric Mart has such a variety of colors, weights, and sometimes prints to choose from. For this make, I went back to the same yarn-dyed chambray that I used as one side of my last post–the quilted reversible coat–but this time chose a different color. Unlike my last pick, where the yarns were purple and white, this one was the mandarin orange and purple. And let me tell you, this combination is stunning in real life! You can really see the different colors in the yarns after I washed and before I sewed it all up. The color is predominantly orange, but the hint of purple gives the linen such great depth and it looks different from every angle and in every different light. I happened to have a three-day weekend trip to Las Vegas planned not long after I received this fab...

Hephaestus was a project that I didn't expect to be doing this soon, but it's just how it worked out. I went into this project with no research, and while I know a little about the other Olympian gods, I knew nothing about him. I might have made different design choices if I did. My first thought was to do a steampunk look, which I was all for, but the inspiration I was finding was subpar at best. And it wouldn't really fit in with the whole vibe I've created for the overall project. So I came up with a new design. And that didn't quite work out either. I had a lot of life happen all at once with car problems, kitchen flooding, and getting some medical testing done. The car is fine, our kitchen is dry, and I officially have ADHD! (we knew I had it, I just needed an official diagnosis so I could start being medicated for it). All of that to say that I needed a nice and easy project. Which is what this turned out to be. Overall I am very happy with how this dress turn...

Happy First Friday of May! I am truly excited that I have 22 more work days left before the summer break.  This school year has been a roller coaster ride and I have enjoyed some high moments and dealt with some low ones in between.  I wanted to start my summer looks early and decided to focus on looks I can wear when I visit Jamaica or other tropical places. These looks made are both great for Sunday brunch as well. This set is my first faux romper for this year and I love the fact that I can rock it as separates. When I came across this yellow graphite gray polyester fabric , I knew it was perfect for summer.  To top it off, I found the perfect matching earring from Purple Paradise Studio in lime (Rise stud in lime) and knew I wanted a chic summer faux romper set.  I decided to hack  McCalls 7943 dress pattern and create another top.  I have made it several times as I truly love it and plan to use this pattern as one of the beginner patterns for my summer...

Have you ever made a garment that you concluded was a skill builder?  The pattern, the fabric, the technique all taught you something?  Well this post is all about the skills I learned or improved on with this dress.   First let’s start with the fabric.  We got stripes.  Stripes can be used in fun ways to create a lot of visual effects.  When I got this rayon challis from Fabric Mart I didn’t really know what exactly I was going to do with it.  I ran through a list of patterns I already had and none of them quite fit.  I knew going in I was going to have to match up the stripes at least on the sides of whatever I made but I did quite know what was in store for me with the pattern I ended up picking out.  Now let's get to the pattern. Deer and Doe is one of my favorite pattern companies.  They have nice classic silhouettes that I feel work well with my body and frame.  I wanted a new pattern though so I went on the hunt for wha...