A very old project

I took wordwork for my GCSEs , no idea why I wasn't particularly good at it I just liked making things so I chose art, textiles, woodwork and history.

Anyway one of our projects was to make a box, I chose to do a simple square and carved all of the sides by hand. I had a mallet and everything.

I was really proud of this box and it felt really relaxing carving it to be honest.

Then when it was finished, sanded and graded (I got a blooming D For gods sake) I gave it to my brother for their kids.

Naturally I thought they might have got rid of it at some point, having kids means you get a lot of crap and you have to ditch off a lot of crap.

Imagine my surprise to see it sat on their kitchen table when I went for ba visit on Wednesday! 

Naturally I had to get a picture, especially seen as it's about oooft 8/9 years old! 

And I'm still pretty proud of it! 

Much love 

Frankie

X

DIY Shoe Refashion

 Let me start off by saying I LOVE these shoes. I mean if I had to choose between saying Rikki from a burning building or these shoes, some days, just some days I would choose the shoes.

They are so comfortable its unreal, these shoes have never left me with blisters and a drunken Frankie once walked home from the pub wearing them. YES! wearing them, not carrying then in her hand, not balancing them on her feet whilst receiving a piggy back. Actually wearing them.

These cheap primark heels have seen many a night out, day trip and a very special wedding where I was taking all the pictures. YES! all the pictures and they coped through that too!

 Which is probably why they are wrecked, the heels or wrecked the toes are wrecked. But due to the fact they don't wreck my feet, I decided a quick spruce up was in order! And luckily for me the faux suede of these shoes was easy to refashion.

A good paint job can hide a multitude of sins! I'm using Revell model paint that was left over from some models Rikki built. I love that it comes in both matt and metallic colours! For this project I used silver and matt black.

And took my inspiration from shoes with contrast metallic toes, I think Kurt Geiger and Chanel made some.

First of all I taped off the toes and painted the main body of the shoe black. I had to do two coats for even coverage.

Then with a steady hand I pulled off the toe tape and painted the toes and heels metallic silver. Again I had to do two coats for even coverage.

Next I painted the soles red, al la Jimmy Choo. To be honest might do this with all my shoes because it makes me feel 100% more classy!

I think they turned out pretty BOSS to be honest. I'm pleased because I don't have to throw away one of my favourite pairs of shoes and because it feels like I have a new pair.

I am considering painting the heels black as well to make them feel a bit classier but I think I'll give them a couple of wears first. I didn't paint the heels black originally because I thought I might run out of paint after one shoes and then wouldn't I look a Muppet! Although two shoes in different colours might be kinda quirky.

And they are still as comfortable as ever! 

Yerp still definitely thinking about painting those heels to make the toes more of a statement!

#Sewcialist Sweater Refashion

I'm not sure if you can actually call this a refashion, Its more of a garment spruce up!

It all started out with this simple sweatshirt, we had popped over to Rikki's Nan and Grandads for a visit and so his Aunty Di could do my hair and as it goes Grandad was getting rid of two of these jumpers one in black and one in blue. Nan offered them to Rikki who said no because he doesn't really wear jumpers to be honest and she was like "okay I'll charity shop them then" 

AHEM! [waves furiously for attention] I'll take them off your hands! Mainly I just liked the idea of having another jumper to lounge around in but after sometime I though it might make a cool refashion project!

So I cut out a piece of jersey the width of the chest, and chose myself a hashtag , My inspiration for this came from love sewing magazine who made these cute bags one issue. I wrote the hashtag out in chalk and found myself a paint brush.

I didn't have any fabric paints so I used model paint that we brought when Rikki went through his modelling phase [not blue steel modelling, making little cars modelling]. I'm guessing that it wont wash out because it never washed out of his jeans?

I painted the whole word trying to keep it even.

Pinned it too the front of my sweater, popped on a walking foot and lightening stitched it on!

Do I look cool? I was going for a trendy, like a, I live in topshop and drink starbucks kinda vibe.

I was wearing it with short shorts but then I took some pictures and realised that having so much chocolate in the house over Easter has not been my friend! So I switched to jeans!

I feel comfy which I think matters more than feeling trendy.

I think if I were to do it again I would make the slogan smaller so it goes less into my armpits! Saying that sewcialist is a pretty big word so maybe it has to be this way!

All in all I'd say its not a bad little spruce up in my humble opinion and I think it looks pretty cool! Although I do wonder if its a bit too cool for a mother who likes to be in bed at half nine and has an addiction to tea! It also kind of reminds me of the 90s which might be my favourite decade, I could definitely see my sister wearing this at like 16.

In other news you may have noticed my hair is back to being blonde! After growing all of the god awful red colour out, my hair still seemed dark so Rikkis Aunty Di was kind enough to put highlights in for me.

I say kind enough... she tortured me for god knows how long! Have you ever heard of a highlighting method called "using a cap"? Nope? Me neither. Well as it goes "using a cap" is where a condom like thing is put on your head and then small sections of hair are pulled through small holes individually with a thing that looks like a crochet hook. Then colour is applied leaving you with a beautiful head of even natural looking highlights!

Hurts like a MOTHER! Omg I had tears streaming down my face I'm not sure if I was laughing or crying but sweet Jesus, there are literally no words to describe it. That or I'm just a massive wuss! Which wouldn't surprise me! Although my tattoo did hurt less.....just saying!

Anyway afterwards [and after a quick trim] it was worth it because my hairs cute again! and I'm blonde! And according to Grandad my new hair made me extra SASSY! But I think he's just upset because me and Rikki won at cards!

Anyway if you want to see my new hair pop over to my instagram where I've been posting far too many selfies recently!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

Miette Progress Report!

I thought it was about time I did another update on my miette cardigan! Which I'm starting to hate by the way! from what I can see my last update was here in October 

So as you can see I've finished the bodice and I'm what I'm referring to as the home stretch, The sleeves. 

The bodice turned out okay, I like the shape but the wool is a lot thicker than I thought which is kinda meh. And I'm annoyed because I jacked up the lace pattern right at the end, I don't think its noticeable but I know I did it so that bothers me! 

The sleeves are knitted in the round and my circular needle is too long so its a complete faff to be honest, I seem to spend most of my time jigging the wire and the stitches. On the plus side though you only need to knit in garter stitch and you achieve stocking stitch. Its witchcraft but it works!!

I'm planning to have it done before September, which would make it a year long project but I still don't think that's too bad for my first ever hand knitted garment. And I'm pretty sure the experience hasn't put me off so much that I'll never make another one!

Hopefully my next post about this will be me saying its finished! And proudly modelling it flaws and all! 

Much Love Frankie

xxx

10 Ways To Get Your Sew-Jo Back

We've all been there, sat with a pile of fabric, oodles of time but no inspiration, so here's 10 ways to get your sew-jo back!

1; Don't sew, relax, take a bath, watch movies, binge watch an entire series in your jammies. Just get your chill on.

2; Organise your stash/tidy up! Making things is messy and a lot of the time tidying means we loose some of our favourite sewing patterns and fabrics! Have a good sort through and you might find some hidden gems in your own stash!

3; Find inspiration!! Go outside! visit a gallery, look at what's in the shops and see what catches your eye! 

4; Find inspiration! Stay inside! Look at pinterest, Instagram, Re-read old blogs you love, Find new blogs to add to your reading list! Visit the fold line, see what's happening in the on-line sewing community!

5; Go fabric shopping, challenge yourself to try something new, a print, or a fabric. Buy something you normally wouldn't and see what happens! You might just love it!

6; Swap with a friend! Find a sewing buddy and swap fabrics and patterns your bored with. You know what they say, ones man's trash is another man's treasure!

7; Practise techniques, make a list of things your scared of, and practise doing them on scrap fabrics! You'll something new and you'll wonder why you avoided doing them for so long! Concealed zips, Welt pockets, rolled hems the list is endless! 

8; Make something easy, pick your favourite pattern and fabric and just zone out and do what you do best, blow those cobwebs away! 

9; Shop your patterns, Print off pdfs you've brought but never used and look at the ones that came free with magazines you might find some real gems!!

10; clean your sewing machine, if all else fails cleaning your machine means its in tip top condition for when your back in your groove! Plus it keeps your machine healthy!

Do you have any tips on getting your sewjo back? Let me know in the comments!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

School Days Knitted Cowl

Rikki's Nan recently lent me a pair of circular needles to help me finish my miette cardigan more easily, as it goes the ones I were using were shorter than the ones she lent me so I didn't need them. But it would have been rude not to have cast anything on!

I used scrap yarn, Including scrap sock yarn which I doubled up to make thicker. I'm not sure about the colour scheme the red, white, blue, grey and red remind me a little bit too much of school to be honest. And I do not like being reminded of school in any way shape or form.

The whole thing was knitted in the round, I cast on lots [detailed measure huh?] of stitches, then did a row of purl, then joined it together and carried on working in garter stitch and by some kind of bizarre witchcraft stocking stitch kept appearing but I was working in garter stitch! Its like MAGIC!  

However the wrong side is still in garter stitch and the nature of stocking stitch makes the edges curl up like nobodies business. I think this is where blocking comes in, but I just ironed them flat because I'm a knitting rebel! 

So yeah, it not a success and its not a failure it'll probably sit in my drawer until next winter and I'll decide if I completely hate it then.

In other news I'm busting a move trying to schedule a weeks worth of blog posts because lil man is off...... and boy is it fun!

No it is fun, on the days when we have something planned or are able to go out somewhere, on the days we are confined to the house or whatever's in walking distance [not a lot] most of our day is taken up with me being followed by a small child who's whining. I'm not sure why he's following me so much but its actually starting to get on my nerves now.

I know its supposed to be one of those adorable things that kids do because you know "they love their mummy sooooooooooooooo MUCH!!!" but I tripped over him twice yesterday so I'm starting to think of him more as a mini assassin. He actually slid past the hoover that was resting on the top of the stairs whilst I hoovered the middle today and nearly killed me. 

I realise it was probably an accident but all I could see was the headline:

MOTHER KILLED BY SON USING HENRY HOOVER!

I just hope he cleans up after himself!

Bad Pun

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx  

Me Made May 2016

Its that time of year again folks! That time of the year when I do my up most to wear something I've made every day of the month!

Basically for me made may you make up your own pledge to wear handmade clothes for a certain amount of time during the month of may [it depends on your circumstances and how much me made stuff you have which is why you make your own pledge.] More information can be found by clicking on the link.

So without further ado here's my pledge:

'I, Frankie of www.knitwits-owls.blogspot.co.uk , sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '16. I endeavour to wear at least one handmade or upcycled item each day for the duration of May 2016 good weather allowing'


I added a weathering allowing clause this year because last year I ended up having to give up because it was cold and soggy and my handmade clothes were not practical for the nursery run, especially in the rain! Although I guess that did give me a kick up the backside to make more practical clothing and not just party dresses etc.

So I've actually started my mmmay prep already and by prep I mean washing and iron all of my handmade clothes ready for the first of may! I do tend to wear a lot of handmade stuff anyway so I guess its a good opportunity to re-explore my ready to wear wardrobe throughout april! And to see if there's anything I want to recreate afterwards!

With regards to documenting it, I might do daily selfies on instagram although I'm not sure how easy that will be as we don't have a full length mirror in our house [I know I'm so deprived!, Its a wonder I look as fabulous as I do.....] And then I might do a round up of my weeks outfits every 7 days on the blog.

And then when its all over I'll review what I loved wearing what I hated and where i need to add more to my wardrobe!

Should be FUN!

much love

Frankie

x