Saftey Pin Sweatshirt

I've had a fairly crappy day. In fact I'd say today was the grand finale of several crappy days all strung together.

I'll start with the sewing first because that's what your all here for but if you want to find out why I was sat in my kitchen crying at 1.30pm today then be sure to read on afterwards. 

But sewing first eh? 

I made this jumper from this sweatshirting fabric from sewalicious. I recieved the fabric free as a thank you for writing sewalcious a blog post on sewing the trends!

Its a gorgeous fabric, its soft and snuggly and I thought the safety pins fit nicely with my love for sewing. I must use hundreds of these every time I baste a quilt. 

Like with my unicorn sweatshirt I used an old prima pattern that I had. I actually sized this pattern up for making big cosy jumpers so this size is the 16. 

I decided to size up to make sure their wasn't too must strain on the jumpers stretchiness and make it bag out of shape. I used to have some great band hoodies but the constant strain across my boobs meant that they became quite misshapen in that area. 

I sewed the majority up on my over locker and only did the top stitching on my regular machine. 

I also used little binding clips from holding the seams together instead of pins. I've had a few close calls with nearly sewing over pins on my over locker [Knits just hide pins so bloody well!] and whilst I can fix my sewing machine myself I wouldn't know where to start with my over locker. 

Anyway because these clips are bigger and brighter your less likely to accidentally sew over them. 

Its also easier to clip the seams together rather than pin on thicker seams like the neck band and the cuffs. 

Print wise I didn't think it was directional but now I look at it most of my safety pins are the wrong way up. Although saying that is their a right way up to a safety pin? 

I love big snuggly jumpers like this and wear them all the time. This one saw quite a few mornings on the school run and it fits under my coat nicely. I'm hoping it will do just as well when we start camping again in the summer. 

Its basically like wearing a secret pair of pjs! 

For some reason the bottom cuff is really sticky out? I'm wondering if it needs a good iron? Or maybe I just cut it a bit big because it wasn't an actual pattern piece.

All in all I really love it. I think its a cute jumper and its really nice to wear something handmade with my collection of jeans! Although I have seen a lot of fashion bloggers wearing jumpers like this tucked in to gathered skirts and they look pretty cool so I might give that whirl one day! 

So onto my day.

Basically at the start of the month out washing machine decided to break, so we ordered a new one to delivered the next week [closest date they had].

 Then they cancelled delivery because of the snow [actually all the snow had gone the day they were meant to deliver but hey ho] and rescheduled for a week after that. 

Then on that delivery date the freezer we had ordered came but no washer!!!! By this point we'd had no washer for 2 weeks and lil man had decided to get sick. 

So I got on the phone and it turned out it was out of stock and they organised to deliver a week later. 

Which was today.

Now the washer arrived but even though I had carefully measured the gap and compared it to previous washers we'd had the man couldn't push it all the way back. First he blamed the lino, then he blamed the pipes [which is odd because Rikki and his best mate struggled to get a washer in their last year and they managed] then he knocked something and water started leaking onto the floor. Then he tried washing up liquid to get it in and took the cupboard door off. 

And long story short somehow they bamboozled me and ended up leaving it as it was even though I'd said either they put it in properly or they took it back. I know it sounds wussy but this is the first time I've had a delivery like this and having men in the house when I'm by myself made me feel really uncomfortable. [The previous two deliveries had been scheduled for when Rikki was home but we needed to washer ASAP after three weeks without]

Anyway the long and short is I ended up with a cupboard door off its hinges, a washer that sticks out three inches and water and washing up liquid all over the floor [They had used washing up liquid to try and slide it in.]

I hadn't noticed the washing up liquid/water mess that they'd left and slipped on it.

And that folks is how I ended up sat on the floor crying....... Its getting sorted now but it was a fairly emotional day to say the least!!! 

And I'm never ordering white goods again!!!

Much Love Frankie