Mr Men Orla Dress

I often get asked why I sew. Yes its cheaper to buy clothes and its less time consuming.

BUT 

It does mean I get to make myself a Mr Men dress!

Mr Men guys! MR MEN! The fabric for this dress came from my friend Steve during his loft clear out. There was about a metre and a half? Which meant I had to be careful what pattern I chose. I was tempted by the Lilou pattern but I;m trying to get a few different dresses in my wardrobe so I opted for the Orla Pattern by French navy Now [You can down load it for free here]  

The Orla dress only has waist darts so its pretty perfect for making sure you don't spilt up busy patterns like this one. 

Pattern placement wise, I tried to make sure I didn't have a Mr Man on my boob but other than that I just tried to get all of the pattern pieces out of the limited fabric I had. Although the sleeves are cut on this opposite grain due to shortage. You can't really notice tit when its on though. 

I did ignore the instructions though as I chose to fully line the bodice. I think the actual instructions call for bias binding on the neckline but I'd rather have everything tucked and tidied away. 

I also swapped out the zip in the back for some buttons. I think I'll do this the next time I make it too.

Unlike my first version this one is a lot looser due to me using the 1cm seam allowance rather than trying to ramrod a 1.5cm seam allowance in there. [You wouldn't think that 0.5cm would make that much difference but it does!] This dress is cut in a size XL, which I confess I'm struggling not to let bother me. I know size doesn't matter and realistically looking at this I could go down a size but The XL label is just...... I dunno maybe this a throwback from all my days of shopping and how having to size up could seriously put a downer on my day. 

On the plus side though the XL size and the button back means I only have to undo one button at the waist to get in and out! Which is a huge bonus because it means I don't have to ask Rikki to do up the back buttons whenever I want to wear it. 

Incidentally the buttons also came from Steve's house, I think they were his mums? [Who's also an absolute babe!]

It turned out to be a pretty quick make, I even hemmed the sleeves and hems by machine rather than hand stitching them down. 

So all in all I LOVE THIS DRESS! And little man thinks its hilarious that mummy has a Mr Men dress because he loves the books! He likes Mr Bump but I like Mr Chatterbox because I find him very similar to myself...... No seriously if we ever have to good fortune to meet in person you will see that I can talk for England, hell I could probably throw in Ireland , Scotland and Wales in for good measure too!  

In other news! 

Its freezing - I've invested in some thick tights for the school run but its still chilly!

I've been reading Eat pray love and I'm just not into it. I dunno why but I'm just not relating to the lead character at the moment. I might try a few more chapters but so far its loving like a might have to ditch it off in favour of something else.  

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx

Dress From Another Dress

Things that have made me cry so far today :

An advert for a donkey charity and the donkey couldn't carry any more bricks and collapsed. [also he had sore feet]

Rikki showed me a picture of a puppy [it was very fluffy]

I banged my head on the wall for the second time.

Oh yeah the pms train has fully pulled into the station [ Part of me's wondering if this is TMI but the other half of me doesn't care and just wants to know if there's any chocolate in the house.]

Anyways I made this a couple of weeks ago when the weather was stupidly hot and I still had the ability to do things without crying/murdering people. 

The original summer dress was given to me by Rikki's Nan and I LOVED it! Which is surprising because 1. It's not got a gathered skirt and 2. Its a pale yellow, and I don't typically wear pale colours or yellow! Anyway it was one of those things I tried on and Rikki was like "that looks really nice." And so every summer I wore it to death! It was the perfect mixture of comfy and smart looking at the same time and then it started to give up the ghost. First the hem went, so I cut it off and re hemmed it and then it started to get lots of lil holes in it, the way only really loved items of clothing do.  

Naturally I wasn't about to give up my favourite summer dress so I decided to make a pattern from it. [I haven't taken step by step photos because there are already millions of tutorials on how to make patterns from old clothes on the internet already!] 

First I cut up all the seams, I didn't bother unpicking because I knew I needed to add my own seam allowances anyway.

I made sure to mark key features like the bias bound neckline and arm holes and the ties as well as which was the fabric grain was going.

Next I put my pattern pieces onto a flat piece of paper and drew around them [I folded the front section in half and chose just one of the back and side panels to trace round so everything wold make up. I made sure to add markings for grain line, cutting on the fold, positioning the ties etc. Then I added a 1.5cm seam allowance [I have a sewing gauge that makes this so quick!] and a 6cm hem [I opted for quite a deep hem because I knew I had already removed length the first time I repaired the dress.]

Then I cut those pieces out and pulled this piece of fabric out of my stash so I could make a wearable toile. 

I think it turned out pretty good. The material is some sort of cotton viscose and was given to me by the lady at the car boot. I'm not 100% sold on the print but it makes an okay wearable toile.

The dress is made up of the front panel, 2x side panels and 2x back panels, with waist ties to give it shape. I think the lines of the dress are really flattering but next time I need to make sure I make my ties skinnier and a bit longer as I'd like to be able to wrap then around the front first and then tie them at the back.

The other problem is I stupidly decided not to cut my straps and neck binding on the bias. This means they sit away from the body a bit. It's not a huge issue for this dress but for it to be perfect I need to make sure I cut them out properly next time. I should have done it this time but I thought there was enough give in the fabric to adapt the the curves. I'm also wondering if the binding should be a bit skinnier.

Length wise its right on the the edge of being acceptable so I think I may also add a bit to the length! maybe like 2inches or so? What do you think? I don't want a strong gust of wind showing people the good china now do I?

Here you can see the ties at the back. They just bring it in a bit so you look like you have a waist but by some form of witchcraft they also leave room for burgers and cake and stuff.

As you can see without the ties its a bit sack like! Maybe I should make a version with no ties and then I can just straight up belt it? Eurgh but then I'd have to find a belt in the morning when I get dressed?

All in all I think its a great first effort and I already have some fabric in mind for a second version! I just need to remember to cut the straps on the bias and lengthen the hem and ties!

In other news! 

Its nearly half term YAY! I'm really looking forward to lil man having some time off'! Especially all on the lie ins we are going to be able to have! 

I'm going to the golf driving range later , well at least I think I will. Part of me is like ooh belly cramps stay home and watch Buffy the vampire slayer and the other half of me thinks it will be good for releasing some anger so I don't kill Rikki for sneezing later. Also if I do go I might be able to con Rikki into getting me a mcflurry on the way home, and a mcmuffin......Maybe a Mcbrownie?

Much Love

Frankie 

xxxx

Vintage Linen Slouch Top

The weather is awful today, I've got some lovely fabrics set aside to make some summer dresses but this rain is sapping all of the joy out of me. On the plus side I'm sat in my double trouble jumper watching project runway and I've got a whole packet of chocolate digestives at my disposal....so I guess its not all bad. 

I made this a few weeks ago whilst we were having that hot spell and I was sick of wearing clothes that clung and stuck to me, all I really wanted to do was wonder around naked but sadly that's not appropriate for the school run!

It all started with this embroidered linen pillowcase that came from my Aunty Shelias house. It had a small bit of embroidery on each side [It looks like it may have been done by hand?] but sadly the rest of it was badly damaged so I decided to use the embroidery as a feature on a garment and use a different fabric for the rest of it.

So the embroidery was used for the sleeves and the main body of the top was just made of a light cotton. The weights of the embroidered fabric and the main fabric are slightly different but you can't notice it when I have it on. I also added a piece of lace in a band around the top because the front felt too plain. The lace came from a craft market and is fairly thick. I just attached it using a straight stitch on the top edge, the bottom edge hangs free.  

The pattern for the top is by prima magazine, its just a very basic boxy top with a boxy sleeve. In fact the sleeve is so boxy the sleeve head is practically flat! I've never had an easier time of setting in a sleeve. It does mean that it sits rather low though, you can't really see on the pictures because the white on white photography isn't exactly brilliant for showing details. But the shoulder head reaches the top part of my arm and then the sleeve starts. This kind of goes against all of my fitting knowledge but it looks okay right? So maybe its meant to be like that! 

The prima pattern is really simple, no darts no tucks no pleats just two sleeves a front and a back! I cut a size 14 but I think I may size down next time? 

To add a bit more colour I did the hems using a coloured thread, it just ties the colour of the embroidery to the rest of the top, 

All in all I like it. When I finished it I absolutely hated it, it was just lying on the table all big and shapeless but then I tried it on with my jeans and with a few skirts and I decided that maybe its actually sort of cute in a kind of french way. I'm looking forward to the weather warming up so I can wear it again. And I love that it uses some of my Aunty Shelias stuff and that I managed to cute around the damaged fabric [although there is still a small stain on the top of one of the sleeves, but I live with a small boy so stains are part of my life at the moment!!] 

Much Love 

Frankie 

x

Gingham Circle Skirt

I feel like to be a proper British person I need to start this post off by mentioning the weather.... I mean haven't we just had it all?! The blazing sun followed by pouring rain! High humidity and then this morning it was actually chilly!

Anyways I made this skirt a lil while ago but I've gotten out of the habit of posting regularly, what can I say after a day of trying not to melt I'm pretty beat!

The fabric came from my Aunty Shelia and Uncle Gordons house, my mum and some other family members went to clear it out recently and they were kind enough to set aside a lot of their vintage linens for me. This was a table cloth, my mum said they must have found at least 15 whilst clearing out so as you can imagine they were all in pretty good condition, This had one small stain that came out during pre washing. The fabric appears to be some sort of cotton/linen type stuff?

Its a pretty cool gingham design and their was just enough to make a simple circle skirt. For  the waistband I used fabric from my stash and I decided to have a button front rather than a zip in the back. Mainly because I'm running out of skirt zips and couldn't be bother to go out. 

I reinforced the front placket with hemming tape, this just meant I had something a bit more stable to put the buttons onto! The waistband however was too thick to put a buttonhole into so that closes with a press stud instead. 

I am wondering if its bit short? Like I feel like I'm young enough to still be wearing short skirts but I;m also a mum so I bend down a lot???? 

But yeah all in all I love it! It does make me a bit sad to look at it though because it came from their house and its one of their things? I did feel a bit bad about cutting up one of her table cloths especially considering what good care she took of her things but I actually think she would have been quite tickled at the thought of me making a skirt from it.

In other news! 

This week ended up completely jacked up! We had a lovely visit from Rikkis Nan and Grandad on the Tuesday and then on the Wednesday lo and behold Rikki wakes up feeling rotten [we suspect tonsillitis] which put paid to our weekend plans! The idea was providing we had nice weather we would go camping and if we didn't I'd take the train to the new Abakhan store that was opening and have a day to myself and hopefully spend enough money to snag myself a goody bag! oh and try and get myself a signed copy of Jenny Taylors new book!! As it goes Rikki being ill meant we couldn't do either!!! Not a happy bunny! Actually that's an understatement, the combination of missing out on fun things, a ill husband and a miserable child left me in what I can only describe as a foul mood. I did apologise after all its not Rikkis fault he's ill [it is his fault hes a baby about it....].  

And the freezer broke! Rikki left it open one night and then It didn't work properly for 4 days so now we've had to throw away a metric tonne of food and restock! All whilst crossing our fingers that it doesn't break again! 

BUT all is currently well, I've just had a bath and a KFC and now I'm watching Clint Eastwood in escape from Alcatraz so all is well!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

  

Refashion from Two Me Mades!

Sometimes when you make your own clothes you have misses, where you've brought the fabric and done everything right but it just doesn't work. which is what happened with these two items.

This skirt which I made here, and this megan dress that I made here 

So I hacked them up and spliced then together! I used the megan bodice with the sleeves and skirt removed.

Then I added in a lace waistband because I love the effect on this dress.

Then I used the skirt which was originally pleated gave it a good iron and made it gathered. And then popped it on the bottom! I didn't even have to re hem it!

Its not a great fit but its a lot more wearable than it was before, at least I hope it does seen as I only wore the skirt and dress a handful of times each.

I like that it has sort of a toddler style to it. makes me feel like a big kid again!

And I love the pretty flared skirt, gathers are so flattering!

When I first finished this I actually hated it again but after seeing these pictures I'm not sure its as bad as I thought!

And its got some great twirlability going on!  

I like it which red tights and my grey cardigan!

The arm holes are bias bound to hide the raw edges that where left when I took the sleeves off.

I top stitched the seam allowances away from the lace for a neater look.

and I added a button to the top because this zip tend to spring open if you stretch or move! Ooops just spotted all those hairy threads! must remember to trim those later!!!

All in all I'm calling this a success!  I just hope I wear it a lot more now!!!

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx

Making a Pattern From Old Wrecked Clothing

This is a brief "how to" on making patterns from your old much loved clothing! NOTE: As this method requires cutting up then its not suitable for clothes you want to continue wearing. [as if it wasn't obvious when the instruction reads , cut it up!]

The top I decided to use was this one I was given by Rikki's Aunty, I loved the top but after a few wears lil man slammed into me as I was pouring blackcurrant double strength high juice and the stains just wouldn't go. I tried anything! But I loved the top as its the perfect length at the back to wear with leggings and jeggings. 

First of all try on your item, make notes about how the hems are finished and about the construction. Does it have darts? Are their gathers? Whats the closure like? [ It might even be worth taking a picture in it for future reference] Luckily for me this top doesn't have anything complicated so I could crack on. 

Cut into pieces, This top was over-locked so I just cut all the over-locked seams away and was left with four pieces. You can unpick if you want but I find it easier to just trim the seams off as I add my own seam allowances later.

Find the centre of the top by folding it, this way you can cut all your pieces on the fold. I like to pin the two sides together so they don't shift around. Folding your front and back pieces in half means both sides of your top with be symmetrical.

Do the same with the back lay them down on a big sheet of paper and draw around them. I don't tend to buy pattern paper instead I used newspaper, wrapping paper, left over wallpaper or greaseproof paper! Remember to add your pattern markings for grain line and cutting on the fold etc.

Next discard one of the sleeves as you'll only need one to make a pattern from [top tip: make a note of which side is the back of the sleeve for when you come to draw it.] You don't need to fold your sleeve over because very often the front and back of sleeves are slightly different due to ease. Next add a seam allowance to all of your pieces [its your choice here so use whatever seam allowance you  comfortable with]

 I have a seam allowance tool that I was given but you can just measure all the way around with a tape measure and join up the dots. Remember you wont need to add seam allowances to your fold line, just to the areas that will be stitched.

Next I cut out the pattern and sewed up a muslin.

At one point I thought it might be wearable so I added a lil pocket. Now you have made your own pattern you can make whatever tweaks you like with regards to length and fit. For example I'm going to lower the neckline and give myself a lil bit more room in the body so its more blousey.

I completely jacked up the bias bound neckline by pulling it too tight, In fact I may draft a facing for a cleaner finish.

But all in all I'm pretty pleased!

Do you have any tips for making patterns from old clothes?

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

High Waisted Circle skirt

I'm not sure whether I like this or whether I hate it yet. From some angles I feel it makes me look really wide..... like a truck.

It's a circle skirt {using my own method} attached to a Clemence skirt waistband that I extended to 8 inches, to make it a high "high" waisted skirt. I didn't have any heavy weight interfacing so I just used some Hessian that I had in my stash. {I think Hessian is the right word, its like potato sack fabric}

The fabric was free from a friend who gave me a roll of this fabric. and the zip is re-purposed from one of lil mans old clothes. I did a lapped zip insertion again but you can't really tell because of how bulky both the zip and the fabric are.   

When it was finished I had to shorten it by about 6 inches but other than that I just did a standard hem. Although it only has one full row of hem stitching, generally I like to do two rows but my bobbin ran out half way and I wasn't in love enough to actually rewind the bobbin for this one project.  Luckily it's not that noticeable. 

There's a box pleat at the front that I put in to use up the excess, I like it though because it means there's less chance of me flashing my pants when I sit down.

Because of how wide I think it makes me look wish the full waistband I've been folding it down by about two inches. At least I learnt something though, If I'm doing something this high waisted I need to curve the waistband to the curves of my body more, so I look less wide. 

In other news I haven't posted for a few days because poor Rikki came down with a migraine on Wednesday morning and was really sick all sodding day! {We had planned to have a romantic breakfast pancake meal but that went out the window after the noises I heard from the bathroom}

So yeah that was awesome, then being the sensible human I decided to sleep in the man room so that if it was a virus at least one of us wouldn't be infected! And then lil man woke up at 3am! YES! 3am with a bad dream and came into bed with me.... In the man room.....on the futon..... the uncomfortable futon......which lil man soon hogged all the his lonesome.

And he made my arm numb........ Life's a blast isn't it?

Luckily everyone's feeling better now and we haven't had a bad dream since. 

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx