Vintage Style Planes Shirt for Dad - McCalls M7206

Every now and again I make things for other people. 

Yes I really am that kind. You do have to meet a special criteria though. 

1. You have to provide the fabric [and I get to keep the leftovers]

2. I have to REALLY love you!

My dad wanted a vintage style shirt for the goodwod revival. He's seen someone wearing one at goodwood and looked online for something similar and found that they retail for about 50$ and would have to be shipped over from america! 

Naturally that seemed a bit excessive for a cotton shirt so he went to abakhans and picked up a sewing pattern and this cool vintage planes fabric and asked me to whip him one up.

The pattern was McCalls m7206 which is a mens bowling style shirt. 

 The front of the shirt is panelled which wasn't going to work with the fabric because you'd end up with most of the planes cut in half. So I hacked at the pattern with my scissors and taped the three panels together to make one shirt front. Luckily mens shirts don't have to have room for boobs so it went together pretty easily with minimal swearing. 

In fact the swearing only started when it came to cutting out. My Dad had been very specific that he wanted as many whole plans on the shirt as possible. Which meant I cut everything out in one layer and did a lot of moving things around trying to get as many planes as possible. There is a whole plane on each shirt sleeve, lots on the back and a few on the front. I even cut the collar in such a way that no matter if its up or down the planes are facing the right way!

 [top tip - if your going to cut things in a single layer to make sure you make the most of your print be sure to flip your pattern pieces so you don't end up with two left sleeves etc.]

I'm particularly pleased with the view from the back and the large plane that is basically central. 

Construction wise I wish I'd ditched off the instructions because they were AWFUL! Either its the pattern or its me but anyway I ended up having to do some creative thinking to keep everything neat and tidy. For example the back collar neckline is bias bound which does actually leave a nice finish. 

Also its really hard to see but I love that some of the writing is on the edge of the collar [each of the planes has its name underneath] 

Dad even chose the buttons himself and I'm pleased to report that every single buttonhole went in perfectly first time! 

So all in all I think it turned out pretty banging and my dad was dead pleased! I love his goofy grin in the last photo! And I think he may be on the hunt for more vintage inspired prints so I can make him a few more!!! 

Unluckily there wasn't enough fabric left over for me to make anything substantial for myself! [all that dammed fussy cutting!!!!]

So instead I'm going to use the scraps to make me and mum some hair accessories. 

In other news!!!! 

I've sewn up a few bits for myself and been working on baby quilts!

I've been climbing again!!! And I'm happy to report that my climbing shoes were incredibly comfortable!!! 

And my brother snapped this photo of me which I LOVE. Okay so I'm not far off the floor [this is the bouldering room so you don't go up that high] But 

1. I made my chalk bag it has penguins on it

 2. LOOK HOW STRONG I LOOK!!!! 

Anyway I absolutely loved climbing again and had big plans to go again this week but I was far too sore!!!! So hopefully I'm going to go next week! 

Much Love Frankie 

xxx

Woven Wrap Dress - Possibly the most out there thing I've ever made!!!!!!!

I often describe my fashion sense as out there , but even I did a lil twitch when  I put this dress on and said to myself "Is this a bit much??????"

I mean that is a fabric and a half. I got it from the abakhans fill a bag sale. 

I found it in the bottom of the box held it up and said to my mum "is this hideous or fabulous" and she said she had no idea so I put it in my bag and took it home. 

The background is stripes and the foreground is HUGE flowers in all different colours!!!!!

Its a bit of a go big or go home sort of print. So I opted to make a maxi dress. I was hoping for the sort of thing that I could wear swanning down a beach in the Maldives, not that I'll be swanning off to the Maldives any time soon! 

The pattern started out life as the bodice for a prima dress. I them hacked it half to death to make it into a wrap bodice and added a long skirt with a curved front hem. 

The bodice is fully lined which is good because wrap dresses can sometimes flap open around the ol boob area. 

The waist tie is from a piece of stash fabric. I decided I needed a solid colour for the tie just to make sure that you could see clearly that it was a wrap dress. Plus I think its helpful to have something break up that crazy riot of colour!!!! 

Fit wise , its okay. It did fit better but I've lost some weight recently so its not as good anymore.

Also I did gathers instead of darts because I thought it might give me the blousey look I was going for but now I'm wondering what it might look like darted instead. 

I love the length but I wish the curved front hem was a bit more obvious and it showed more leg when I'm stood still. at the minute this looks fabulous walking but you can't even see my legs if I stand still. 

I do love that I can wear it with my brown wedges though!!!!! 

To be honest whilst the idea of unpicking it all makes me want to cry, I do think its the best thing to do because there's a lot of things I'd like to tweak on it. 

I suppose that's the only downside of hacking a pattern , very often its not quite perfect and you have to keep going until you get it right!!!! 

Construction wise all of the inside seams were done on my over locker and I just used my regular sewing machine for the hems and for top stitching around the neckline.

All in all I really like the dress. Its one of those items that just makes me happy wearing it. I mean how could I not be happy when I'm wearing that many colours!!!!!! 

There's a bit more work to do to it and even if I do get it close to perfect I'm not sure I'll ever have anywhere suitable to wear it...... But HEY HO! I love it so I know I'll end up wearing it at some point. Even if its just for a trip to home and bargains in the summer! 

In other news!!!!! 

I've been busy with work and looking after lil man!

I've been out in the garden and I'm hoping to have it looking respectable soon. At least if this awful weather ever lets up. 

My sketch book arrived!! And I started doing some work in it only to find the paper is more suited to pencils rather than mixed media. Long story short I have a new one on order and yet again I can't wait to get started!!!!

I have been sewing but I seen to be slowing down a bit with my makes recently and only working on things I know I'll love and wear to death!!!

Much Love

Frankie