Floral Print Shirt - Prima Pattern

Excuse me whilst I use the opportunity of lock down to morph from a fun loving human into the bitch from hell. 

I'm joking obviously I'm not the bitch from hell quite yet but I have been in a fairly vile mood recently. Well a vile mood, a sad mood, a laughing hysterically and then crying on the floor mood.......... basically all the moods.

Its starting to get to me now this constant separation from the people I love. I miss having a brew with my mum and dad, I miss charity shops, I miss the girls from work and my knitting and maccies dates with my girl Aly. I miss her fella Paul coming over for a brew just because hes got five minutes, I miss packing lil dude off to my mum and dads so he can have a sleepover with his cousins, I miss dragging John on a trip to the big b and m so I can fill a shopping trolley with useless but pretty crap. I'm missing a lot of things. 

So in an effort to make myself less miserable I've been trying to do more things I love. 

I've been reading, A LOT.

Over the past two weeks Ive read, gone with the wind, dolly parton my life in lyrics, goodnight mister tom and I'm halfway through Peter Pan. which by the way is a lot bloody darker than the Disney cartoon would have you believe. 

I've been playing video games with my nieces and nephew and my big brother. 

I've been doing copious amounts of skincare, done some artwork and even found a few slithers of time for sewing. 

This however is an old project. A very old project. Its my basic prima shirt pattern that I always use when I make shirts and the fabric is a cotton lawn that I was given by the lovely ladies at sewalicious in exchange for writing them a blog post.

Instantly I knew I wanted this fabric to be a shirt becuase I loved the subtle 70's vibes it was giving me. Growing up my brother had a friend called Olly and he always wore 70's floral print shirts [well at least thats all i can remember him wearing!] and I thought he was the absolute height of cool! He was also in a band which added to his cool factor, so I guess this shirt is a homage to Olly, one of those rare teenagers who is kind enough to be nice to his friends little sister.

Construction wise it went together quite simply, as always I jacked up the cuff slit binding but I i wear it sleeves rolled up it doesn't bother me too much.

Actually the main reason it doesn't bother me is because I very rarely wear this shirt. Don't get me wrong, the pattern, fit and fabric are all spot on but it has one fatal flaw. 

IT NEEDS BLOODY IRONING!

yeah this is one of those shirts that comes out of the dryer all twisted round itself and folded in like an accordion. Creases everywhere and I really do hate ironing. 

Recently I purchased something called crease release [apparently you pop the article of clothing on a coat hanger, spray it with this magic stuff and VOILA no more creases] 

So hopefully whatever black magic is in the crease release will give me more opportunity to wear it. 

The buttons were from stash, literally cannot remember the last time I actually brought buttons for a project.

Here's it with the sleeves buttoned up properly and it untucked. I definitely think it looks nicer tucked in with the sleeves rolled up don't you?

Anyway so yeah that's that. Not a lot else I can say really apart from try and have a good week, stay safe and remember if you scream into a pillow the neighbours won't think your being murdered. 

Much love 

Frankie 

 

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

Galaxy Print Leggings

So hows things? I've been hit with a combination of loss of sewjo and home learning. So my days tend to be filled with trying to remember how to do maths that I didn't really pay attention to in school and English that I never understood in the first place. 

Luckily we seem to have hit a good routine with the whole school thing, we have a box and I've been racking my brains for fun things to do when the school work is done. 

Anyway on to something not lock down related! These are some leggings that I made ages ago when I actually had the motivation to sew. 

The AMAZING galaxy print fabric is from a shop in liverpool that I can't remember the name of. I think I brought 2 and a half metres and I got these and a dress out of it. 

I did my best with the pattern cutting to make sure that the pattern was in the same place on both legs.

My Dad takes the best pictures of me. 

I made them for rock climbing and the first time I wore them I was actually complimented on them but a lady. 

In fact full story we were in the bouldering room and two women came in who were very intimidating rock climbing wise. Me and Marcus tend to be of the "have fun" variety of rock climbers and these ladies were clearly very serious, and one of them kept LOOKING AT ME!!!! So me and Marcus retreated to another room. [I tend to prefer it when we have a room to ourselves because I don't have to make sure Marcus isn't wandering around under where someone is hanging off a wall.] Anyway one of them came back over to us and was LOOKING again [which gave me serious anxiety] and then she said she liked my leggings and I decided maybe she wasn't that scary after all. 

Construction wise aside from the hems I did everything on my overlocker which made them really quick to stitch up. and because the leggings are only 1 piece per leg it wasn't very many seams either.

