Have you ever sewn with summer weight wool?  This skirt was our 1st time sewing with it, and we were pleasantly surprised.   We chose to use a wine and ivory herringbone brushed wool suiting.  Summer weight wool is much lighter than regular wool.  It seems like it might have a slightly looser weave too as I never got too hot wearing this skirt on a very hot summer day.  It does ...

The Sandbridge Skirt is one of our favorite skirt patterns.  It enables us to sew many of the skirts we wear on a daily basis.  We wear both the Sandbridge Skirt in it’s original design, and we’ve hacked it into a Sandbridge maxi skirt several times. Let’s talk about this fabric for a minute.  It’s chocolate brown twill fabric.  It’s a midweight cotton twill and is the most perfect fabric for ...

Recently, I had the opportunity to sew some summer clothes for my kids from the newest Project Run & Play pattern collection.  This collection is called Project Watercolor Beach,and it's filled with perfect staple patterns for any summer adventure.  Of course I turned to CaliFabrics to get the best fabrics for kids summer beach clothes!  And of course I ended up wishing I'd ordered these fabrics for ME! Let's start with ...

Today's dose of happy is brought to you by the most fantastic parade of fabrics from CaliFabrics!  Recently I sewed up the entire Project Street Style collection of 7 patterns, all using gorgeous fabrics from CaliFabrics.  If you haven't seen the incredible, inspirational content coming out of Project Run & Play, you really must head over and check out Project Street Style...you won't regret it! First up, here's a look at ...

Apparently, this is what it looks like when dreams come true.  The other day my daughter told me she was shopping and saw a chiffon maxi circle skirt that she fell in love with.  I asked her why she didn’t buy it?  Because she sews also she had found a few deficits in the skirt that she just couldn’t live with.  1 - It wasn’t long enough (she’s 6’ tall ...

You guys, I did it!  I sewed the perfect shirt!!!  It's pretty, comfortable, not too difficult to sew, and looks so professional! The fabric I used is some very awesome shirting from CaliFabrics.  It’s super soft shirting, lightweight but not transparent, so no undershirt required. The particular koi shirting fabric I used can be found here, and they have a whole bunch more shirtings in stock, from more by “Tori Richards” like ...

The modal jersey stripe fabric excels above all other stripe fabric, or so you might think if you saw my family!  But it's true that this fabric is one of the best quality fabrics we've ever found, sewn with, and worn.  Let me show you how I used this fabric for the whole family! For myself, I sewed a t-shirt using the navy on off-white horizontal pencil stripe stretch modal jersey.  ...

Do you have children that prevent you from sewing as much as you want to?  (How come they need to eat so often anyway?)  How would you like to suddenly have more time to sew?  And what if a fabric could give you this extra time?  Well, if you answered yes to these questions, I have a fabric suggestion for you! If you’ve ever been around reversible sequin fabric, you know ...

Have you ever liked BOTH sides of a fabric and had a hard time choosing which side to use for your final garment?   That happened to us with the indigo denim-look knit fabric.  (currently only available in brown)  The front is a very denim-looking fabric except that it’s knit.  And the back is a pretty silvery gray color.   So ultimately, we decided to use both sides by making the ...

Let me tell you about a super amazing fabric; stretch twill!  If you’re looking for a comfortable woven fabric that will move with you and look great, you need to try stretch twill! Earlier this year, I grabbed the last yard of the charcoal stretch twill you see in these photos, but you’re in luck because CaliFabrics just stocked a WHOLE bunch of new stretch twill fabrics, including this one in ...

Today I’ve got another fabric comparison post for you!  Just like last time when I compared 3 different fabrics using the same pattern, this time I used the same pattern to compare 2 fabrics.  Both these fabrics are suitable and recommended for making this hoodie pattern, so it really comes down to personal preference.   The pattern I used is the Halifax Hoodie by Hey June Patterns.  I made view C ...

Recently I must have been in a sweatpants sewing mood because (almost) everyone got sweatpants!  To me fall=french terry.  So everyone got french terry sweatpants!   First the boys got to choose and so they chose camouflage french terry fabric.  For some reason, my two youngest boys will only wear camouflage if given the choice.  Head to toe, full garb, camo all the time.  So whatever!   (Photographic proof over on ...

Today we're going to dig deep into a pile of ponte fabric...what a nice, soft, comfortable place to be!  Join me as we explore all the ins and outs of ponte.  And when you're ready to start your own project with ponte fabric, check out the great selection at CaliFabrics! Definition of ponte fabric: Officially named Ponte de Roma, ponte is a double knit fabric.  It’s very soft and sturdy fabric which ...

Can you wear rayon in the fall?  That became the question after I sewed this blouse from rayon challis fabric and wasn’t ready to stop wearing it just because summer had ended.  On the calendar anyway!   A blouse with perfect drape and flow requires just the right fabric, and rayon challis fits the bill perfectly.  And thankfully, CaliFabrics has a very large selection to choose from! This particular one is ...

This is the sad, sad tale of a skirt that wasn’t.  I mean, the skirt WAS, but it wasn’t mine!  When I planned my CaliFabrics order, I planned some things for my teenage daughters, and one very special outfit for me.  It was to be a special reward-myself-for-sewing-for-others kind of outfit.  I had a beautiful, flowy, silky to the touch, maxi skirt planned for this rayon chambray fabric.   The Sewaholic ...

One of the joys of sewing is to be able to make garments work for our body.  We sewists say that a lot, but this post is another example of how sewing for ourselves gives us power to make fashion choices that increase our self confidence.  In this instance, it was a pattern that I sewed and didn’t love the way it fit…so I tried it again and ended up ...

I had the brilliant idea to use oilcloth to sew rain jackets for my boys.  Brilliant because they love them, but sewing them was...the opposite of brilliant.  I’ve worked with laminated cotton before, so that wasn’t really the issue because I knew ahead of time what I was getting into.  But oilcloth is stiffer than laminated cotton, and really wasn’t meant for making garments.  So this post proves is can ...