Fabric Mart Fabricistas

Sewing a swimsuit is an easy and quick project that can be done in just a few hours. Seriously they are pretty quick to make! If you can sew a zigzag or a straight stitch you can sew a swimsuit. Fabric Mart had an amazing collection of swim and I was so thrilled to get my hands on some. Today I will be reviewing two swim patterns I used. The first one I made was from Megan Nielsen Patterns, the Cottesloe swimsuit pattern . I mostly stick with one piece swim patterns but support is important to me. This one has a shelf bra and tie back that helps with some support in the front. The pattern itself is pretty straight forward. There is an option to sew in a lining as well. I did not sew in a lining and I do regret that! The stitches and elastic can get irritating in the gusset area, I think that having a lining MIGHT help to prevent that. If your elastic is at all showing, meaning the fabric doesn’t completely cover the elastic when its folded over, there will probably be irritating rubbin...

Hello! Welcome to my most special post to date! I have been keeping a secret lately, but it is finally time to reveal it: I am expecting! We will be welcoming a little one in the Fall! Since I had planned to spend a few days at the beach with my family, a maternity swimsuit was a perfect choice for this June post. The process was longer and more complex than I anticipated, but it turned out fine!  Pattern: finding a maternity swimsuit pattern is practically impossible, but I did find a few tips and tricks on blogs to alter a regular pattern and adapt it to a growing belly. I chose the Jalie 3350 and mixed view A’s open back with view B’s twist front. It is not that hard to make it into a maternity swimsuit: you must add a few inches to the front part of the swimsuit (I added 3”) and then gather the fabric on the sides until it matches the back. When I made this swimsuit, I wasn’t “showing” as much as I wished yet. But the bump practically popped up overnight, just a few days befor...

All of my fellow Fabricistas have been looking toward starting their fall wardrobes. But this year, I’m riding my summer vibes right until their official end in mid-September, because I’m doing something a little different: going on a beach vacation after Labor Day! Now is as good a time as any to tackle my first swimsuit, and I have to say, it was a great experience. And of course, I’d need a cover-up too. Fabric Mart had everything I needed to try my hand at a swim suit. I knew I wanted a bright, colorful patterned suit that was more likely to hide any construction flaws, so I picked this really fun nylon/lycra and it just screamed summer fun. Since I wasn’t sure which lining would work best, I ended up picking up the plain black swimsuit fabric to line with, since I read that you can line with swim fabric. It ended up being thicker than I imagined, but for me, I felt like this worked great because the recovery of the two fabrics together is excellent. The fabric is great quality. I ...

Happy summer! This is my absolutely favorite season of the year! I love the unscheduled, unplanned downtime that goes hand and hand with summer. I love the extra hours of fun I get to spend with the family! And I love the beach! Last week our family went to Marco Island, Florida and I was so excited to make a handful of swimsuits for my daughter and myself! I used the Megan Nielsen Cottesloe pattern to mix and match a whole new swimsuit wardrobe!