The pattern is the free pegs pattern by patterns for pirates. I find they fit really nicely and as I said before there quick to sew so thats a winner as well. 

In other news!

- So yeah no motivation to sew, but I have done some cross stitch.

- I've still been knitting away but I seemed to have eased off on crochet a bit.

- I've been doing some nail art on myself and now I'm itching to paint someone else's nails. 

- AND I've been learning to play the ukulele, It all actually started with little dude. He had a cheap ukulele and was playing it constantly so I decided to order one for me as well. Well that one turned up and instantly it was clear that it was much better than the cheap one little dude was playing so I let me snaffle that one and ordered another for myself. I've actually really surprised myself with it. I enjoy practising and at the minute with everything that's going on its one of the things that actually relaxes me.  

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxxx

African Wax Print Dress

Hey hows things?

I've managed to sneak a quick half hours blogging mainly down to some kind people letting us have access to their disney+ account (you guys know who you are and i bloody love you)

Which is a very welcome break, yesterday little man needed to be constantly occupied and was feeling very frustrated with whats going on. Technically its the Easter holidays which would typically mean lots of fun days out and seeing his cousins. But at the minute its just a lot of playing in the garden and trying to find things to keep him happy.

But onto the dress. I'm going to apologise in advance for the fact my feet are in these pictures. As i have previously mentioned my Dad took my most recent set of pictures and opted to tell me I should have worn shoes AFTER we had done every single outfit. And to be honest he didn't look like he had the strength to re shoot all the outfits again.

The fabric is a BEAUTIFUL african wax print cotton that my pen friend Jeanette sent me after me and my ex split up in an effort to cheer me up. Its a beautiful thick cotton that presses nicely and drapes beautifully. 

I actually think its one of the most beautiful cottons I've ever seen.

Being a wax print cotton meant that cutting out was a logistical nightmare, but this girl loves a challenge. I chose simplicity K1418 as the pattern because its a princess seamed bodice and I feel like that gives me a bit more control of where the pattern ends up on my bust. For example I knew I wanted the fan detail front and centre and that I wanted the keep the pattern central on the front of the skirt as well.

The skirt is just gathered which I find works nicely for border prints because you don't have to worry about curves extra. 

Length wise I left it a bit longer than normal because I've been going without tights in the summer. Which is a pretty big deal for me as a I hate my legs. I did worry it might be a bit too long but I wear it constantly so I think it might be just right!!!!

In fact I've worn it that much that I've had to do repair jobs on both of the straps!!! 

The bodice is lined with a plain yellow cotton so the inside is nice and clean and the zip is one of my better attempts. 

I even did my best to mirror the pattern on the back as well. 

As a quick thing, I don't tend to go for traditional pattern matching where the print is seamless through a seam because well who has the time? [apart from well everyone right now......] 

Instead I tend to go for the more laid back, lets how the pattern is mirrored or a least lines up sort of vibe.

In other news......

- well lock down is still happening so that's a thing......

- lil dude is still doing a combination of school work and fun stuff, today he wrote part of his story for school, wrote a song and identified some gemstones I had ordered online.

- I've been re reading the Harry Potter series and I'm currently on the Order of the Phoenix. Something about reading a book I enjoyed so much as a child is making me feel very relaxed during these different times. I had forgotten how wonderful it can be to fall back into the world of Harry Potter. Its like a warm hug or greeting an old friend. 

- I picked some flowers from our garden and have them on the window sill and they are making me smile every time I see them. Fresh flowers are one of my weaknesses.

- Sewing wise I haven't got much done. But lil dude goes to his dads for the second half of the Easter holidays next week so I'm envisioning a lot of free time on my hands and I'm hoping that sewing will save my sanity. And hopefully stop me pining for little dude too much.

- I have been knitting quite a bit though, mainly the mindless kind that I can just pick up and put down without too much bother.

This last photo is one of my dads best, He had asked me if this dress had pockets and I said no and this was the face I pulled which obviously he had to immortalise! FYI I do wish I had put pockets in!!!!!!

Much Love

Stay safe guys!!!

Frankie 

xxxxxx

My New Winter Coat

Well bloody hell, that escalated quickly didn't it? If your anything like me then you went from theirs a virus called corona [not to be mistaken for the beer, although oddly that does seem to be the only thing in stock in the super markets at the minute] to well bogger me they've closed the schools.

So yeah, corona virus........ Well me and lil dude are at home, aside from the days he spends with his dad [and that was a googling nightmare let me tell you, but turns out children from separated homes are okay to stay at both parents homes. My boyfriend is still going to work because his company provides stuff for the railways. 

