If you can't fight, wear a big hat...

I'm not sure where that saying came from, I remember my dad saying it a LOT! when I was growing up. 

So anyhow I was recently given a bag of jewellery bits and pieces and in the bags were some hair combs. 

One thing led to another and.... 

I started to make a fascinator 

I basically used folded bits of netting that I then sewed to a comb. 

I layered them up and then added some pearly beads! 

It's a pretty big fascinator to be honest, in fact I'm wondering if it's a bit too ostentatious! However for my first foray in pretty darn pleased with it. And as an added bonus there's a second comb so I can have another go if I want! 

In other news , I felt like poop today, take out food is not agreeing with me at the moment. I think it's because it's so greasy and I tend to eat a lot of fresh food.

I also retraced the lilou bodice because I've misplaced mine and gave the sewing room a good old tidy! And I mean good old tidy! There was too bin bags of rubbish. 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

Bow tie blouse!

Does anyone remember this blouse from the great British sewing bee book, fashion with fabric? 

Well I've had it cut out for months ! And I mean months , it was one of those projects I cut out and then instantly couldn't be bothered with! 

Anyway after giving myself a good talking to I finished it off, including hand sewing the hems and facings. 

No I see why I avoided it in the first place! Boy was I peeved! I mean look at those shoulders I look like an extra from a period drama! 

I have no idea if it was the fabric, or my sewing, or if I traced the pattern wrong, but I was not a happy bunny! 

In fact I was so unhappy I hacked the bloody sleeves off! 

And voila! Much better and no work lost! 

I love the tie neck and the loose fit.

And I love that I managed to salvage all that work! Including my 7 buttonholes that went in no bother!!! 

Got to say I'm pretty pleased with myself to say I nearly threw it in the bin twice! 

Anyway I'm off to work on a refashion! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

The very special dress...

Do you think clothes hold memories? 

I don't mean your wedding dress, or those expensive shoes you worked hard for . I mean bog standard clothes, the ones you didn't really think about until something changed. 

This dress is about 6 years old. It's from primark and it's pretty basic but I loved it. It was marked twelve pounds but it scanned as ten! This dress saw shifts at the pub and nights out with the girls. It sat through college classes and walked through the park. It was a pretty standard part of of my wardrobe for a long time. I liked it but it wasn't wow! That was until it all changed and "that" moment happened. 

I was sat on the sofa enjoying a final five minutes before a shift at the pub when lil knitwits kicked for the first time. 

And that's it, that's this dresses story. Lil knitwits first kick! The "oh bloody hell, they were right, there is a baby in there" moment. 

And that's why even now it's old and scraggy I can't get rid. Instead I've given it a new lease of life. 

I cut most of the lace of and now I have a new slip! I've kept a little bit of lace to remind me (not that I'm likely to forget! )

So do you think clothes have memories? 

Much love

Frankie 

Is there any gift greater, than the gift of fabric?

I've been gifted some more fabric folks! A lady who I used to belly dance with was de stashing and was kind enough to think of me!!! 

There's some upholstery weight pieces. 

Some nice silky stuff that I already have plans for ! 

Lots of floral strips about 10cm wide which will be perfect for quilting projects! 

But the best part was this! 

She sent me threads! I LOVE THREADS! What a lovely lady! It's so nice when people pass on things they don't need or won't use to others! I recently gave my sister a square of velvet so she could make herself a new coin purse! 

Seems like karma might be making its rounds! 

Much love 

Frankie

Xxx

Mr knitwits birthday cake!

It's inly a brief one today! It's me knitwits birthday and although he's at work, poor sausage! 

We did celebrate yesterday though, we did presents and had a takeaway and went out and had friends over! It was a really lovely pre birthday! 

But today is for cake! 

It's a design from Disney sweets and treats and I think it's the best cake I've made from the magazines! 

And Mr knitwits loves it too! It combines his favourite thing "gaming" and lil knitwits favourite thing "toy story"! 

I just hope it tastes nice! I made two cakes one where I had to cut off the burnt bits and another where I was one egg short and had to improvise! 

Eek! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

Mum modelling her Mimi blouse!

I've already given all of the essential details of this blouse in a previous post. So just enjoy looking at the pretty pictures! 

She's redecorating and she had far too much fun taking these! 

These are the trousers she'll be wearing it with at goodwood.

All in all I think she was pleased! 

In fact she's asked me to make another! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

Quentin Tarantino skirt!

I've seen quite a few Tarantino films now, and whilst I like some I'm not a massive fan! 

And to make matters worse, my least favourite of his films is what I've based this skirt on! 

So hear it comes, I'm sorry Tarantino fans of the world but I don't like kill bill, I dunno why but it just doesn't appeal to me. 

Anyway the reason this project came about was because of the fabric, I had an off cut of a tartan poly cotton from Minerva crafts! In fact it was this one:

https://www.minervacrafts.com/shop/fabric/dress-fabrics/17d-1005-black-red-grey-tartan-check-print-polycotton-clearance-dress-fabric

So without further ado here's what I made! (Excuse my creepy eyes! Apparently I have a problem with flash!) 

It's a tartan skirt , with a contrast waistband. I used my clemence skirt pieces but instead of gathering I did some kind of double folded box pleat ! Descriptive I know! But honestly I have no idea how I achieved it! 

As you can see the pleats make the skirt very very full! 

I used a zip from my stash, and the contrast band also came from stash fabric!

There's a small issue with fit, it's a little big. I'm currently contemplating correcting it, but if I do will I be uncomfortable if I eat too much cake.?

The lengths pretty good though! 

Now for the verdict, i think I like it, I can't decide whether I look like the lady of some stately mansion somewhere or if I look like a student who should be sat on her teachers desk asking if there's ANYTHING at all she can do for a bit of extra credit. (Take that where you will!) 

Anyway here's the character I based it on, her name is gogo! 

She kills people with a mace. And let's face it if your gonna kill people a mace is definitely the way to go! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

Children are messy, it's a fact of life - baby bib tutorial

I'm not sure how many bibs I had for little knitwit, but I remember using pretty much every single one. And I remember thinking quite a lot about the design aspect. 

Pull over the head bibs? Complete pain if your child decided to cover his entire face with food, you usually end up getting it in their hair as well! 

Velcro? Great for getting off in a hurry! Not so great if baby decides to give it one swift tug! 

Plastic tray ones? Stiff an uncomfortable for baby! 

Ones with sleeves? Never seem to wash quite right!

Anyway I seemed to find a wealth of baby bib knowledge when it came to knocking up my own quick pattern! 

I'll cover how to make your own bib pattern in another post! This one is based on construction! 

First cut your pieces, I used a soft pink flannel for the back. 

And a thicker quilting cotton for the front! 

(Mine was probably a lil but too thick!)

Next pin your front and back pieces right sides together, and stitch around the edge leaving a three inch gap at the bottom to turn it out. I sewed pretty close to the edge for this probably about 0.5cm away! 

Next turn its right ways out , tuck under where the gap is and pin, and them topstitch around. I did one straight stitch and one zigzag, I personally prefer the look of the zig zag! 

Next add a buttonhole or press stud, I chose the use a button hole and my foot had a bit of a tantrum! 

Give it a quick press and voila! 

Baby bib made! 

I made two in about half an hour. And I got to use a stash fabric that I didn't particularly like ! So win win! 

I do think the zig zag better, and it gives more of a made with love feel! 

Top tips! 

- shorten your stitch length , it makes it far easier to go round tight corners! 

- if it's not turning out neatly try clipping your corners that should help! 

- draw on your seam allowance, a rough guide will help you visualise the finished size of your bib! 

- use undesirable fabrics! Babies look cute in anything remember! 

As you can see these are very simple bibs , but I will be posting a few tutorials on how to pimp them up so to speak very shortly! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

Look I got a taggy!

Lil knitwit is obsessed with the tags on the inside of clothes. Apparently it's a kid thing, liking tags intact they even make tag blankets now! 

So , so did I! 

Remember my lil quilting project from s week or two ago? 

Well I added some lengths on ribbon and a furry backing and voila a taggy blanket. 

Everything was from my stash , including the furry backing, which in turn seemed to be attached to its own wadding! 

Which made it very very thick to sew! Not sure how my machine coped! 

All in all in pleased how it turned out, I'm guessing is washable, and it's bumpy on the front which I guess means it's sensory? And the backs furry , and well who doesn't love furry stuff! And there's all kinds of ribbon, in pretty patterns and textures! 

I'm pretty sure this lil blanket is going to blow the tiny babies , tiny mind! 

BOOM! Texture! 

In other news I'm still tired from the wedding, but I seem to be getting back into my sewing groove. Although I am feeling really uninspired by my stash fabrics at the moment, it's either an awesome print on s price the size of a hankie, or a tablecloths worth of hideousness! 

Think this might mean I need to go fabric shopping! 

Frankie

Xxx

 

I can't party like this anyway, I'm not 18....... No your 22

I've lost my staying power, I am exhausted! We went to a good friends wedding last night and we stayed up late! Even little knitwit went past his bedtime! But today? Boy am I pooped! My feet hurt! Turns out my old reliable , comfy as slippers stilettos have turned on me! My head hurts! When did music get so loud? 

But either way I had a brilliant time! I wore my corset dress that I made

And teamed it with a massive pair of earrings! 

Pat butcher would be proud! 

So today I've decided to sack of all of the really intensive housework and knit instead! 

I've started a simple diagonal stitch blanket in a chunky wool! 

To only problem I'm having is that I'm running out of room for stitches on my needles so I might have to do something creative with a thick boarder! 

This photo doesn't really do the colours justice, it's actually more of a fushica pink with a khaki green, it's girly without screaming Barrie doll! 

In other exciting news, I've been featured on the Minerva crafts blog! 

https://www.minervacrafts.com/blog/question-and-answer/qa-with-frankie-of-knitwitsowls-sewing-blog

It's a QandA talking about seeing and crafting and I had a blast doing it! And I'm so glad they decided to feature me! 

Much love

Frankie

Xx

Seeing squares!

I've been seeing lots of squares into rows of three recently. 

Started like this, a pile of mixed up squares. 

Then I started seeing and the pile got bigger

And bigger

And bigger! 

But then came the dreaded task of ironing them all! 

In other news I recently finished this book this week and I. And quite safely say it's amazing! 

And I would definitely recommend it! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx