YardGirl Creations

Hey y’all!

Have you ever made a plan and things just don’t turn out the way you expected? This is what happened this year with my plans to make a special outfit for the Pennsylvania Flower Show.

I wanted to make a really cool outfit using the Seamwork Mina Dress and Shelly Leggings patterns. I had planned to use this really cute butterfly print, knit fabric from Fabric Mart. Coincidentally, Fabric Mart is also located in Pennsylvania.

With all the drama around my job (I’m a government worker), time got away from me and I had to wear something else. The box of fabric sat in my house for weeks. I’m just now opening it!

Watch me as I surprise myself with some of the fabrics in the box. I still plan to make my flower show outfit. As for the other fabrics, your guess is as good as mine.

One of the great advantages of getting inexpensive fabric is that you always have something available to experiment with. You can use it for a muslin or to practice new sewing techniques.

Some of the fabrics I got in the box were not ideal. But they will save me from making mistakes with my better fabric.

One of my goals for 2025 will be to focus on using better quality fabrics. This is especially important as my sewing skills improve. I’d like to work with more natural fibers from now on. However, they are not always cost effective. Having a cheap synthetic close in weight to my goal fabric would be helpful when making my first draft. We have to find ways to work with what we have and to use the most sustainable practices we can.

The fabric that I’m getting from Fabric Mart is dead stock. This means it was already leftover from another designer or manufacturer.

Ideally, we would like the fashion industry to be more conservative in their manufacturing and to discourage overproduction. That’s a conversation we can explore at a later date.

I’d like to plan or participate in a local fabric swap. If you are in the Baltimore area and know of one or any interested sewists, hit me up.

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