Made By A Fabricista: When in doubt, trust the description!

So happy to be back this year, posting on a blog that has taught me so much! If you have read any of my previous posts, THANK YOU! If not, let me make a quick and honest introduction. Actually, these three last words can define my sewing tendencies: quick (I love instant gratification projects), honest (I acknowledge flaws and errors), introduction (I am far from being a pro). And one last thing: I love colorful and flowy fabrics that go so well with the eternal Floridian summer.

The project I am sharing today has all these qualities! I made it a couple of years ago with one of my first Fabric Mart purchases. I found the fabric sticker to tell you precisely what it is: a great Polyester/Lycra Tropical Floral Print ITY Knit. At the time, I was an absolute beginner, so I purchased fabrics by just trusting 100% of the website description. Let me tell you: it works!

The ITY Knit Fabric section on the website says that “ITY knits are easy to sew with and quite popular for tops, dresses, skirts, and flowy pants. They come in a wide array of prints and solids. It’s great for traveling too because it does not wrinkle.” All true!

This fabric was definitely easy to sew. I had little-to-no experience with knits at the time I made this dress. I followed a free tutorial from BBlueDIY, which includes instructions to make your pattern. Knit doesn’t fray, and this one doesn’t even roll up, so I could sew it quickly. You can make this dress if you only know how to sew straight lines! I slightly modified the pattern by adding a waistbelt (in a beginner’s world, that counts as a modification). I opted to sew the bottom hemline with a decorative stitch for some reason. I guess I was still discovering my sewing machine and wanted to innovate a little! In hindsight, I would probably have made a subtler choice. Even an invisible stitch would have made the dress more elegant.

The colors on this fabric are vibrant, and the flowers are very detailed. The colors described on the website were: “Cool Silver/Amber/Ocean Blue/Sea Green.” I wasn’t sure about that “silver” component: the fabric looked white to me. Even in the pictures, under the sun, this dress looks white. But in person, the fabric base is - very light – silver, indeed! Unfortunately, there was no way to reflect that in my photographs. But one more time: the fabric description was on point.

Finally, saying that this fabric is “great for traveling because it does not wrinkle” is an understatement. My dress looks freshly ironed in these pictures, right? The truth is: it had been rolled up and squished at the bottom of my suitcase for a week, just before I took these shots! Another truth: it may look like a sunny summer day, but it was 44 degrees at that moment! But I was traveling, the setting was dreamy, and it was worth it! As they say in French: “il faut souffrir pour être belle [No pain, no gain!]”

As I usually do, I want to end this post with some “thank yous”. First, thanks to my photographer. This time, I was lucky to be photographed by my dad, on a beautiful winter morning, in a quaint street of Torroella de Montgrí in Spain. Yet another great thing about posting on this blog: it creates memories with the people I love. Thank you, Fabric Mart, for keeping me on board for one more year! And thanks to you, for reading! See you in my next post!

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Unfortunately Fabric Mart Fabrics sell out quickly!
You can find similar fabrics by shopping the following category, ITY KNITS.