You’ve Gotta be Kitten Me: A Review of a Crafty Girl’s Favorite Fabrics

HAH, did you see what I did there? Well this blog post is going to be all about fabric and dresses. I usually begin my hunt for printed dress fabrics by looking on Instagram under the tags: #dinosaurdress, #memade, #birdfabric and etc. While I scroll through the images that match tag terms, I find my inspiration for fabric and dress making. Here is the process I took for my current kitten fabric obsession.

Step One - Inspiration:

I was cruising on Instagram for different dress ideas when I stumbled upon this beautiful Lindy Bop kitten dress. Specific Instagram: girlinadress__ Mary-Elizabeth kills it with her vintage and pin-up themed fashion.

Step Two - Reviews:

After considering this purchase along with frantically looking online for plus size reviews of this dress. I found two blogs in which I used for reviews of Lindy Bop dress fit. The first was June Bugs and Georgie Peaches and the second was Porcelina's World. Both blogs gave me better understanding of how Lindy Bop’s dresses fit and feel. I enjoyed both blogs very much for my vintage inspiration!   

Step Three - The Hunt:

I started my hunt for kitten fabric on Fabric.com. I used the search box and typed in the phrase “kitten fabric”. I used the categories on the left hand side of the webpage to limit the search results to only Quilting Fabric. Then I scrolled down the page to find the Kaufman Whiskers & Tails Kitty Fabric. I decided to purchase 3 yards of the adorable fabric.  

Also, a new favorite website of mine is Miss Matatabi. I found this Japanese fabric website through some careful Internet searches. The Cotton +Steel fabrics on Miss Matatabi are AMAZING and I loved admiring each one on this website. This weekend, I purchased these Cotton + Steel two fabrics: Boo Charms Berry and Penny Arcade-Balloons Navy. Both fabrics I’ve been watching on fabric.com for months waiting for the price to go down. When I saw both on Miss Matatabi’s I bought them immediately.

Step Four - Cutting Shit Out:

I plan on making a vintage inspired dress with pockets. This means cutting fabric out. If you know me, you know I hate cutting anything. Especially paper and fabric. I have created a self-drafted skirt pattern that I use very often because I like the style and the length of the skirt. I usually use either two manufactured bodice patterns, Simplicity 1873 in style C, or Butterick B5748 in style B. These are my go to bodice patterns. I have copied all of my favorite pattern pieces onto Christmas wrapping paper so that I may preserve their use.

Thanks for reading xoxo