But more on that later [I'm assuming that most of you have come for some sewing goodness] so heres my winter coat. 

Let me put it on the record now that I don't normally sew my own winter coat, usually i just buy one. But this year I HATED every single coat in the shops. When did puffa coats become a thing again? 

Anyway i had a dig through my sewing patterns and i had this vintage duffel coat pattern that i picked up on ebay a while ago. 

Its simplicity 7235 now as you can see the duffel coat patterns features both a mens and women's duffel coat on the cover art however I was assured that the copy I was buying was the women's pattern. 

The ebay seller lied!!!!!

However being the lazy cow i am I opted not to complain and just made a mens duffel coat in a 40ich chest. *hangs head in shame* I know it was one hell of a gamble BUT!!!!! 

1. I like my coats big! I'm sorry but if I can't fit a hoody underneath it then I'm not interested.

2. I figured I could size down if necessary

3. I'm a 36inch bust [on a perky day] so I guessed it wouldn't be too huge!

As it turns out the sheer size of it is one of my favourite things. Especially when i'm walking home from work. 

This is a bit depressing but I walk through a busy town to get to my car and somehow having my female form shielded by a large coat makes me feel a bit better. [For those worrying I haven't had any trouble yet and I always keep my car keys intertwined with my fingers so if I do have to punch someone in the face it will really hurt. *a little trick my sister taught me*] 

Its lined with my mums old taffeta curtains.... Yeah I know thank god she buys quality curtains that I savage when shes finished with them. I love the burgundy and the slipperiness of the fabric means the coat slides on nice and easy. 

The outer fabric is a fur backed wool from abakhan so that gives an extra layer of cosy as well. 

As far as wool goes it was very well behaved, it presses nicely and it didn't fray too badly either. 

The huge hood is one of my favourite parts of the coat. I did toy with the idea of lining it with the wool but I was worried it would be far to thick to ram under my sewing machine.

The huge patch pockets are another part of the coat I really love. Mainly because I can fit EVERYTHING in them. keys, phone, purse, hand sanitise gel.............

The toggles were an amazon purchase ready made and they were a f*****g nightmare. They are by far the messiest part of the coat despite me masking taping them in place to minimise making holes in them. I did really try and take my time with them but they were just a pain in the butt and nearly made me cry. 

The coat looks pretty rough now to be honest, which isn't surprising considering its become my go to winter coat and its clocked a lot of miles already. In fact my one quibble is that the wool has started to bobble quite a lot. 

My dad took these photos for me [pre lockdown] and he had great fun telling me how daft I looked doing all of the poses. 

In other news:

- We can't go out? Yeah sucks doesn't it. I have no idea how this happened but its quite frankly bizarre. I'd like to say I'm coping well but to be quite honest I'm terrified. I worried Marcus is going to pick it up because hes travelling between two houses and that increases his exposure to people. And I'm feeling low because I miss seeing my mum and dad and my friends. I never appreciated how nice it is to have people round for a brew. 

- Funnily enough having little dude at home all the time has been lovely, we've listened to harry potter audio books, I made us magic wands, we've been doing painting and sewing and had lots of giggles. The schoolwork is getting done but I'm not putting a huge focus on it because things are so strange at the moment and I don't want to overwhelm him. 

- we did the joe wicks P.E I nearly passed out, enough said. 

- Surprisingly I haven't got a lot of sewing done, mainly because I'm slowly sorting out my sewing space. 

- However I have been doing more crochet so far I've added a turtle and a cat to our soft animal collection. 

So yeah weird times guys. 

I'm going to add a list of things at the bottom which might be useful for people who are isolating and really feeling it. 

much love

Frankie 

1. listen to an audio book. easier than reading and you get a 30 day free trial with audible.

2. clear out a room, tidy the living daylights out of it [we did the garage]

3. wear comfy clothes when you need to and get dressed up on the days you fancy it. 

4. Bubble baths, enough said really take the opportunity to have a long relaxing soak.

5. try and set times of the day to go social media free. I find not constantly reading updates are helping.

6. watch your favourite movie series in one go. You in isolation watch every harry potter in order. and pretend your a kid again [bonus points for making a wand and saying the spells with them........ not that I do that.........]

7. do some yoga, it makes me feel very zen. or its your braver than I am do some joe wicks! 

8. write letters to loved ones. When did letter writing go out of fashion? I'm on a one woman mission to bring it back!!!!

