Minions and marigolds.

Sooooo I finished another minion today! 

Not much to say really apart from it has one eye and it's pretty darn adorable! This one had been ordered by my mum for the grandchildrens room at her house.

In other news two of my marigolds have come into flower! Which is very exciting! Although my sweet peas still haven't flowered! I am also now in possession of a gardening fork which I'm very excited about, in fact I might make myself a gardening belt and Kneeling Matt at some point in the future! 

If you follow me on Instagram you'll have also have seen this useless bit of knowledge! I can tack a hexy in just over 1 minute although I'd say it's probably under a minute considering I had to pick up the hexy and I cut the thread at the end.

Anyway that's all really , but of a go slow at the moment because of little knitwots bout of poorly ness last week! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

Soft play, kurt cobain, vomit and embroidery.... Yep that pretty much sums up my week!

This week hasn't exactly been chaos, well at least compared to some of the weeks I've had (Christmas with the flu immediately springs to mind).

For started I've finished off an embroidery for a custom order with a lovely story, although I think that the story deserves its own post when the cushion is finished.

It's not my usual type of embroidery I mean there's not an owl in sight, but I do like it! It's based on pattern covers from the 1950s and 1960s. 

I'm particularly pleased with my French knot gold buckles on the shoes.

And the French knot buttons on the coat which didn't photography well so you'll just have to take my word for it that they are excellent! 

It's a very sweet face, embroidered face are a weakness of mine so I'm glad this turned out well. 

I'm other news, I've started to re read love and death the story of who killed kurtCobain as a teenager I was obsessed with rock music and I think I probably read most things written about his death and life. Every time I read anything to do with Kurt Cobain I assume he killed himself and everytime the evidence points to murder, there's really too much to ignore. 

Plus I love a good conspiracy theory! 

This week me and little onitwit attended the nursery trip to a soft play area called "just kidding" in Stoke which was lovely and clean. We were having a lovely time until little knitwit became lethargic and said he wasn't feeling well. A quick temp check showed that he was burning up , so I popped him in the car and drove him home early. When we got home he promptly threw up on his daddy (I know right, at least it wasn't the car eh?) he's feeling a bit better now, but I'm worried in case we've passed it on to other children, although he was fine when we left in the morning. 

Anyway poorly lil knitwit meant that most of yeaterday was spent providing sympathy and cuddles! But I did manage to start a new knitting order as well! 

Anyway I'm off to stop him climbing the walls, he's still a touch warm and has a cough but otherwise he's really perked up and is missing nursery! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

Gone fishing.

I'm When I asked little knitwits what he wanted to do this morning he replied fishing. 

I don't fish

I can't ever remember fishing , (I do however remember my brother chasing me with a box of maggots when he went fishing)

So I decided my best bet was to make him his own little fishing set. 

Here's what I started with:

Bamboo cane (short)

Thread 

Felt

Wool

Stuffing

Scissors

Paper clips

Buttons

First I cut a fish shape

Then I blanket stitched around it, and little knitwits added some stuffing. 

Next I used a paper clip to create a loop so the fish could be hooked, I secured this using an over and over stitch. 

And then quite simply I added some button eyes, little knitwits picked which buttons we used! 

And voila one fish ready to be hooked! 

Now the rod was a bit more complicated:

I used the same technique that is used when you whip the ends of rope to stop them fraying (I learnt how to do this as a Royal Navy cadet) 

First you create a loop, and starting at the bottom wind the wool up making sure you don't leave any gaps. 

Keep winding! 

All the way up to the top then cut the wool leaving about 10inches of wool (your loop should still be visible. 

Thread your tail through the loop and pull the extra piece of string at the bottom, the loop will close leaving you with a tidy finish! That completes your handle! 

For the hooked end do exactly the same but this time cut a much longer tail and a paper clip hook! 

Then attach this to your long tail. 

I used an over under, type weaving stick to make it nice and neat. 

I also added a bead for weight! 

And your finished! 

And the beauty of this project is that there's so many ways to make it, you can sew, use paper, knitted fish. You can use magnets for littler children and turn it into an environmental game for older children by added things that pollute the ocean and getting them to hook them out! 

Either way I hope little knitwits likes it! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

Skyline lilou dress

Okay so I'm finally ready to reveal my eureka moment! (Brace yourself there's some awkward pictures!)

Basically I decided to make a skyline dress after seeing this image in Pinterest! 

I used the lilou dress from love at first stitch because I'm obsessed with it! And cut a size 3 with no alterations! 

Construction wise it was pretty basic, the bodice is fully lined (that black smug is my way of knowing that's the lining, I hope and pray it washes out!)

And I French seamed the pretty hefty skirt! 

Yep there are some serious gathers going on there! 

Fastening wise I opted for my regular zip insertation , it ain't fancy but it does the job. 

And added another handmade loop, mainly because an old lady in tesco  commented on how neat the one on my he-man dress is, and her mother was a dressmaker so she should know! 

All of the fabric came from my stash, I think the cream is a quilting cotton and the skyline is made up from scrap bits of black fabric and lace.

The skyline was actually pretty simple to create , after I cut my skirt pieces I cut a load of outlines of buildings from scrap fabric. Some are simple rectangles, some have triangle roofs, some have domes, I just kind of went with it! I was tempted to recreate the London skyline but I don't have the patience! Then I just appliqués them to my skirt pieces using a wide zig zag stitch.

If I were to make it again , id make taller buildings I think, and I'd make the skirt a bit shorter (it's currently rocking an inch of hem!) and I think I'm going to try and find a petticoat to wear with it! 

But all in all I LOVE IT! It's a quirky fun piece and it used up a lot of stash fabric , including the cream that I probably wouldn't have used other wise! 

Here's the question though! I wonder if Tilly thinks I've made it my own?

Much love 

Frankie

Xxx

the eureka moment...

I don't have many bright ideas, in fact my last bright idea might have been not to overfill the washing machine so I don't break another one.

But last night i did have one of my eureka moments, you know the kind of moment where you almost wish you had an audience to appreciate your moment of genius? I didn't have an audience, instead I had a bowl full of pasta bake and teen mom on record.

so anyway my eureka moment has been cut and is ready to be stitched and I am supper excited about it! I was starting to get into a funk with my sewing and I'm glad to see that I've snapped out of it!

I like having eureka moments, in fact during my first gcse textiles class I had a eureka moment, we were asked to design a small case for carrying around essential sewing equipment like needles, pins, and a bobbin. And I made this.

a nice little drawstring bag, with a doughnut shaped pin cushion. why doughnut shaped you ask? well you see you can slot a little bobbin in the middle of that doughnut so it doesn't get lost! Yeah I know right.... EUREKA!

The funny thing is though because it was a textiles class we had to design it before we could make it, and after I'd designed mine and gone to find some fabric samples I came back to find the girl next to me drawing exactly the same design. EXACTLY! I could have cried! Its so rude to copy some else's work! especially when you don't even know what the little doughnut is for! She swore blind that it was original but the fact that she'd chosen the same colours and written the same annotations seemed a bit fishy to me.

Anyway I went home and told my mum , who told me in no uncertain terms that I better work my hardest to make mine better than the other girls. Which I did, and although we stayed friends for many years I never trusted her again.

Anyway I still use my little baggie and I think about that every time!

but know for some more updated news!

- I've had a lovely surprise from my big sister and her husband which I will be blogging about shortly.
-  Me and Mr knitwits nanny planted some marigolds in my flower patch. (even if she was impressed by my gardening spoon)
- the first tomatoes on my tomato plant are starting to ripen!
- I've been doing some super chunky knitting!

- And I've started a custom embroidery! which I'm really enjoying! Even if the teensy tiny stitches are taking ages!

so there's not much to show but its all go!

much love

Frankie

xxx

10 reasons why lilou from love love at first stitch is my go-to summer dress pattern....

It all started this morning, I sat on my living room floor surrounded by fabric and pattern envelopes feeling meh, I don't want to make such and such because of the high neckline, I didn't want to make that because of the abundance of seams, I didn't want to make that because well it's a sodding horrible looking dress and I'm not sure why I've kept the pattern. 

Then I realised , I want to make another lilou.

I have to make another lilou.

I can't make another lilou, surely that makes me the most boring sewing blogger ever! 

And then I realised lilou is perfect! And here's 10 reasons why! 

1: it's lined , so as long as I French seam the skirt it looks as lovely as most of the rtw items in my wardrobe. 

2: I can whip one up pretty quickly now, with minimal stress.

3: it doesn't matter which type of skirt I make it always looks cute! 

4: it's summer and it's a perfect length for bare (gasp) legs!

5: it's cold but it still looks cute with thick tights and a cosy cardigan! 

6: I've perfected the bodice and now the fit is excellent! YAY! 

7: I love the neckline! It's not nun height but it doesn't scream here are my boobs either! 

8: depending on which fabric I use it can be a day frock or a party frock! 

9: its perfect for the nursery run! 

10: it's just a fantastic summer dress! And a beautiful pattern! STOP JUDGING ME! 

So it's going to be dreadfully boring and make yet another one! I can't help it! I don't care if I end up with a wardrobe full of lilou a at least I'll be happy! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

P.s in other news, I found my original zipper foot today! Result! 

Twiddlemuffs!

There are 850,000 people with dementia in the UK, with numbers set to rise to over 1 million by 2025. This will soar to 2 million by 2051.

And every three minutes someone in the UK is affected by dementia. 

And it takes about thirty minutes to knit and decorate a twiddlemuff. 

A twiddlemuff a a tube of knitting that's decorated with beads and buttons, it provides a source of comfort to people living with dementia as it gives their hands something to do. 

I think it's a brilliant cause, so I picked up my knitting needles and started! 

I used chunky wool and cast on about 30-40 stitches and then knitted until it looked right, the pattern online asks for it to be double thickness but it was just too thick so I went for a single layer. 

I used loads of scraps of wool, and had great fun incorporating fluffy and textured wools! 

All of the buttons and beads were also from my stash! 

I put things on the inside and on the outside to twiddle with! Some of these have fluffy Pom poms on the inside. 

I even made sure I knitted a manly one! The bow on it is only attached in the middle so it can be tied and untied, to keep hands occupied! 

It's been nice knitting to help people! Now I just need someone to get back to me as to where I need to drop them off! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

Because there's only so many times you can watch the September issue without being classed as a stalker.

I love the September issue, it's a documentary about creating the September issue of vogue with interviews by Anna wintour and other huge names in fashion. 

I can't tell you how many times I've watched it, so when my beloved Netflix suggested "advanced style" I thought I'd give it a whirl. 

And this documentary is amazing! Like seriously it's the bomb! 

Without giving away the entire documentary, it's by Ari Seth Cohen and is about the beautiful older women of New York who still dress beautifully and have fun with fashion! 

It started off as a blog which can be found here:

http://advancedstyle.blogspot.co.uk/?m=1

And then became a book which I'm putting on my Christmas list

And then became a documentary film! I loved the vibrant personalities of all the women but this lady was my absolute favourite.

She was the very epitome of class and sophistication. 

And there's this one part where she says how she takes really good care of her Chanel bags so she can give them to her granddaughter. I was SOBBING! And if she'd like to adopt me I'm completely open to that! 

All in all it was a fantastic film and I'd reccomend it to anyone with an interest in fashion! 

It also reminded me of this poem : 

Much love

Frankie 

Xxx