VEGAS BABY!

Okay so I had planned on posting this yesterday and then trying to get back to the usual schedule and some more crafty stuff this week , but lo and behold lil man decided to do a nice sick on the carpet yesterday and I got nothing done.

Anyway I thought I'd do a lil blog post outlining some of the things I wore whilst I was there, But to be honest theirs less pictures than I thought there was so you'll have to believe me when I say I wore a lot more handmade stuff.

Okay so this is us when we got dropped off at the airport, yes I am terrified. I hate flying with a passion. I was all about comfort on the way there so I wore jeggings, my Hawaiian print crop top, a white mens shirt and my grey cardigan. I wanted lots of layers and the cardigan was perfect for snuggling up in when the aircon was on and using a pillow when I wanted a kip.

This is us on the 12 hour flight to vegas. FYI at this point i had snuck off to the toilet and removed my bra and was just wearing the crop top with a shirt over the top! I cannot recommend this enough, no uncomfortable underwires or scratchy lace. It definitely made me feel more comfy although I felt really weird removing my bra on a plane!

I also had to wear my hat on the plane so it wouldn't get crushed. I was going to leave it at home but it was so HOT I'm glad I had it so I didn't burn my head!

This is one of my African wax print dresses, I took all of them on holiday and wore two. I was a bit worried the lined bodice might be hot but I actually think the double layer protected me from the sun. Rikki could feel himself burning through his tshirt one day but I didn't have any bother. 

This is a little white number I picked up in newlook!

This is my wrap skirt and my off the shoulder top. I wore this to the most expensive breakfast me and Rikki had and felt like a Parisian movie star. The breakfast was lovely but the waiter thought I was a bit weird because I ordered two croissants and a muffin? [Rikki had an omelette and smash browns] he put my plate down and was like "and a big plate of bread for the lady?" do Americans not eat bread for breakfast? And technically its not bread its pastry and muffins which is basically dessert.

This was my £25 pound swimming costume from newlook which I loved wearing but has already started pilling [sobs] and considering my struggle to find good swimwear [post here] I think a strongly worded email might be in order. 

This is another bargain from newlook, I wore this during the evening to go zip wiring down freemont street. NOT A GOOD OUTFIT CHOICE! I had the whole thing up around the tops of my thighs and was trying to make sure I didn't flash my bum to whole way down! Not helped by the harness I had to wear. In my defence I didn't think I'd be doing the zip wire that night or I'd have worn jeans...... or full pants........ 

This is another african wax print cotton dress, I wore this for a day of seeing the other end of the strip and visiting hooters....which was less fun than I thought it would be? I thought it'd be like a southern bar with country music and stuff and it was a bit dull to be honest. Although the shorts they wear are TINY. Rikki however always the gent told me he didn't think the girls were anything special. What. A . Babe.

This is us at the top of the effiel tower in vegas, it was a pretty dull day that day and we actually had to come down because it was raining but I got some great pictures before we did!

Things I also wore but didn't photograph

Kimono Cardigan

Corset topped dress

African wax print dress Purple

Lace croptop

Hawaiian print tie shoulder dress

gingham Lilou dress

Halter neck simplicity parts

I was pretty pleased with everything I packed, I had a change for the evening and I felt quite stylish all the time!

In other news! I'm planning on getting back into the grind as soon as the child is feeling better, My house is just about recovering form the wedding and post honeymoon chaos. But still needs a big clean which I'm hoping to do later.

I'm also embarking on the fun task of changing over EVERYTHING! boy is that fun! I got so aggravated by the tesco website I just ordered myself a new clubcard in my new name!

I've also started knitting a baby quilt because we know someone else who's having a baby. I mean seriously people you can just netflix and chill you don't have to "netflix and chill"

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

I'm Back! And MARRIED!!!!

OH MY GOSH, can I just take a moment to process that I haven't stopped in about two weeks? I feel like I might need another holiday!

But here they are. The long awaited wedding details! You guys have been so patient whilst I kept hush!

The excited really started a few days before when I received these lovely flowers from my friend Pin and Tonic! These are still alive by the way!

I then spent the night before the wedding with my bestie and bridesmaid kal, we ate pizza, drank wine and put the world to rights. The idea was we were going to get an early night but lo and behold midnight rolled by and there we were still awake!!

I also wore my Grainline Lakeside pjs to get ready in the morning, as the fabric and pattern were a lovely gift from Pin and Tonic!

in the morning we got up at nine ready for Rikkis auntie to come and put my rollers in [shes a hairdresser!] then my mum and dad arrived, and the photographer and my friend Ali who did my makeup and before I knew it my house was full!

I also received this lovely package from Rikki 

Flowers which naturally I instagrammed 

and a lovely cute teddy that had been fully smushed into its protective packaging!

After what felt like an age of my trying not to panic and having people work on me I was ready to go.

The car arrived at 1 (we were getting married at 2) and we had gone for a fully traditional Downton abbey style car, which was beautiful and wonderful until it BROKE DOWN! I'm not even kidding. As it turns out the older the car the more unreliable it is in cold weather. Luckily there was a back up car not far behind, so on our local crossroads we stopped and I got out of my lovely old car into a shiny new car. Which would have been wonderful if 1. the driver hadn't had the heat all the way up and I mean I was sweating and 2. she actually knew where we were going. A long story short guess who ended up directing the driver?

Anyway we made it there in the end and after a quick chat with the registrar I walked down the aisle and was married! But omg was I shaking, my legs were like jelly!

Here we are signing the registrar, FYI that's not the original headdress I planned to wear, Instead I wore one I made at half eleven the night before. At some point I'll photograph the other headdress, which was lovely but wasn't quite right in the end. This one is actually two head things? joined together with floristry wire!

And this was my dress, it was a fit and flare style skirt and bodice with lace all over and some serious sparkle! I loved wearing the dress mainly because the skirt and top style meant I was super comfortable all day long. And I was fully capable of going for a wee by myself!

The veil was a two tier handmade scalloped edge, with crystals and I loved it.  

Here's a close up of the beading on my dress.

And here's my bouquet which I made, I used foam flowers and pieces of broken jewellery and beads and because I'm a sewer I put a few buttons in there for good measure! I actually had this made for about 15 months which is the beauty of foam flowers they don't die! and they also don't make me sneeze!

Our cake was lego themed, as were our favours and the cake was made by Rikkis, cousins, wifes , Aunty...... I hope you followed that! Anyway after making the cousins wedding cake, Rikkis Auntys wedding cake, Nan's birthday cake and this one I officially dub her the family baker! She also made the donut cake which you can see in the background, I desperately wanted to forgo having a cake and just have a stack of donuts for people to grab but sadly donuts go stale too quickly so as a surprise Rikkis Nan and Grandad had us a donut cake made! 

Here's me and Rikki after we cut the cake, and after I had cut myself a slice. Which is why Rikkis giggling because I immediately cut myself a slice of cake and he was like "babe you don't need to cut everyone a slice the venue will do it" And I was like "I want mine now, this is for me, everyone else can wait!"

#hungrygirlproblems

And these were the favours everyone had a little lego figure which was tailored to their personality, and their name on a lego brick, ask me how fun it is writing names on lego bricks? go on I dare you!

I loved doing the lego figures and they seemed to go down really well! everyone also got a lolly pop and the kids had boxes filled with pencils and activity books, which seemed to keep them all nice and quiet during the speeches. And guess who made a speech? yep me that's who! I was pretty hilarious if I do say so myself but nothing could beat the best mans speech who did a this is your wedding style slideshow with pictures and audience participation!

And then It was time for the first dance and time to PARTY! This was one of my absolute favourite parts of the day! I made sure to greet all my guests early on so I could spend the rest of the night having a laugh and dancing away! 

We stayed at a local hotel who were kind enough to leave the bar open for us, although some of our guests weren't so chirpy after a full night on the beers and no sleep!

and then the next day this happened!

Yeah bless him he carried me over the threshold! He also flashed my pants to the whole road lifting me up but we'll ignore that!

Then we had a day on cleaning and washing, a day of packing, a day of changing money over and before we knew it we were ready to fly!

Here's me looking terrified at the airport, guess who hates flying? Guess who discovered that If you take two really strong travel sickness tablets, a full dose of Kalms and wash them down with a large glass of wine then you don't really care who you are or where your going or how your getting there? 

Me! #feelingbuzzed

Anyway I will cover Vegas in a whole other post because I took some outfit pictures and we did too many activities to tag it onto this post!!!

But we did come back to this

A lovely sign and a balloon at the airport! We actually screwed up this plan , they wanted to be waiting for us as we got off the plan but we arrived an hour early so we were waiting outside!

Notice how rough I look? We'd been awake for nearly twenty four hours at this point!

and this was decorating our house!

as well as balloons and confetti!

So right now, I'm trying to get over jet lag, I spent most of last night trying to convince myself that I did actually need to sleep and no it was not time for food. 

Writing thank you cards.

Doing all of our holiday washing...... Did we really take that much stuff?

Changing my name over on various social media and actual government things! 

And trying desperately to get the house back into some form of order

But mainly I want to sleep,

and eat......

anyway! much love!

Frankie 

AKA Mrs Baldwin

 xxx

  

Quick Update

As I write this, its Tuesday and I get married on Friday........ Squeals

Anyway Rikki's out at his club thing but instead of sewing I'm on the sofa chilling out, basking in the glory of my super tidy house and watching a film.

Lifes pretty dammed good to be honest!

These flowers were delivered today from my very lovely pen friend! Aren't they beautiful and aren't sewing people the nicest! I can't wait to display them on my dressing table when I get ready Friday morning.

So I'm not sure when I'll next blog! I know I want to do a video before I go on honeymoon about what I'm packing but that's the only concrete plan I have! 

But If you do want to watch me fumble my words and generally make a fool of myself here's two of my latest videos!

This is a review I did of the Cotton and chalk Sunday set! with fabrics from abakhans!

And this is my contribution to the seamstress tag videos that have been going around you tube!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

Flamingo Print Baby Dungarees

I'll start off by saying I have a cold, yep I'm less than a week from the wedding and currently my face resembles rudolph. Naturally I'm equal parts furious and grouchy but I'm trying to stay positive. After all a sickness bug has been making its way around nursery last week, so things could be worse [Touches all of the wood so things don't get worse]

Anyway your not here to read about how crappy I'm feeling are you? No your here to see the most adorable pair of baby dungarees their is.

These are for my new not quite born yet niece/nephew [the babies going to be a surprise until its pops itself into the world!] Now the problem with the whole not knowing if its a kyle or a kylie is that everything I make for the hamper needs to be unisex.

Flamingos are unisex right? I tried to go with a slightly more boyish look as a base because you can always make things look girly with accessories like tights.

Right so details, the pattern is from the second GBSB book, Its one of the smaller sizes and I fully lined it so there would be no nasty seams scratching brand new baby skin. The sides and the bottom are closed with press studs for easy nappy changes etc. The two shoulder straps are fully attached with the buttons, So they are none functioning but I don't see that as an issue.

The crotch area is finished with a strip of bias binding and the leg holes are just fold over hems.

I love the little fold in detail on the shoulder straps, especially because it shows the spotty lining I brought. 

I used the same spotty fabric to make the super cute pocket!!! 

And the best part is how adorable it looks with some of the other things I have already made!!!!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

Cotton and Chalk, Sunday set In Liberty Cord

I've spoken before about how I'm not much of a Liberty fangirl, Its not that I hate there fabrics Its just that I can't really justify the price.

So when Abakhans Fabrics got in touch and asked me if I'd like some of their Liberty cotton cord I was like "oh, okay then" And picked one off the website.

AND THEN IT ARRIVED!

and the colours! and the softness! OMG! Seriously you know when a pony takes an apple out of your hand and you feel the really velvety nose part? That's what this cotton cord feels like!

Seriously I was sold and It was pre-washed almost immediately!

And then suddenly it happened, I fell a little bit in love with liberty and all it has to offer! And I found that OMG I actually could afford it if I brought it from Abakhans! And then I started my wishlist! if your interest this cotton, this lawn, and this lawn!

Anyway I chose the Stockton in Burgundy which I can't find on the website anymore sobs.....

And chose to make the Cotton and Chalk Sunday set dungaree dress from a recent issue of simply sewing.

And I think It turned out pretty Cute!!!! I didn't have any trouble with the construction of the dress as the cord knows how to behave its little fabric self!

The only trouble I had was with my own stupidity! I mean seriously when will I remember to keep trying stuff on! I had to unpick one strap because it was the wrong way round, shorten the actual straps and ended up just stitching them down because they were too long and I had to rip up the back seam to remove four inches of fabric because either this pattern has too much ease built in or I'm a moron.

The full circle skirt is really pretty and I especially love the fact that it has pockets. I always get so excited for pockets! Its cut on the cross grain but that wasn't an issue for me because this liberty cord isn't a direction print. Although can you imagine getting some chevron action up the sides... Extreme pattern matching! LUSH!

There's me demonstrating the pockets!  The only sad thing about this dress is you can't see the beasty topstitching I did unless your about a foot away from me. But I assure you its there and Its pretty spot on!

Because I had to remove fabric from the back of the dress my zip is central, but my button isn't. There was literally nothing I could do about it other than unpick the entire thing and start again [FYI I have altered my pattern pieces to reflect a smaller size!]

I promise the straps aren't actually twisted like they are in the photo above, it just turns out I can't dress myself! 

Here's a close up of the front of the dress, hopefully you can see the awesome pocket! Which is just big enough for me to keep the car key in when I go to tescos. But I think anything else would drag it out of shape and give gapey boob.

You can also see the buttons I used which came from one of little mans old cardigans. They weren't the ones I originally intended to use in fact I had a few options lined up and asked for help on a sewing community Facebook page. One was a clear favourite but a few people suggested I keep looking and I think it was a good call.

All in all I think its a grand success. To be honest at first I was like "Yay I've made a dress for an over grown child." but I wore it to a birthday party on Saturday and got some lovely comments from the other mums. [By the way how fricking awkward are kids parties? Like "oh hey, we vaguely know each other from school pick up time, Thank you for inviting my child, I'm going to sit in the corner because I don't know you from Adam and I don't trust you enough to leave my child alone with you. Kay?" ]

The only thing I wish is that you could see some of the awesome details better, like the pockets and top stitching.

But I'm determined to make another one in a denim of some form, maybe in something like this! 

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx

P.S. Whilst the fabric for this project was sent to me free of charge all views are my own as is all the love! xxx

How to store Multi Patterns!

Omg its been a week since my last post. I'm basically the boy at the disco who spends the whole night snogging your face off and then ignores you for the next month. 

All I can say is I've been busy! The wedding has gone from being a long time away "we've got loads of time" to being less than 10 days away!!!! I'm feeling pretty calm though, everything is getting done and I just can't wait now! Saying that I'm sure I'll be a mess on the actual day!!!

Anyway! I have managed to get some sewing done this week, and some cutting out and I have big plans to film a vlog tomorrow! But today I thought I'd share how I store multi patterns!

Multi patterns are a wonderful thing, all the promise of a coordinating wardrobe in one tidy pattern pack. Tidy of course until you've cut the tissue pattern and your trying to get them back into the packet! Then Its like a explosion in a tissue factory!

This is the easiest way I've found of keeping everything tidy. Make each "garment" a separate packet by folding a sheet of a4 in half and sellotaping up the sides! I find with most standard sized pattern packets that the a4 packets fit quite nicely!

and then if your super organised you can label whats in each pattern and what size you've cut!

No more spending ages searching through packets trying to find the right pieces for what you want to make!

Its as easy as that!!

In other news!

Lil man is well and truly settled at school and had his first school birthday party on Saturday! We both had a lovely time!

I'm getting a sore throat which is making me grumpy as sin!

I've started packing for Las Vegas! [VEGAS BABY!] and I'm planning on doing a lil video on what I'm taking. 

Hopefully I can get back into the swing of blogging regularly again!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx