Tilly and the buttons checked Indigo Dress

Taking pictures is difficult at the minute!! Normally I use my mums living room , or go outside but LOL LOCKDOWN! So can’t visit mum and well honey its cold outside!

So instead I spent half a day lugging my tripod round the house desperately trying to find somewhere suitable to take a picture.

And as I live with a small child this was not easy, most backgrounds seemed to be filled with rubbish or toys or pants.............

Anyway this is my Tilly and the buttons indigo dress. Typically I don’t buy the individual Tilly and the buttons patterns because I’m a cheapskate. But a few months ago my phone pinged and I was forced to self isolate. 

And thus started a week where I had no lil man {I elected to send him to his dads so he could continue to go to school] no work and no boyfriend. I was lonely and pretty miserable. 

And on one of the MANY FaceTimes I made to my mum and sister one of them suggested that I treat myself to a new pattern and some fabric and well they didn’t have to suggest it twice!!!! [I also brought a second guitar but that’s another story]

I ordered the indigo dress from Tilly and the buttons because it has zero fastenings and looked like a nice easy make. Then I ordered two fabrics from Minerva.com and a whole heap of fabrics from pound fabrics. 

A word on pound fabrics, So far everything Ive ordered has been of excellent quality, however there is a minimum amount you can order and they do really sting you on the postage. I don’t even think they have a free postage option for if you spend an extortionate amount. 

I cut the dress out during isolation and sewed maybe two seemed then got sucked into watching “outlander” on prime and decided to focus on knitting my socks. 

And since then the pieces have been laying unloved and unfinished, until last week where I decided I needed and easy and uplifting sew, pulled my finger out and finished it off. And I LOVE it.

So it’s basically a bit of a tent but its so comfy and easy to pop on with leggings and tights. Plus it looks really cool with my doc martens boots. , Plus the fabric is part polyester so it doesn’t really need ironing! Which is a complete winner in my eyes. 

I’ve already made a second one and plan on wearing them lots. I’m trying to step away from wearing my pjs all day this lockdown as I don’t think it helps with my mental health.

And yeah that’s it really pattern by TATB and fabric from Minerva. Very easy and took barely any time, I did most of the construction on my overlocker which made things super speedy. 

IN OTHER NEWS!!! 

- homeschooling still sucks but we are managing

- I’m still not sleeping properly, probably because I’m not really doing anything apart from stay at home. 

- Ive been slowly adding rows to the crochet blanket I’m making for john. Currently I’ve reached the point where it doesn’t feel like its getting any bigger. It looks cute though I’m just hoping that I will actually finish it one day and it won’t end up withering under a pile of other things I want to make. 

And well that’s it really, its hard to have an other news when you can’t go out and make news? 

Oh wait actually one thing I have an iPad! John had one that he hardly used so he wiped it for me and I brought a keyboard so I can still blog whilst little dude is using my laptop for home schooling. It’s pretty cool and I think I’m in danger of becoming one of “those” apple people. 

I also brought these for the cats. Having three cats means that they can go through a bowl of biscuits in half an hour and then whinge for more. 

 Also I can’t wait to see all the cats gathered around it and imagine that they’ve just come out of a meeting that could have been an email. 

Much Love 

Frankie 

Xxxx

 

Post Lockdown Work Trousers

 Shes back again?

So looking back at my pictures I found that I was actually a bit more productive than I thought? These are a pair of work trousers I made during the first lockdown. 

I knew at some point I was going to have to go back to work but I also knew that after weeks of wearing pyjamas and sweat pants that my waist would not be able to handle a "traditional waistband".

Instead I found myself, for the first time in my life I hasten to add!!!! Wanting a pair of elasticated trousers........

The pattern was k1620 by simplicity.

I brought my copy off ebay for the princely sum of £2.00, I doubt I'll actually make anything else featured on the pattern envelope. But you never know.

The fabric was a cheap find at work. one of the main perks of working in a fabric shop is being able to check out the sale rail before anyone else. In this instance, this thick black jersey was on sale for two pounds per metre. Naturally I stashed the roll under my table and had two/three [god knows I can't remember] cut with the intention of making trousers. 

all in all they turned out very well, I sewed them up on my over locker and had no great difficulty in putting the elastic channel in. 

I did however forget to leave any indication of whats the front and whats the back. This led me to walk back into work for my first post lock down shift and when asked how I was, respond.....

"Not too bad but I think I might have my trousers on backwards"

Luckily the place I work is relaxed enough that our duty manager for the day took a good look at my bum and promptly responded that I probably did have them on backwards. 

A quick trip to the toilet and the problem was solved and I felt a lot more comfortable 

In other news:

In home schooling an absolute bloody nightmare? 

We are flip flopping between getting everything done in an hour to spending the whole day trying to open the various power points and work sheets that have been sent. 

However yesterday we did go on a bike ride which was nice. Neither me nor little man have been sleeping particularly well and i thought a bike ride might help. It didn't. Instead we both just got covered in mud and came home freezing but at least we had a nice time. 

Plus I spent the entire time living in fear of falling into the canal. Lil man had a new bike for christmas and his tyres and suspension seemed to cope quite well. I however was dealing with the bike that a neighbour kindly gave to me [I did previously have a bike but my ex took it when he collected his things].

Anyway I had mentioned the issue to my neighbour Jane during the NHS clapping after she commented on seeing me try and keep up with lil dude on a too small scooter whilst he rode a bike. 

I am not built for the coordination scooting requires. 

As it goes she had a much loved bike that she had ridden to work for 30 years and had been languishing in her garage for the past ten [this gives you a fairly good idea of its age] 

Its a bit rusty but otherwise it gets the job done and now me and lil dude can go on bike rides again!!!!!!

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx

welcome to the thunderdome and socks

its 2021, its been five/six months since my last blog post, we are currently in our second? major lockdown and here i am writing my blog. 

Who'd have thunk it?

So what have I been doing? and why haven't i been blogging?

WELL LIFE!

First of all there was the lovely thing called divorce , which I'm pretty sure is designed purely to suck the living soul out of a person and cause enough grief that most people think screw it and stay together no matter how miserable they are. 

Next up i had to figure out how to juggle being a working mum and having a small child, huge shout out to my mum and dad for providing childcare and very often hot food when i was too tired to make my own. 

Then i got a very lovely boyfriend, who although wonderful is a complete time suck. Suddenly i was faced with the choice of cuddle or sew and what can i say hes a really good hugger. 

Then I had some medical problems to contend with.

Then the pandemic came and suddenly i was having to cope with having said small child at home all day and trying desperately to remember all of the things i learnt about at school. 

Then i sold my house and moved in with my boyfriend, which is very similar to divorce in its soul sucking nature.

And now more pandemic.

So yeah that's basically been the last two years of my life in a nutshell.

Which hopefully explains my absence from blogging. 

The past two years has been a bit of a trial to be honest. I completely lost my sew jo, my motivation to create and my energy. But in return I found some wonderful friends an excellent boyfriend and i was reminded of just how awesome my family are. 

I've had a few projects on the go but nothing really filled me with joy the way it used to. I made blinds for my dads campervan, I made some stuff for work but everything else just seemed like a bit of a chore. Especially sewing. 

Until today. After a few days of having the inkling that i might like to sew I finally sat down and actually made something and now I'm feeling pretty darn chuffed with myself. 

Naturally its now to dark to take any nice pictures but i do have something else to talk about.

I MADE SOCKS!!! 

These were my first pair, during one of the spells between lockdowns me and my friend Aly met at hobbycraft for some retail therapy. She had just learnt how to knit and wanted to pick up some more wool and she was quick to spot a kit that apparently would make two identical socks. 

She decided despite being a beginner knitter that she wanted to make socks and somehow i got roped in.

I had to learn some new skills for this, including how to do a long tail cast on! and how to knit with DPNs. FYI i am terrible with double pointed needles and ended up swapping them out for a circular sock needle. 

SO MUCH EASIER!!!!!

I knitted them up reasonably quickly and found the instructions quite easy to follow, after they were finished and i had worn them around the house i realised quickly that socks were going to be my new addiction. 

So naturally i went online and ordered some more sock yarn and started another pair.

Oh yes we also got a new kitten , meet Buffy. She was my birthday present. john was insistant that we were having no more cats but his friends have a farm and this little ladies mum didn't seem to be coming back so we took her home and i ended up bottle feeding her. 

These socks are in the rum paradise colour way by the west yorkshire spinners. 

I was slightly nervous about running out of wool so i split the ball in half. 

However, i didn't think it through properly and as you can see the stripes now go in the opposite order on the second sock i knit. 

Its irritating but less noticeable than I thought it would be. I knit up the first sock quickly during a period of self isolation. Little man had a cough so we both ended up getting covid tests. Luckily we were both negative. Although it was a horrible experience, lil dude was not impressed with me ramming a stick up his nose and i was nearly sick in the car.  

Anyway the second sock took ages. And by ages I mean I had finished one section of self isolation and then had to start another one, this time my phone pinged asking me to stay at home. As it turns out my phone pinged because the people in the house next door had tested positive and it made my phone go off. 

Anyway I did finally finish the sock and now i own two pairs of hand knit socks!!!! 

So yeah I guess I haven't been completely unproductive!

Hopefully i wont leave it so long next time!

Stay home, 

Stay safe 

and look after yourselves

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx