Fabric Mart Fabricistas

When fall started and we moved into Spooky Season I knew I wanted to make something a little witchy. I’d been eyeballing Stitch Witch’s patterns for some time, and after some back and forth on which pattern to make, I landed on the Harlow Dress. I really liked the neckline, the cute elasticated sleeves, and I didn’t have a pattern already with a princess seam a-line skirt.  I’m a huge sucker for linen , and after perusing Fabric Mart’s stock I decided on this beautiful black linen with a subtle rose jacquard weave. I loved how at first glance it looks plain, but when it hits the light the roses appear. I love to make things much harder for myself than they need to be. My favorite seam finishing technique, especially for a fabric like a linen, is french seams. They’re so neat and I don’t have to worry about anything unraveling, it’s all neatly tucked inside itself. What I didn’t consider was how tricky french seams with neck facings would be. I had to pick out several seams multiple...

This summer my wonderful partner Tim and I had the opportunity to go out to Yellowstone National Park. Tim’s dad is working there this summer as a park ranger, so we trekked out from Pennsylvania to visit! With 40° temperature swings and sudden rain showers on clear days, the weather in Yellowstone can be kind of insane. While I knew I wanted to make something to bring and wear, my cute little dresses weren’t going to make the cut. So what could I make? Then I remembered a virtual sewing class I took with Fabric Mart nearly two years ago on Elbe Textiles’ bucket hat pattern. Fabric Mart had also gotten in a few different water repellent fabrics. Perfect. I decided to make three different hats: one for myself, one for my partner, and one for his mom. After consulting with my coworkers on colors I picked three different 100% nylon water repellent shirtings ( CAC5934 and CDD5952 still in stock) and a polyester/polyurethane PUL fabric ( DUC5909 ). I paired the dark gray shirting with a L...

Hi everyone!  When I saw this floral print linen/cotton blend make it’s way onto the to-be-described table I knew I had to make a dress from it.  I’d been staring dreamily at all the dresses from the brand Son de Flor who had just put out their spring collection and thought, maybe I can throw together something inspired by them!  I grabbed three yards of that floral shirting and a yard of SWC5682w to line the bodice with.  I used Simplicity’s S8946 for its simple bodice block.  This pattern has a gathered rectangle for the skirt, but I’m a sucker for a circle skirt so that’s where I decided to start.  I folded the fabric twice and cut out the longest circle the fabric would allow.  Then got to work on the bodice, sewing up the darts and attaching everything. Now, I don’t love installing zippers.  I ha d a lot of trouble getting them to sit right, and no matter how much mental gymnastics I do when first pinning one side is always put in the wrong ...

Hi everyone! I’m Kayla , one of the fabric describers here at Fabric Mart. But today I’m coming to you from the blog! I made this Gambit Dress from Mood Fabrics (shh don’t tell) in a small plaid cotton. This fabric actually never went up online! We bought out a store in Scranton and got a bunch of smaller bolts of fabric. These bolts went out into our retail store! Our retail store has a whole bunch of racks  of fabric that range from $1-$4, and right now we have a $5 wool rack. The fabric I grabbed was on the $3.99 rack! Because the store fabric tends to be smaller quantities and leftover online fabric, we typically don’t get information on content. A quick burn test told me it was indeed cotton! I was originally aiming for a wool for this project, but knew the cotton would be a little bit easier to work with and maintain. One of the sides is brushed, which I decided to use as the wrong side.  With my fabric washed and dried I got to work on the pattern. I hadn’t used a patt...