10 Books I'd Recommend Reading

Okay so I know its a bit of a jump from my usual posts but we're all friends here right!? And if I saw you every day I'd be talking your ears off about what books I've been reading lately!

Plus a few of you said you'd like some recommendations and lets be honest with winter coming there is nothing better than snuggling up with a good book and a glass of wine!

1. The Handmaidens Tale - Margaret Attwood

Okay so when the telly series came out I couldn't stop talking about this book, and believe me when I say, IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE! Its also a huge wake up call for how things can happen in the government without regular people knowing! 

2. The Girl On the Train - Paula Hawkins

If your like a bit of drama and mystery and a killer twist then this book is for you! And not only does it get the Frankie seal of approval but my Mum and Sister loved it too!

3. The Pink Suit - Nicole Mary Kelby

I've mentioned this book before but it documents the making of a "pink suit" for the "first lady" of the united states, and she happens to be wearing the suit when her "husband dies" [coughs,, Jackie O] Its a lovely story very easy to read with some great descriptions of how they made the suit!

4. The Casual Vacancy - J.K.Rowling

Its a huge step away from Jk Rowlings usual subject matter of witches and Wizards but boy is it good! It focuses on the election for a local council seat and how it affects the people standing for it and those around them! She writes the characters so brilliantly that I was hooked from beginning to end! Its also very funny!

5. The Other Boleyn Girl - Phillippa Gregory

Set during the reign of Henry the 8th the books tells the story of Anne Boleyn's sister "the other Boleyn girl" Its a great book if your a bit of a history nerd like me! But a word of advice? Don't watch the film its naff!

6. The Dressmaker - Rosalie Ham

This is another book about sewing! It's a dark comedy about a girl coming home as a successful seamstress and taking revenge on a whole town! The film of this isn't actually too awful once you get past the age difference between Kate Winslet and Liam Hemsworth.

7. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold 

This book is pretty dark and kind of heart breaking, but its beautifully written to say it deals with such a sad subject matter. It tells the story of a young girl who's just been murdered and now watches her family and how they try and cope with the aftermath WARNING: You may need tissues!

8. Chocolat - Joanne Harris

Its a book about chocolate what more can I say? Its a great story about a lady coming to town and winning them over with chocolate! BUT it will make you hungry definitely keep a bar or two of chocolate next to you reading this! 

p.s DEFINITELY watch the film!!!! Johnny Depp plays a lovable rogue and he is just all kinds of sexy!!!!!!! 

9. The Devil Wears Prada - Lauren Weisberger

If you love fashion then this is a great book for giving you some insight into how the industry works! Its also funny and heartwarming! [The book is far better than the film!] To be honest I think its the book that made me realise I wouldn't be able to cut it in the fashion industry!

10. Atonement - Ian McEwan

This is by far one of my favourite books ever and makes me cry like a baby every dammed time! [So embarrassing when your on a long haul flight to America!!!] The book is all about how people actions have consequences and how not everything is always what it seems! The film has James McAvoy in it and I think he's a bit yummy so I;m biased but its a pretty decent film, Its got nowt on the book but James McAvoy is shirtless at one point so ya know every cloud! 

In other news:

Life's a bit crap at the moment, hence the slightly random post. One of our friends sadly passed away this week and its come as quite the shock and I think we are all still dealing with it. I don't really want to put too much because I'll just start crying again but he was a long time friend and a lovely bloke. 

Its made me really sad and I just sort of want to sit and be for a bit before I try and get back to "normal" not that I can see their ever being a proper "normal"again. 

Much Love 

Frankie 

Grainline Lakeside Pjs

This post is pretty picture heavy, sorry guys but on the rare occasions that I take pictures of myself that I don't hate I can't bear to throw them away! 

There are few things in life I like more than pjs. Give me a pair of pjs, a good book and a cuddly duvet and I'm the happiest pumpkin in the world! And I think this might be my favourite Pj pattern. This is the Grainline Lakeside Pj set and was given to me as an early wedding present last year by my lovely friend Jeanette.

This is my third version, so I think we can quite safely assume that I like it! My previous versions can be found here and here  .

Now strictly speaking I don't need any more pyjamas and by not need any more I mean I have two drawers full. BUT! This fabric came in a bundle Minerva crafts sent me to review for their blog and its not really my style for day wear [something Rikki said about looking like one of screech's shirts from saved by the bell cemented this!] And here at knitwits owls we operate a strict "no fabric left behind" policy so it was destined for pjs! Because well nobody really sees what you wear in bed do they? Well Rikki sees it but he once saw me in a backless hospital gown so ya know............................

Now I made a size 12 because that's the size that was already cut but I checked and I still measure at an 8. Which I think would be far too small and tight so bare that in mind if your making your own version!

As before I stayed pretty true to the pattern including the split back which I still love! And I used all that dammed bias binding again! This time I recycled a pillowcase to make bias binding and I think it worked nicely! The colour changes are because the pillowcase had flowers on! 

Construction wise they went together a lot easier than the first two times [practise makes perfect eh?] But I still stumbled on binding the side seam of the shorts. The instructions make as much sense to me as sugar free cake. Every time I feel like I'm just working an a wing and a prayer. But it was all alright in the end!

The pattern placement was a pain in the backside though. The fabric is a cotton printed with flowers and hearts by Rose and Hubble. BUT the flowers and the hearts are printed in both directions. In the end I just cut it out and decided to sack off any concept of pattern matching or placement. It didn't turn out too badly considering my wing and a prayer attitude. 

So yeah I huge success and I'm always glad to have a new pair of pjs to lounge about it!  

In other news! 

- I still have a cold... It sucks and I'm being a complete baby about it!

- I've been reading loads! Honestly I can't get enough of books at the minute! Luckily our local charity shop does four for £1 so its not an expensive habit! Although the man behind the till has told me I'm in danger of "becoming rather well read!"  [I might do a post on what I've read recently if anyone's interested?]

- I'm still chugging on with my jumper project! Luckily its being done in a chunky wool so its making fast progress! Which is lucky! With the weather getting so chilly all I want to do is wear it!

Much Love

Frankie 

x

Thoughts on Shopping

I went shopping.

Yep, me that girl who's sews her clothes, she went shopping!

Now back in the day I was quite the fan of shopping and I was pretty good at it, however after so many years of saving money for weddings and babies and then making a lot of my own clothes my thoughts on shopping have changed a lot!

For starters let me say I had a great time, I had a voucher for my birthday so I didn't have to stump up the cash and I went by myself which was BLISS! There is nothing quite like having an afternoon to please yourself without having a small child or husband whinging about how long your taking! 

And I enjoyed this a lot more than my last shopping trip trying to find swimwear! 

So here's a list of the good and bad points of shopping compared to sewing!

THE GOOD!

- There's no wait time, you think of something you want and its in your hand instantly. You don't have to find fabric, find a pattern and cut it out!

- You can try to see if its looks good. There is nothing worse than spending hours sewing something only to find you look like a big bog of poop in it! With shopping you pop to the changing room and decide without parting with any time or money!

- I can buy shoes! I LOVE SHOES! The bottom of my wardrobe is filled with shoes! In fact on my shopping trip I brought two pairs of shoes a pair of black flats and a pair of Minnie mouse trainers , now I could learn to make shoes but the amount of walking I do means they would all be wrecked and I think that would break my heart a lil bit!

- I can buy other things I have no interest in making like basic tshirts, slips and pants!

- Band tshirts! I can't make band tshirts so its nice to pick one up every now and again! 

THE BAD!

- Why so many crop tops? I must have found about 10 tops that I LOVED but they were basically bras! I mean cmon! Would it be so hard to create tops in two lengths? one for people who want to flash their tummy's and one for people who don't?

- One sleeve , the same goes for the one sleeve trend! I dunno if its just me but I love my arms equally and want them to both be the same amount of warmness, I mean what do you do if your exposed arm gets cold? Do they sell half a cardi? I need answers people!!!!

- Changing rooms! I MEAN CHANGING ROOMS! EURGH! Its the worst thing about shopping. Having to remove your clothes in a small room with a questionable floor and worse lighting whilst a thin curtain separates you from a group of teenagers who would have no issue with ridiculing you should the bloody thing start to flap and reveal you in your shopping pants, standing on one leg, trying to cram yourself into a pair of jeans that your not sure are sized accurately...... Changing rooms eurgh! I would love a clean changing room, with multiple mirrors, lots a hooks to hang things, a chair to sit smalls on and a door! A REAL DOOR! none of this half sized door crap just a full sized lets not flash the public door! 

which brings me nicely to my second point!

- People in changing rooms. I'm not sure whats worse having to hear people use the word fat to describe themselves "I look so fat in this I'm huge!!!!" or hearing people slag off other people in the changing rooms "OMG did you see her in that! She looked awful!" I mean cmon! Really? Women shaming other women? Not cool and shaming yourself even worse! I mean your not fat! You have fat, fat is not who you are! 

That said I really did have a great time and I got some awesome stuff!!!! Plus I got some great ideas for things to make! 

So I can't wait to get sewing next week!

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx

The Goodwood Dress

 I am knackered. The few days leading up to my birthday and the few days after just seem to have been choker block. We've had visits from friends, we've visited family, we had a wedding, we had my birthday, first days back at school and lots of other exciting things. This all teamed with Rikki having some time off work hasn't left a lot of time for blogging. That said it has been lovely having him off and having someone to chat too all day. Anyway we are just about recovering from our very busy week and I'm pretty sure I'm getting a cold! 

But your not here to hear about my cold now are you? Nope you guys want the dresses!

Please excuse these photos they were taken on my mums iphone! 

Okay so 2 years ago I said I;d make my mum a vintage style dress as a mothers day present....... And well I only just got around to it!

Basically it ended up being a bigger job than I thought it would be because :

1- my mum is not a typical size or shape, For example her bust is much larger than her waist by some amount. This meant that find a pattern was a bit of pain in the bum.

2- My mum is a VERY exacting client. She knew what she liked and what she didn't like. And being my Mum she believes that I have super powers and that nothing was beyond my sewing knowledge.

Here's a list of what my mum wanted in the dress-

-It should be a vintage style suitable to wear for the goodwood revival

- That vintage style should be from the 1950's with inspiration drawing from the post war new look style.

-It should have sleeves

-It should incorporate lace

-It should have a full skirt

- It should have the type of neckline that would best display her bust

- It should fit well

-It should be comfortable for wearing all day

- It should have things to keep her bra straps in place.

Now being that I have never made a fitted dress for anyone other than me I knew the pattern stages were going to be key. [I really wish I had documented the process a bit better with pictures or video]

We started with a paper pattern by Prima. I only used the bodice pattern pieces because we had already decided that a circle skirt would be the most flattering. Using this paper pattern I made our first adjustments directly to the pattern:

- Lowered the neckline

- Drafted a sleeve

Next I made up a toile of the bodice from this I :

-changed the waist darts in the front and back bodice to gathers [this was more flattering for her shape]

- lowered neckline again [her insistence not mine]

- Created a fold down detail in the back of the bodice. 

Next I transferred these changes to the paper pattern and we made a toile of the full dress including a full circle skirt and adding a waistband. [Luckily my mum had decided to use her old curtains to make the dress in true make do and mend fashion. So I was able to use the lining for the toile and know exactly how much material I would need.] I was so glad I made the toile because it allowed me to iron out the last few kinks meaning I could just sit and stitch up the dress without fitting etc. The changes were:

-shorten sleeves by a good 5 inches

-take the back of the dress in by two inches

-take 3 inches off the length of the skirt

After that was done my mum dropped the main material off and know that I only had one evening to make the full dress I sat and sewed my socked off! 

I started cutting out at 5.00pm and finished sewing at about 12.30pm at night. 

So the DETAILS! 

The bodice is fully lined in the same fabric as the main body of the dress, this was essential because of the fold over detail at the back of the bodice. The entire bodice lining was stitched by hand apart from at the neckline. Including around the sleeve heads, I am so chuffed with the finish of this dress its absolutely immaculate. 

The dress closes with an invisible zip, and above the zip is a small hook and eye that just jives some added security to the top of the dress. 

Speaking of security the weight of the circle skirt is supported by the waist stay. I made the waist stay using a piece of gross grain ribbon and a large hook and eye. Its attached to the waistband of the skirt through the lining layer and the main layer [you can't see the stitches because I did them really neatly and the lace hides it really well!] The function of this waist stay was to make sure the weight of the dress didn't pull on my Mums shoulders, she suffers from fibromyalgia and having something pulling on her neck would make her very uncomfortable, the waist stay mean the weight sits on her waist and is more comfortable.

All of the lace was cut and applied by hand [apart from the one of the waistband with was stitched into the seams] I nearly screamed cutting the lace, its the type of thing that could quite easily drive you to madness! In fact the more savvy of you will notice that the lace on the front neckline isn't the same. Apparently when you sew late at night your mind stops working at 100%.

As it goes I don't actually mind the mismatched lace I think it adds an extra layer of interest to the dress! 

The skirt was hemmed via machine using bias tape. I would have loved to have hand stitched it , but as I said I was on a tight deadline so It just wasn't possible especially after hand sewing all the lace.

The inside even has some small ribbon and press stud bra strap holders so nothing peeps out and spoils the dress!

All in all I'm really proud of it and the absolute highlight was taking it round to show my mums neighbour Beryl who used to be a seamstress. 

Beryl holds a very special place in my heart because she gave me my first bags of fabric and well started all of this really, without Beryl there would be no knitwits owls. She said some really lovely things about the dress and it was so nice to show all of the little details to someone who I knew would appreciate them. 

Ohh I'm actually starting to get a bit tearful thinking about it to be honest! In my lil sewing knowledge world Beryl is the top rung of the ladder and to hear her say how well I'd done is a personal highlight, it meant a lot more to me than I think she realised!

Anyway that's enough soppyness for one day! 

Much Love

Frankie 

xx