9. facetime, What a glorious invention, its saving me every single day! 

10. Cook, made soup from all the leftover stuff in the fridge and pretend your Jamie Oliver.

Stay safe and wash your hands 

Wendy Ward Kinder Cardigan in Stuart Hillard Fabric

 Sometimes you make something and you wear it over and over and over again.

But not this time!  I've worn this cardigan approximately 3 times since I made it. [and I made it a WHILE ago]  

In theory I like it. The pattern is simple.

Its the Kinder cardigan from Wendy Wards "sewing with knitted fabrics" which is a sewing book I would HIGHLY recommend. 

And the fit is surprisingly good to say I made zero alterations. Plus its a super quick sew and I love my black version.

I also love the fabric which is a stretch jersey by the craft cotton company and designed by Stuart Hillard.  Its gorgeous to sew with and It's actually the same fabric that I made my peak tshirt dress from. Also a pattern from Wendys book. 

To be honest I'm not sure why it hasn't entered regular rotation into my wardrobe. Maybe I'm just not that much of a cardigan person anymore? In fact thinking about it the main occasions I can remember wearing it it over the top of some pjs in the hopes it makes me look all cool and bohemian....... If cool and bohemian people ate family sized bars of chocolate whilst binge watching doctor who in their jammies. 

I like it in the pictures though. I actually think maybe I needed to see it in pictures to make me want to wear it more! 

This pictures my favourite though. I don't know if you can tell but the glass is my go to glass at my mums house because its shaped like a skull and well that's how I roll. Don't mind me, just over here drinking the blood of those who have wronged me.

Thinking about it..............I might need a bigger cup!

So yeah.

Heres something I made that I don't actually wear that often, and apparently for no good reason! 

In other news!!!

- I finished a crochet blanket and I'm currently knitting another blanket now. MUST HAVE ALL THE BLANKETS! 

- I've been doing some serious sorting and huge shout out the Momma and poppa Knitwit for helping me out! 

- Lil dude is doing well at school and is getting cheekier by the day! 

- I've still been making and selling unique baby clothes on facebook, and have plans to expand my range as soon as I've got time! [if you could give it a like and a share that would be AMAZING!]

- and the new man???? Well hes still lovely! last night he actually taped a sewing pattern together for me whilst I was on the phone and he MIGHT have done a better job than I ever do! 

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxxxx

Constellation Dress

As promised i'm back trying to blog again. 

This dress is years old, and by years old I actually mean YEARS old!!! 

The fabric was brought at the #sewnorthwest workshop that me and my sister attended ages ago. It was a bit of a treat yo'self moment due to the fact my sister and her husband had decided to treat me to my ticket. [I actually had the money in my purse to pay for her for it and she was like "nah me and Keith have decided to treat you"] So when Fabric magpie set up her pop up shop and I saw this my sister was all like "well you've got the money from your ticket....." and well 1.5m ended up coming home with me. 

Naturally 1.5m doesn't exactly go far. So I opted for the French Navy Now Orla dress pattern which is free to download. 

Oddly whenever I make this dress the fit is slightly different, probably because I spend a lot of time hacking it! For this one I opted for a zip back and kept things really simple. I think this is when I was starting to experiment with slightly less fitted clothes and a more relaxed silhouettes. 

Making this dress perfect for those nights when your trying to eat as much pizza as possible! 

The bodice is lined, but its done BADLY! Just proving that even people who have been sewing for years sometimes say screw it and do a terrible job!!!!!!! However its functional and no one sees it when I take it off so hey ho!

I'm glad I went with a simple pattern so I could really let the print of the fabric do the talking. 

In other news!!!!! 

- Lil dude is learning piano and well by some weird extension I've been giving it a go. I'm pretty sure I'm doing horribly but my ability to read music helps and I think I might book in a appointment to have a quick lesson with my brother in law! Surely I'll sound better on an actual piano rather than a keyboard? right........?

- I've been knitting away. Its yet another diagonal garter stitch blanket but this time I'm using a beautiful colour change yarn from the shop. I'm loving how its turning out but I forgot how much I hate knitting on small needles [chunky all the way!] so its slow progress but I'm getting bits done by keeping it with me as often as I can, turns out waiting in the car at school pick up is the perfect time to do a few rows! 

-I've also been crocheting. Well I say I've been crocheting what I've actually been doing is crocheting a few rounds and then accidentally leaving it in reach of our cat Bandit and then hes been undoing all my hard work! 

And that's it really , plenty of relaxing and cuddling and doing little bits of crafting here and there!

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx