Madhouse Fabrics Science & Math Preorder

By now you all know that I can't pass up a good science themed fabric, right? Well, Madhouse Fabrics & More has a whole round of math & science prints at preorder. There are so many awesome designs that it's hard to pick a favorite.

All prints are offered on cotton lycra and cotton woven.

This is the Grey X-Rays. As someone who has to get routine x-rays to check my joints for progression of Rheumatoid Arthritis, I love the idea of wearing this to my next X-ray appointment.

There are real x-ray images of a head, chest, hands, arm, knee, shoulder, foot, and more!

I made the Elle Puls Bethouia with this print and paired it with a charcoal athletic brushed poly from Zenith & Quasar Fabrics.

The X-ray images seem to glow on the fabric.

I love how unique this print is.

I also got Blue Atoms in cotton lycra. The weight and feel of this cotton lycra is great and works perfectly for apparel and bags.

I made the Itch to Stitch Chai Shirt. I love that I can make this shirt with just a little over a yard of 60" wide cotton woven. If I made the waistband and collar with another fabric - it easily fits onto 1 yard.

The design of the Blue Atoms is quite striking due to the background.

I think it makes a lovely shirt for me to wear to work.

I also received Rainbow Atoms on cotton lycra.

This print is a bit more fun and definitely colorful.

I decided to make the Itch to Stitch Irena with it. I paired it with the Caribbean athletic brushed poly from Zenith & Quasar Fabric.

I will be wearing this to work a whole lot once the weather cools down here.

Boss Lady Fabrics Floral Brushed Poly

I am now a brand rep for Boss Lady Fabrics. I'll have a post every Saturday of something new that I've made with their fabrics. 

If you've never heard of Boss Lady Fabrics before - here's a little rundown. It's run by Boss Lady Nicole Hardisty. She hunts down great deals on fabric and brings them to the masses. You can get just about anything from her, and at a great price. Be sure to join the Facebook Group to be the first to know about sales and new arrivals. Make your purchases from her online shop at http://www.sewlikeaboss.com/

Here's my first item. This pink floral brushed poly was the first fabric from my box of goodies from Nicole that I decided to sew up. 

I told Nicole that I'm not a huge fan or florals. I think she took that as a personal challenge and only sent me florals. But I'll admit - I did like what she sent.

About a week before I received this fabric, I had gone through my box of HTV scraps and cut out a bunch of designs. My plan was to weed them all while I was on vacation. But when I was this fabric, I went looking through all the designs I cut to see what color I had used for this design from Thread & Grain. It just so happened that I had used a light blue that matched the blue flowers in this print perfectly!

 I used a solid cream cotton lycra from Made Whimsy for the body of my shirt. The baby blue HTV is hard to read in the photos, but it shows a sewing machine with the words "I make pretty things". You can buy the cut file here or buy it as an iron on transfer from Thread & Grain.

The pattern for my shirt is the Hamburg Dolman from Shwin Designs. It's become a new favorite of mine. I already have about 5 in my closet.

Check out Boss Lady Fabrics and take advantage of Nicole's great deals. You won't be disappointed.  

Elephant House Fabrics Magical Glitter

Elephant House Fabrics is a new custom knit group. Their first round is Magical Glitter. The prints are inspired by a famous wizarding world and have a faux glitter element in them.

I received the "Winged Keys" to sew. This is such a fun print!

I had the perfect yarn dyed stripes in my fabric stash that are white and metallic silver. If you like this combination, they are offering a white and silver (digitally printer) glitter stripe.

One I had my coordinate fabric picked out, I knew immediately that I wanted to make the Shwin Designs Hamburg Dolman.

The winged keys are so cool and the shape of the key and the wings varies slightly from key to key.

The keys are a silver glitter - except for a few that are more of an antique gold glitter.

These designs are printed on a 220 gsm 95% cotton/5% spandex base that is silky smooth. The preorder closes on September 4th! Don't miss out!

Little Roots Fabrics Round 6

There's so much to love about Little Roots Fabrics.

They print in the US on domestically produced cotton lycra with organic inks.
For every order placed a tree is planted in Colorado!
They run amazing prints!

It's hard to believe - but they are on their 6th preorder round!

Round 6 is all things fall. It's all done in a beautiful fall color palette. I received some of the Teal Dots in both sizes Mega and Mini. As soon as I got them, I noticed they went perfectly with the People of the World print from a previous round.

I just knew I had to make something with them together. Then Wild & Wanderful  happen to release this very timely cutting file. With everything going on in the world - I had to use it and the message goes so well with the People of the World print.

I love how my shirt came out!

The Mega dots are amazing! I just love the color.

 Here's a closer view of the HTV design. It can be a little hard to read on this print, but I love it.

Another view of Mega dots. I think I should wear mega dots all the time - they are so slimming.

When I was scouring my shelves to see what all matched the teal dots, I found this Anna Maria Horner knit in my stash. When I saw this knit, I loved it and ... well I ended up with 5 yards and I had yet to use any.

The teal mini dots were a perfect match not only in color - but size! I had not used my AMH knit yet because - nothing would match it! At least not to my liking.

But I seriously love this combination.

This is the Duck Butt Designs Carol's Favorite Tee. It's one of my favorites too.

This print has to be my favorite though - Golden Harvest. And it's paired with the Fall Harvest dots!

These colors are gorgeous! But something about the pears, flowers, and birds - just really appeals to me. It's such a great fall print, but one that I could see wearing in the spring too.

My top is the Sew Liberated Stasia dress made really short to make it like a peplum style top.

The preorder closes on September 1st! These prints are amazing and you will find so many uses for the dots! Place your order at https://little-roots-fabrics.myshopify.com/collections/pre-orders

Zenith & Quasar Winter Round

Zenith & Quasar has amazing athletic brushed poly. They also always have amazing prints. The winter round is no different.

This print may look familiar. This is Forest Floor. Last year another version was offered called Branches & Berries. I LOVE this version.

This is my favorite kind of winter print - it can be worn from now until spring.  My top is a modified Agnes from Halla Patterns. I mainly did the bodice color blocking and added tall cuffs to the sleeves.

Everyone knows I'm a certified Crazy Cat lady, so I had to have this Cool Cats print and panel when I saw the strike off. When I saw the digital image, I'll admit, I wasn't sold. But seriously - LOOK HOW CUTE!

Look at this panel up close - Are those cats not adorable? I just love the cat wearing a bowtie with the headphones,

This is the Elle Puls Bethouia  - which I LOVE. I love a raglan shirt - but sometimes think they look so plain from the back. Not the Bethouia - I just love how the sleeves extend and connect at the back of the neck.

Since this was a "Cat" print - I had to make my kitty a shirt too. Doesn't Garfield look cute?

Don't let these picture fool you - Garfield is a small cat at 9 pounds. He looks enormous in these photos. I think it's all his fluffy hair.

This preorder closes on August 31st. Garfield says to make sure you order or you'll be sad. Order at https://www.zenithandquasar.com/

Itch to Stitch Chai Shirt and Dress

I love testing for Kennis Wong at Itch to Stitch. Her patterns are great and always flattering on me. What I love the most about testing for Kennis, is that I always learn something new. While testing the Chai Shirt & Dress, I broadened my sewing skills learning to make a collar with a stand. I've done mandarin style collars before, and I tested the Zamora and it had a collar that tied. The Mila shirt has been on my - "to-make" list for awhile and I was slightly intimidated by the collar. Now, I'll be ready to tackle it next.

According to the website - The Chai Shirt and Dress is a classic fit-and-flare style that flatters everyone.

I will have to agree. The pattern is on sale for a limited time.

The Chai shirt has a vintage flair. It inspired me to use this retro swiss dot fabric I've had on my shelf for nearly 10 years. It's a summery woven with a print of red flowers in vertical rows.

I have to say, I was quite pleased with myself at how great my collar looked. If you look close, you can see that I used red buttons shaped as flowers.

The pattern comes with cup sizes ensuring you can get the perfect fit. This sleeveless version will be getting a lot of wear this summer.

For my second Chai Shirt, I decided to use a purple pima cotton.  I bought this fabric about a year ago from Golden D'or during one of their clearance sales for 99 cents a yard. It was such a lovely color and so silky soft, that I bought the whole bolt.

I love the sleeves on the Chai. It has gathers to give just a little fullness and plenty of room for movement.

The waistband is such a nice detail. On this version I took 0.5" out of the band's height. I'm 5' tall and I felt that the slightly thinner band would work better with my proportions.

The shirt looks great with slacks and will get worn to work regularly.

Even though this fabric was more difficult to sew with, I'm pretty happy with the finished shirt. I ran into a few problems with the collar on this one, but I don't think it's too noticeable. I think if I had used a heavier interfacing or maybe added interfacing to the upper collar, then it probably would have gone together smoother.

I used purple flower shaped buttons on this shirt. When I bought the red ones, I noticed that the purple version matched this top.

Be sure to check out the photos from the other testers on the Itch to Stitch blog. The dress version is really pretty. Kennis didn't mention it until, after the testing was done, that the dress could be made maxi length. I love maxi dresses and will have to try a Chai maxi dress.