Things I made a High School - Part 2

Please don't laugh, or at least don't judge.......

I mean seriously! Right so where to begin?

This was my second project for my GCSE textiles class. It was actually what I made directly after making these [I definitely went downhill]

Anyway the "theme" was geishas, and after about 2 lessons of the teacher trying to convince the other girls that "no geishas are not prostitutes" we finally got around to doing some designing and sewing.

Whilst other girls chose to make bags and tea cosies [yes tea cosies] I opted for this shapeless sack. 

No though in all seriousness I worked really hard on this project and just seemed to flounder. For example I chose to make a pattern by "rubbing off" a dress I already had, which is pretty awesome for a 14? year old. BUT! what I didn't realise and my teacher failed to mention to me was the dress I was rubbing off was a knit fabric and the fabric I had chosen was woven. What a mistake to make. So Problem 1!

My second problem came with seam allowances, I was told by my teacher to add seam allowances, but nob told me what kind or where or why or....... anyway I can only assume I decided to use 2 inch seam allowances.

The third problem was we had to add some form of embellishment, I chose to add a hand embroidered belt, that you know has no use as a belt because its too small! 

There's a nice little gaping keyhole at the back. Not as a design feature, oh no! That key hole is there because I measured my fabric wrong and ran out of fabric to sew on.

But the very best part might be the insides, In fact I desperately wish I thought to take a picture of the inside.

Anyway as it turns out 14 year old Frankie thought that to sew a garment you needed to hem every single edge of every single piece BEFORE! you even stitch them together...

STOP LAUGHING! I'm being completely serious, Its like the worst french seam in the world.

Its just wow.......... The sad thing is I actually got a B for this and felt like the best in the class which just goes to show what everything else looked like!

Right I'm off to hang my head in shame!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

Wrap Yoga Pants

This might be the oldest project I've ever shown you. These are the trousers I made during my first few textiles lessons at GCSE. So yeah they are OLD! 

Our lovely textiles teacher brought some of those wrap beach trousers on holiday and brought them in so we could all copy them and make our own versions. Naturally we had to do some changes to fit our body shapes, mainly on the hems and waist, but I also remember a good deal of giggling from us about having to measure our crotch curve.

They wrap at the front and back in a pretty similar way to the vintage top I made.

I was so darn proud of these trousers. I was the only one who went out and actually brought fabric instead of just sing the nasty cotton from the textiles store. I'm not sure what the fabric is but its heavy and drapes beautifully, its also a lush shade of aubergine. 

It also frayed like a mother and meant I was the only girl in the class who got to use the over locker. Funnily enough I had to overlock each leg in a separate lesson because I need "supervision" and in between lessons somebody changed the over locker thread from black to white and my teacher was all like "can't you just use white on the other leg?"

  Um can you just breathe water and not air? Yeah I made her change it, I have standards woman!

I also gathered mine at the ankle because otherwise they flap around and expose your legs.... and nobody needs to see that! They also have little hand embroidered flowers and sparkly bits sewn on. Teenager Frankie was a HUGE fan of embellishment!!! 

I actually hated my textiles lessons, not because of what we learnt or the teacher just because nobody actually cared and I REALLY cared. Even at a young age textiles was such a huge thing to me.

Embarrassingly I actually used to loose it if somebody used the machine I was on and ran the bobbin out. [I'm thinking about it now and I can feel my blood boiling!] And its not even like we didn't have enough machines! there were plenty!!!

But that was NOTHING compared to the cheating that went on!

I can quite safely say I sewed every stitch on every project I handed in, but I think I may have been the only one! So many of the girls in my class left with the bundle of rags they were calling a project on one night and then suddenly arrived with haute couture the next day.

"no miss, my mother/nan hasn't helped me, this is all my own work!"

Yeah love that's why I've been threading your machine for the past six weeks!

Anyway why are these back in my possession! I needed yoga trousers and my mum still had these squirrelled away! [Here's me getting my yoga on being all zen and stuff]

And I've gotta say I had them on all last night and they are pretty darn comfy!

Kudos young Frankie, Kudos!

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx