Slow Sewing - working on my hexy quilt

I woke up on Thursday night [well technically early hours Friday morning] to the sounds of Lil man crying that he'd be sick and well that been my past two days looking after a poorly child. 

As it turns out this bug has actually taken out a good half of his class and well a good half of the school really. So we spent the day on the sofa and watched movies and I added row after row to my hexy quilt and tried not to panic about the fact there is a sickness bug in my house. 

Sickness is something I don't "deal" with very well. Historically any time I've caught a sickness bug as a child I've ended up really really poorly. So frankly it terrifies me. 

Luckily making the hexy quilt keeps both my hands and my mind busy. 

So far its actually growing quite quickly. I've even started removing the papers from the centre hexagons. [Top tip the centres are reusable however its not as nice to sew with them as "fresh" ones so I like to iron mine after I've taken them out. It helps to flatten them out and makes for more accurate sewing.]

  

All the fabrics are from my stash and I'm finding it interesting looking at all of the fabrics I've collected over the years. Especially looking at some of the fabrics from when I first started sewing.

I've also been adding rows to to my miette cardigan which I started last time he was really poorly. Funnily enough I had joked a few weeks ago that for me to have any chance of getting it finished I would need for him to have a week off school. 

Apparently I should have touched some wood when I said it!!!! 

And yeah that's pretty much my last few days to be honest. I had planned on finishing a big project on Friday but didn't get the chance due to playing nursemaid. So now I'm going to have to do that next week! Provided lil man is well enough to go back into school.

Hopefully I'll be able to schedule some blog posts whilst I'm on nurse duty!

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx

New Look 6390 - Skull Fabric

Yet again I'm behind with blogging. In my defence I was going to blog on Friday BUT we had a new set of kitchen knives delivered and well Rikki ended up slicing his fingers open....So instead we went to A&E and Rikki had five stitches in his finger and I've been listening to him moan ever since.....

This make is ages old, In fact its so old that I wore it all summer and its officially been retired to the bottom of the ironing basket for the past month. I mean who has the energy to iron summer dresses when there not going to be worn!

The pattern is newlook 6390. I demonstrated how to make this at abakhans a few months ago and this is the actual dress I made in the demo. I cut a size 12 [I have a 36" bust] and I had to shorten the straps and remove a wedge from the front neckline to stop it gaping and I took about 2 inches out of the back seam. Oddly for me I didn't shorten the length, mainly because it was the perfect summer length for wearing without tights and not flashing my pants. 

This quilting cotton was from abakhans and was really beautiful to work with. Everything pressed so nicely and the fabric behaved really nicely resulting in the BEST invisible zip I've ever done. There is a bit of rippling at the back so I may have to shorten the bodice a bit but the zip is BANGING! I actually wish I'd taken a better picture because OMG..........

Also eurgh bra straps. One thing I'm not going to miss about summer is having to wear a strapless bra with basically everything to stop my bloody straps showing. Can't see bra straps under a big fluffy jumper now can ya!?

The bodice is fully lined. And in typical Frankie style I used an old pair of curtains instead of just using up the rest of the fashion fabric so now I have 20cm of skull print fabric lying around and nothing to use it on. Note to self : If your going to be left with a piddly bit of fabric for gods sake just line the bodice in the expensive fabric!!!!! 

So yeah I love this dress I wore it a lot over the summer. In particular I think the nipped in waist and flared skirt is very flattering. Plus it was nice and easy to wear when it was stupidly hot and I didn't really want to have to think about actually putting a whole outfit together. 

And how cool is this print!!! I love the way the skulls sort of blend into the pattern so you don't really see the skull until you actually look for them. 

And that's it really this is my 3rd? 4th? version of the dress so by now I really have done the pattern to death and I can't honestly see me making it again for a looonnnggg time. 

In other news:

- I added a few more rows to my miette cardigan and totally balls them up so now I hate it and I can't be bothered to undo them.

- I added a few more hexys to my hexy quilt but its still not growing...... In all honestly I'm already a bit bored with it [hides face in hands]

- I have three quilts ready to be quilted and bound. I sense a big trip to abakhans in my future! 

- I demonstrated at abkahans on sew Saturday! As usual I had a blast! Even if I was supper tired from dealing with Rikkis finger situation the night before!

And that's about it!

Much Love 

Frankie 

Vintage Kilo Sale - My Thoughts

I fell out of love with blogging over the summer, something to do with the hot weather and the gact that the camera broke and then the SD card broke and well I just sort of fell back on to instagram as its more of a instant thing. 

