I’ve been sewing for Spring with Fabricville!

Some of Fabricville’s newest fabrics from their flier intrigued me, so I sewed a few things! 

I write a guest blog post for Fabricville pretty regularly.  This project will become one, too.  From the flier I chose 1 “bottom weight” and 2 coordinating “top weights” to become a mini capsule.  (I’ll post here when the Fabricville post is up.)  In the meantime, here are some details.

My plan was to make the bottoms using Jalie’s Eleonore pull-on jean pattern.  I’ve used that pattern for many years and it’s never failed me.  My adjustments to the original pattern include raising the rise to accommodate MY body and deepening the pockets.  (this post shows the rise)

Then I was planning to make 2 of Jalie’s Dolman #3352 for the tops.  

First step was to wash and dry my fabric which I always do, using the same method as I would use for laundering them.  Washer and tumble dry with heat.

Here’s how my Sewing for Spring went:

The Bottom

My fabric was described as “Printed Stretch Sateen” with 3% lycra.  Jalie’s Eleonore Pull-on Jeans was my chosen pattern, one designed for a woven fabric with 20% stretch.  When the fabric arrived, I checked the actual stretch against the pattern icon, there wasn’t quite enough, so I went up one size.  (It washed well with minimal shrinkage.)

This fabric is quite “busy” so I skipped the faux fly and combined the back and the yoke into one pattern piece. Most of my seams were serged using a 4-thread overlock stitch, and my top-stitching was done with regular sewing thread, using a “triple-stitch” lengthened to 3mm,  built into my sewing machine.  

They turned out GREAT and will become part of my Spring/Summer wardrobe.

The Tops

I chose a “stretch gauze” fabric for the tops.  Described as “very soft and perfect for making blouses, beachwear, blankets and baby accessories”.  The colours are perfect to coordinate with the jeans!  Upon inspection of the fabric, it is a woven gauzy kind of fabric with elastic thread woven into it, which you can see on the wrong side.  

It’s a very soft fabric.  And, there was quite a bit of shrinkage the way I washed and dried it.   

The Fuchsia Top

In order to cut the Dolman out of the 1 meter of pink fabric I had, I steamed and stretched it quite a bit.  That also means I have to remember to not put it into the drier or it will likely shrink back up.  The neckband is “self-fabric”, cut 2 inches wide and 80% of the neckline, measured at the seam line.

The selvedge is kind of “ruffly” so I omitted the curved hem and cut the pieces on the cross-grain.  The selvedge became the hem.

The White Top

For the white top, instead of the Dolman,  I used Jalie 2805 “Women’s Tee Shirts“.   The fabric was folded on-grain and I was able to get all the pieces out of 1 meter.  I DID have to make the sleeves quite short though.  The neckline has been lowered a bit to suit me better.  The neckband was done the same way as on the fuchsia one,  cut 2 inches wide and 80% of the neck at the sewing line.  

Hemming was a challenge.  For both the sleeves and the bottom.  I couldn’t press it or it flattened.  My solution was to first serge the edges with my differential cranked up to 2.  Then I applied elastic using a triple zig-zag stitch.  I’m happy with the result. 

It pulls in a bit on the dress-form, but sits neatly on my hips when I wear it straight, or blousy when I put it at my waist.

I hope this post inspires you to try some new fabrics, and then how to deal with fabric challenges.  Be sure to watch for my post at Fabricville’s Blog, around mid-April.