Raglan Sweater

I've been seeing Raglan jumpers all over instagram lately. Mainly because of the the #lindenswap which was happening before Christmas. 

Now I don't own the Linden pattern [which is by Grainline studios BTW]  [and I can't justify spending $16.00 on it] But I did still have a hankering for a raglan jumper so I thought it might be worth taking a dig through my patterns and seeing if there was anything I could frankenpattern........

As it goes I have a prima pattern for a raglan jumper and its a pretty good dupe! Now prima isn't every sewers choice yes you have to trace the patterns, yes the styling is quite frankly awful and yes the instructions are about as clear as mud mixed with oil. BUT they have really good bones, The patterns are simple lines and simple styles and they can be used as a great base for makes.

Which is how this came about.

FYI this particular pattern came with the may 2016 issue, so you might be able to track one down I don't know if that's an option on their website [I personally don't subscribe to Prima this was sent to me by lovely pen friend who I believe does!] 

Now I didn't follow the instructions in fact I didn't even look at them, instead I just traced off all the pieces and then used the width of the sleeves and the bottom of the jumper to create my own pattern pieces for the cuffs and bottom band. I knew I wanted the jumper to have cuffs and a bottom band to give it more of a ready to wear vibe.

Now the leaf print fabric is from abakhan and cost me £4.03 and the purple I used is a scrap from this dress and is from sew essential . I also used the purple for the piping in the raglan sleeve detail. piping I hear you say? Oh yeah guys Frankie has only gone and learned herself a new skill! Well I say piping it's more like a piece of fabric folded over and wedged in the seam, so its basically piping but with the rope part, which I guess is essentially the pipe?

Anyway I'm sidetracking, I love the piping on this as I think it helps to break up the busy print. Plus ya know PIPING! And its a lot easier than I thought once I;d worked out the seam allowances! 

Now I sewed the whole thing on my overlocker but I top stitched the seam allowances down using my twin needle on my regular machine. I'm not sure if that was completely necessary because I good iron might have persuaded the overlocked edges to stay tucked away. But I knew this was going to be one of those items that just does not get ironed ever...... So I stitched them down. 

I think the top stitching came out okay anyway so that's a bonus, I did have to use my walking foot though because things were not looking good without! 

These are some close ups of my pretty awesome piping! I actually prefer this to regular piping which sticks out a bit so I think I might add it to more things! 

So the verdict! 

When I first made it I kind of hated it, It was one of those occasions where you love the fabric in the shop but then you sew it up and your like hmmm does this suit me? 

But then it recieved the seal of approval from my mum, our friend and my husband [Who even said he thought it was shop brought] So I decided to give it a whirl! 

And now?

I LOVE IT! Seriously you cannot get a more comfortable jumper for on the school run, the poly knit fabric is thin enough to wear under a coat but thick enough to keep you warm and its just so easy to throw on! I'm not sure if I like it better than my coco hoodie hack but It definitely has the same effortless school morning vibe going on.

So I will definitely be making another one, and another one and another one!!! I want one of these for every day of the week and I'm tempted to try and make a few up with hoods and stuff and of course some more piping!

In other news! 

I've been grumpy as hell today! Which is lovely for everyone, I'm blaming the awful night sleep I've been having , if its not nightmares its waking up every couple of hours so please if you have any remedies for a good nights sleep [aside from down a bottle of jack] please let me know!

I finally brought the fleece to finish my latest baby quilt so hopefully that will be up soon! and it will be the 5th baby quilt I've gifted. I'm really loving the gifting of baby quilts mainly because it gives me a good opportunity to try out new designs and play with fat quarters! So if some people could get knocked up that would be great!

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx

Charcoal Knit Fabric Dress

Okay so this might just go down in history as the most boring dress in history but if you bear with me you'll see why I made it.

So the fabric was given to me by my sewing pen pal, I think she used it to make a Mortimer dress? Now I've never sewn a knit fabric dress before so my patterns and knowledge was a little limited! The fabric has two way stretch but I don't know how much! 

I made the top part of the dress using the princess seam bodice from the second GBSB book but I didn't put a zip in and I used a smaller seam allowance, and I drafted the sleeve myself using my French curves and using another sleeve pattern piece as reference. The skirt is just a large rectangle of fabric that I gathered.

I sewed it all up on my regular machine and didn't encounter too many problems although the top stitching on the neckband is just awful! I think I was trying to stitch through something too thick. I'm putting it don't as a learning moment. The top stitching on the neckline, sleeves and hem was done using my twin needle but I used a ball point needle on everything else.

All in all its a pretty simple dress, the fabric is soft which I like but the waist seam is a little high and id worry that I looked a bit preggers in it.

Know for the important bit! Here's WHY I made it! Some of you may remember the denim bustier I made from the third GBSB book. Now as lovely as it is it doesn't seem to get a lot of wear, mainly because it exposed both bosom and midriff. Not exactly appropriate for the nursery run.

So I made this dress so I can layer my denim top over the top of it!

I got the idea from seeing a picture of celebs in the 90's wearing tshirts under their strappy summer dresses.

All in all I absolutely love how it looks with this top!!! 

And I love that you can see my tattoo from the back! Its very comfortable to wear even with the corset top on top!

So even though it is the most boring dress in the world I'm calling it a great success!! 

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

I'm a beautiful butterfly!

An old lady died in my mums home town, we didn't know her, but we do know.

I shall explain, whilst having a meander in her town we strolled past a charity shop, and outside of this charity shop there was a table filled with fabric and embroidery thread, and embroidery transfers and just loads of craft stuff! Well I had a small (slightly maniacal) dig through the box of fabrics and happened to find a black knit fabric, roughly two metres. Anyway after deciding to purchase (what? It's not new fabric if you know exactly what to make from it!) we wandered inside where we found about. 30 craft books and asked the assistant what had happened, turns out a lady had died and her husband had donated all of her craft stuff because he couldn't bear to look at it. Which makes me kind of sad, but at the same time im sure that a lot of people are going to get pleasure from his kindness and generosity and her good taste! 

Now my intention for the fabric was to make the three hour cardigan from the great british sewing bee book, but there wasn't quite enough! So I followed this tutorial for a cocoon cardigan! http://truebias.com/2014/03/diy-cocoon-cardigan.html

You basically follow the instructions and mark directly into the fabric.

Excuse the mess, we've fitted a new sound system in the game room and are storing all if our Easter eggs! 

Right so it's comfy, and the construction was super easy, I did French seams for a nice finish and use a zig zag stitch and a ball point needle. This was my first experience sewing with a knit so I was pretty nervous! 

The arm seam kinda points at the nipple region, (can I say nipple?) which I'm not crazy about, but I think it's hidden by the drape of the fabric. By the way I have no idea what kind of knit it is, it's fairly stable with a very small amount if one way stretch, it's not thin like a tshirt, but the backs not fuzzy like sweatshirt. 

I'm not crazy about the gather detail at the back, I'll see how it washes but it might be ripped out. 

It feels very snuggly.

Here's me trying to do a casual pose, so you can see it hasn't worked! 

All In all I kind of like it, I don't like it as much as my kimono jacket, but it's warmer and I was DESPERATELY in need of a black cardigan I can just throw on over things. Yes i know springs meant to be here but have you seem it yet!? No didn't think so! 

Much love

Frankie

 Xx