And then this week I realised how much I'd missed documenting all of my makes. So I got Rikki to fix the SD card and decided to crack on tonight whilst bake offs on.

Although oddly my first proper post back isn't about sewing! Nope its all about the vintage kilo sale I went to with my friend Chey a few weeks ago. 

So You can find preloved vintage kilo on facebook and instagram and the general idea is that you turn up and look through preloved clothes and put everything you like into a bag and you pay £15 per kilo. Unless its a coat or bag or shoes and then theirs just a foxed price if it goes over a kilo to save you money. 

Chey saw that it was coming to our local city on facebook and tagged me in it asking if I wanted to go. And obvs I said yes because this girl loves a vintage sale! And then I spent the week before stalking their instagram page trying to see what sorts of things might be up for grabs. 

I did really enjoy it however theres a few things to mention about the experience! [hopefully you can use these as top tips if you choose to go to one!

1. You will have to queue and pay to get in, I think it was like £1.50 to get in so not bank breaking but still. 

2. everything is packed onto racks! and I mean packed. Their wasn't even enough room to slide the hanger across to have a proper look instead to have to drag the thing out , decide if you like it and then shove it back in. 

3. A lot of its 90's and late 80's. I saw a LOT of shell suits, a lot of track suit bottoms with poppers up the sides and a LOT of NIKE. Not to say their isn't some absolute gems in there from earlier but thats what the majority of the stuff is. 

4. You will have to hunt. Which means going through every single item on the rail. Unluckily it seems neither me or Chey was in the mood to go through every single item whilst crammed in. We probably missed a lot of good stuff but we weren't too bothered because we did get some great stuff! [I did however realise that this is the sort of thing my mum is AWESOME at so i think she'd do well there]

5. Sizing is difficult, there are sizes in the items BUT vintage sizes can vary wildly. You can try things on in changing rooms but they were VERY busy so I'd recommend wearing some sort of leggings and vest top outfit so you can just try things over the top.  

6. a Kilo isn't as much as you think! In my case it was a jumper , a tshirt, a light dress and a shirt. In Cheys case it was two snuggly winter jumpers. 

All that said I had a brillant day and I loved the concept of re selling clothes rather than sending them to landfill. [Its also worth mentioning that the company do wash all of the clothes before sale so they don't smell musty or anything! But without further ado heres what I brought. 

Number one, some sort of vintage shift dress. Possibly 70's? Very definitely some sort of polyester. 

I can't claim this as my find as Chey saw it and told me I HAD to get it! And I'm so glad I did because I am crazy about the print. Here I'm wearing it layered with a roll neck and tights but it also looks cute without.

It is a bit see through though so its better with something else under it so I don't flash my pants. 

Number 2! 

A tshirt from Journeys Backyard BBQ tour. I went to vintage kilo with the intention of finding band tshirts but this was the only one I saw. Its cute and I love the band journey so it works. 

Its already in regular wardrobe rotation for those days when I can't quite be bothered with proper clothes. 

 Item 3. 

Mens Ralph Lauren jumper

I got this because 1. its Ralph Lauren and 2. it looks snuggly for dog walks. I like the oversized fit and its lovely and soft to wear. Its a nice classic jumper and I'm sure it will see lots of wear.

And Number 4. 

and my absolute favourite! 

A mens flannel shirt. 

I've been hankering after a nice flannel shirt for ages! Rikkis grandad wears a lot of flannel shirts and they always looked so lovely and snug. I brought this one because I liked the colours and the relaxed fit. 

In fact I love it so much that I wear it all the dammed time. It comes out of the wash and goes straight on my back. In fact I love it so much I've been inspired to try and make a few more shirts to put into regular rotation in my wardrobe! 

And that's it!!! 

I really enjoyed writing this so hopefully I'll be jumping back into proper blogging!!!! 

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx

Dresdan Plate Quilt Topper

I feel like every time I say we don't need any more quilts I take an actual look and then lo and behold I'm like we need another quilt.

I mean technically we don't NEED another quilt but I like making them and when you've done a school run in the rain everyone just wants their own blanket to cuddle up with.....including the dog.

Fun Fact: The dog is currently in possession of 4 small quilts and 1 lap quilt. Shes spoiled I know.

And Lil man has recently informed me that his boat quilt is babyish and he also needs a new one. Maybe something with footballs or Mario. 

I've been getting around my whole "we don't need more quilts thing" by making new quilt patterns. Which means I get to have fun and test my skills!

I've never made a dresdan quilt before and I've admired them for a long time.  

The fabric came from the craft cotton company its from their new geo fat quarter range. I was lucky enough to receive one in each of the colours, blue, purple and pink. 

I kept each plate to a specific colour. I made 2 plates using all the fabrics and two using just two of the fabrics each. 

The centre circles are using the most low volume fabric in the pack, luckily these are all pretty similar in all the colour ways so I;m hoping to also use them for the binding. 

That is when I've found something to back it with and quilted it. I'm waiting for my local home and bargains to start stocking cheap fleece quilts again so I can use those for backing. 

I appliqued each of the plates onto squares of pink from my stash. Technically its dressmaking material but its cotton and its a shade of pink I'd never wear so I might as well use it for this!!! 

Then each of the blocks is bordered with either dark blue or white. I did want to boarder them all in the same colour but I had fabric restrictions sooooo.............. 

I actually really really like how it turned out. Its a bit more girlie than I thought it would be, but its kind of nice to have girlie things in a mainly boy household.

I did struggle with how to place the blocks though. I had wanted it to look random but I don't think I succeeded. Its not bothering me enough to unpick it all though!  

I might add one last big boarder to the whole thing before I quilt it but I need to work out what fabric to use first. 

By the way if you want to try your hand at this I have written a lil tutorial for the craft cotton company you can find it here. 

I actually took these photos on the the last few decent days of summer we had.

In fact I'm really really missing the summer. On Thursday me and lil man had to walk in the torrential rain and it was NOT fun at all. In fact when we got home we dried off and just put our pjs on and I had a massive grump about being cold and wet and grumpy. To be honest this always happens when it gets colder , as much as I love the Christmas and snow the whole being cold every day and having wet feet makes me just a lil bit miserable!

I'm currently looking for suggestions on how to perk myself up! Any ideas?????

Much Love

Frankie

xx 

My Sewing Related Birthday Gifts!

I've just sat down to type this and realised I haven't photographed two of my crafty related presents because I'm a moron. So in the interest of me not going back downstairs my friends Steve and Ellie also got me some wool and a book on embroidered flowers! 

So it was my birthday on Saturday!!!!! Yay I kept it pretty low key this year, we had drinks with friends on Friday and then the Saturday was mainly relaxing and eating pizza. I was planning on seeing my mum and dad on the Monday BUT i woke up feeling really under the weather and cancelled and instead they came this morning! 

Which works well for two reasons 

1. If i felt ill today they could take lil man to school for me,

2. I got to see them!

As it goes I felt a lot better this morning so after we had dropped lil man off, we walked the dog and went for a lil look in our local shopping centre and had tea and cake. I went for chocolate fudge cake and mum chose carrot cake, which I refuse to think of as a cake because it has carrots in so its more of a five a day thing.....

Anyway here's what they got me. Everything is from my previous "gift for sewists post" so I'm not going to put links here because I don't want to be googling how much things cost. 

Scissors! 

Ive already had these out the box and they seem pretty good! Naturally they will be featuring on one of my scissor review blog posts! 

Finally a tshirt to wear with all of my me made skirts!!! Cannot wait to wear this! 

Wrist ruler! I have wanted one of these for absolutely ages!!! I've had it on all day and I can happily report that its comfortable to wear and  the measurements are accurate.

 It is however an absolute pain in the backside to take pictures of your own hand without it looking like a claw! So I ended up holding some scissors! 

Button gauge, I mean an actual freaking button gauge! *Immediately runs to make all the things with buttons!*

I've not really been in the mood for sewing at the moment but getting these gifts has given me some motivation to get stuff done and to start making things again! I mean I can;t leave all that fabric languishing in a cupboard now can I? It'll get lonely and think no one loves it! 

Whats the best sewing gift you've ever received ????

Much Love 

Frankie 

The Origami Dress - New Look K8144 - In linen

I made this ages ago. and by ages I mean I took these pictures on my old camera before my hair was pink. 

so yeah they are old. 

The pattern is K8144 by new look. Its one of those patterns where the cover art is just baffling. 

I dunno maybe its just me but I think the dress is really really bright! 

It originally came free with a copy of sew magazine but I got my copy from my mums friend sue. 

After looking at the pattern drawings I realised that I really like the front pleated section and thought it might be nice to make it up in some of this blue linen I had lying around. 

As it goes I didn't have quite enough of the blue linen so I had to use some left of black for the belt, shoulder sections and the facings. 

I didn't like the belt that came with the pattern so I add some waist ties into the side seams. I made them quite long to create a sort of obi effect. I think it worked really nicely and I much prefer my belt to the one on the pattern.

Fit wise the top half okay but it is a bit tight on the hips. Annoyingly is not so tight that I'll rip open the side seams for more wiggle room. Instead its just tight enough that if I cut out the donuts then it will probably fit better..... I don't want to cut out the donuts though so *shrugs* . [actually thinking about it I made this dress before we even had Polly so at least four months ago and I have been going on a walk twice a day since getting her so I may have slimmed my hips down a bit! I'll have to try it one.] 

The origami bit at the front is created by cutting and folding the fabric. Which took me quite a while to get my head around and made me a bit tense. Well its not very often you cut directly into the front of your dress is it.

Because of the folded detail the entire front is cut flat instead of on the fold. This did mean I had to do a bit of pattern jigsawing to get everything to fit.  

Note to self - linen likes to wrinkle. Which I did know but sweet Jesus it really does like to wrinkle up doesn't it! I have a black dress in linen that I absolutely love but if I'm going somewhere in the car I have to hitch my skirts right up to keep them as flat as possible so I don't look messy when I get to where ever I'm going. [she says like she goes anywhere more interesting than mcdonalds and Lil mans school]

On this picture you can see how tight it is across the hips. I'm hoping this was just because I was full of Easter chocolate. I really really don't want to have to unpick the side seams.  

I like the fact that I can tie it at the front and the back but I think I prefer it with the ties at the front because they shield any muffin top issues I may be having. 

To add them in I just cut four long rectangles, sewed them into tube and then inserted them into the side seams.

I actually don't hate this picture of my bum to be honest. 

So I guess I'm off to try this on to see if I need to let out the side seams and amend my pattern pieces or if I just need to get some spanx! 

Much Love Frankie 

x

My First Sew Over It Cami

It always amazes me how some indie pattern companies because royalty in the sewing world, Tilly and the buttons, grainline studios and of course Sew over it.

And if we are gonna be honest Lisa Comfort of sew over it would be the queen because LOL is their anything that woman can't do?

This is my first ever experience of the sew over it pattern company. As far as I know they don't have any free patterns and as I've said many times before I'm very cheap and don't like to spend money on things that aren't fabric. 

Luckily I was given this pattern during the #greatbigpatternswap I think it came free with one of the sewing magazines so naturally it didn't have any instructions. Luckily for me there was a sew along on the sew over it blog so I used that.

Fit wise I cut a size 12 as my bust size was in between a size 10 and a 12 and I'd rather I cut my pattern too big and altered it from there. For reference my bust size is 36 inches.

Fit wise I think its okay. I like the way its quite modest and doesn't gape when I bend over.

The construction is fairly simple it has an all in one facing and you attach it through the shoulders which to be completely honest is a method I absolutely hate. In future I think I'll just add in a centre back seam and then I can do the facing in my preferred way.

As it goes if i had realised I could have done my usual technique on this one because it has a centre back seam. I ended up putting in a centre back seam because I was running out of fabric and cutting both the front and the back out on the fold just wasn't happening. 

The fabric itself is this awesome skull print cotton by the craft cotton company , realistically its a bit thick for this kind of top but I'm still going to wear it just becuase i love the print. Plus I'm guessing the more I wash it the softer it will become.

I really really like the curved hem, however I am wondering if I should add a bit more length into the body just to make it a bit more flattering? 

All in all I do like the pattern but its just not very exciting is it? I'm sure I'll get a lot of use out of it though when I'm trying to use up all of my fabric scraps. 

In other news!!!

- Little man goes back to school tomorrow. SOBS. I've really enjoyed having him with me all day even if it means I can't sew. It took me back to when he was really little and it was just the two of us all day watching movies and having cuddles. On the plus side It will be nice to sew and he is really looking forward to going back. 

- Bake off is back! I actually really enjoyed the last series on channel four and dislike the last series on bbc. I guess that makes me a traitor but I'm glad its back. 

- My knitting project is nearly done [its a winter blanket for Polly, she sleeps in the kitchen and it gets pretty cold in there at night] after that I'm going to get back on track with my cardigan and then I'm going to give one of my nans vintage patterns a whirl.

And i think that's about it!

Much Love

Frankie