Floral Print Shirt - Prima Pattern

Excuse me whilst I use the opportunity of lock down to morph from a fun loving human into the bitch from hell. 

I'm joking obviously I'm not the bitch from hell quite yet but I have been in a fairly vile mood recently. Well a vile mood, a sad mood, a laughing hysterically and then crying on the floor mood.......... basically all the moods.

Its starting to get to me now this constant separation from the people I love. I miss having a brew with my mum and dad, I miss charity shops, I miss the girls from work and my knitting and maccies dates with my girl Aly. I miss her fella Paul coming over for a brew just because hes got five minutes, I miss packing lil dude off to my mum and dads so he can have a sleepover with his cousins, I miss dragging John on a trip to the big b and m so I can fill a shopping trolley with useless but pretty crap. I'm missing a lot of things. 

So in an effort to make myself less miserable I've been trying to do more things I love. 

I've been reading, A LOT.

Over the past two weeks Ive read, gone with the wind, dolly parton my life in lyrics, goodnight mister tom and I'm halfway through Peter Pan. which by the way is a lot bloody darker than the Disney cartoon would have you believe. 

I've been playing video games with my nieces and nephew and my big brother. 

I've been doing copious amounts of skincare, done some artwork and even found a few slithers of time for sewing. 

This however is an old project. A very old project. Its my basic prima shirt pattern that I always use when I make shirts and the fabric is a cotton lawn that I was given by the lovely ladies at sewalicious in exchange for writing them a blog post.

Instantly I knew I wanted this fabric to be a shirt becuase I loved the subtle 70's vibes it was giving me. Growing up my brother had a friend called Olly and he always wore 70's floral print shirts [well at least thats all i can remember him wearing!] and I thought he was the absolute height of cool! He was also in a band which added to his cool factor, so I guess this shirt is a homage to Olly, one of those rare teenagers who is kind enough to be nice to his friends little sister.

Construction wise it went together quite simply, as always I jacked up the cuff slit binding but I i wear it sleeves rolled up it doesn't bother me too much.

Actually the main reason it doesn't bother me is because I very rarely wear this shirt. Don't get me wrong, the pattern, fit and fabric are all spot on but it has one fatal flaw. 

IT NEEDS BLOODY IRONING!

yeah this is one of those shirts that comes out of the dryer all twisted round itself and folded in like an accordion. Creases everywhere and I really do hate ironing. 

Recently I purchased something called crease release [apparently you pop the article of clothing on a coat hanger, spray it with this magic stuff and VOILA no more creases] 

So hopefully whatever black magic is in the crease release will give me more opportunity to wear it. 

The buttons were from stash, literally cannot remember the last time I actually brought buttons for a project.

Here's it with the sleeves buttoned up properly and it untucked. I definitely think it looks nicer tucked in with the sleeves rolled up don't you?

Anyway so yeah that's that. Not a lot else I can say really apart from try and have a good week, stay safe and remember if you scream into a pillow the neighbours won't think your being murdered. 

Much love 

Frankie 

 

Tilly and the buttons checked Indigo Dress

Taking pictures is difficult at the minute!! Normally I use my mums living room , or go outside but LOL LOCKDOWN! So can’t visit mum and well honey its cold outside!

So instead I spent half a day lugging my tripod round the house desperately trying to find somewhere suitable to take a picture.

And as I live with a small child this was not easy, most backgrounds seemed to be filled with rubbish or toys or pants.............

Anyway this is my Tilly and the buttons indigo dress. Typically I don’t buy the individual Tilly and the buttons patterns because I’m a cheapskate. But a few months ago my phone pinged and I was forced to self isolate. 

And thus started a week where I had no lil man {I elected to send him to his dads so he could continue to go to school] no work and no boyfriend. I was lonely and pretty miserable. 

And on one of the MANY FaceTimes I made to my mum and sister one of them suggested that I treat myself to a new pattern and some fabric and well they didn’t have to suggest it twice!!!! [I also brought a second guitar but that’s another story]

I ordered the indigo dress from Tilly and the buttons because it has zero fastenings and looked like a nice easy make. Then I ordered two fabrics from Minerva.com and a whole heap of fabrics from pound fabrics. 

A word on pound fabrics, So far everything Ive ordered has been of excellent quality, however there is a minimum amount you can order and they do really sting you on the postage. I don’t even think they have a free postage option for if you spend an extortionate amount. 

I cut the dress out during isolation and sewed maybe two seemed then got sucked into watching “outlander” on prime and decided to focus on knitting my socks. 

And since then the pieces have been laying unloved and unfinished, until last week where I decided I needed and easy and uplifting sew, pulled my finger out and finished it off. And I LOVE it.

So it’s basically a bit of a tent but its so comfy and easy to pop on with leggings and tights. Plus it looks really cool with my doc martens boots. , Plus the fabric is part polyester so it doesn’t really need ironing! Which is a complete winner in my eyes. 

I’ve already made a second one and plan on wearing them lots. I’m trying to step away from wearing my pjs all day this lockdown as I don’t think it helps with my mental health.

And yeah that’s it really pattern by TATB and fabric from Minerva. Very easy and took barely any time, I did most of the construction on my overlocker which made things super speedy. 

IN OTHER NEWS!!! 

- homeschooling still sucks but we are managing

- I’m still not sleeping properly, probably because I’m not really doing anything apart from stay at home. 

- Ive been slowly adding rows to the crochet blanket I’m making for john. Currently I’ve reached the point where it doesn’t feel like its getting any bigger. It looks cute though I’m just hoping that I will actually finish it one day and it won’t end up withering under a pile of other things I want to make. 

And well that’s it really, its hard to have an other news when you can’t go out and make news? 

Oh wait actually one thing I have an iPad! John had one that he hardly used so he wiped it for me and I brought a keyboard so I can still blog whilst little dude is using my laptop for home schooling. It’s pretty cool and I think I’m in danger of becoming one of “those” apple people. 

I also brought these for the cats. Having three cats means that they can go through a bowl of biscuits in half an hour and then whinge for more. 

 Also I can’t wait to see all the cats gathered around it and imagine that they’ve just come out of a meeting that could have been an email. 

Much Love 

Frankie 

Xxxx

 

Post Lockdown Work Trousers

 Shes back again?

So looking back at my pictures I found that I was actually a bit more productive than I thought? These are a pair of work trousers I made during the first lockdown. 

I knew at some point I was going to have to go back to work but I also knew that after weeks of wearing pyjamas and sweat pants that my waist would not be able to handle a "traditional waistband".

Instead I found myself, for the first time in my life I hasten to add!!!! Wanting a pair of elasticated trousers........

The pattern was k1620 by simplicity.

I brought my copy off ebay for the princely sum of £2.00, I doubt I'll actually make anything else featured on the pattern envelope. But you never know.

The fabric was a cheap find at work. one of the main perks of working in a fabric shop is being able to check out the sale rail before anyone else. In this instance, this thick black jersey was on sale for two pounds per metre. Naturally I stashed the roll under my table and had two/three [god knows I can't remember] cut with the intention of making trousers. 

all in all they turned out very well, I sewed them up on my over locker and had no great difficulty in putting the elastic channel in. 

I did however forget to leave any indication of whats the front and whats the back. This led me to walk back into work for my first post lock down shift and when asked how I was, respond.....

"Not too bad but I think I might have my trousers on backwards"

Luckily the place I work is relaxed enough that our duty manager for the day took a good look at my bum and promptly responded that I probably did have them on backwards. 

A quick trip to the toilet and the problem was solved and I felt a lot more comfortable 

In other news:

In home schooling an absolute bloody nightmare? 

We are flip flopping between getting everything done in an hour to spending the whole day trying to open the various power points and work sheets that have been sent. 

However yesterday we did go on a bike ride which was nice. Neither me nor little man have been sleeping particularly well and i thought a bike ride might help. It didn't. Instead we both just got covered in mud and came home freezing but at least we had a nice time. 

Plus I spent the entire time living in fear of falling into the canal. Lil man had a new bike for christmas and his tyres and suspension seemed to cope quite well. I however was dealing with the bike that a neighbour kindly gave to me [I did previously have a bike but my ex took it when he collected his things].

Anyway I had mentioned the issue to my neighbour Jane during the NHS clapping after she commented on seeing me try and keep up with lil dude on a too small scooter whilst he rode a bike. 

I am not built for the coordination scooting requires. 

As it goes she had a much loved bike that she had ridden to work for 30 years and had been languishing in her garage for the past ten [this gives you a fairly good idea of its age] 

Its a bit rusty but otherwise it gets the job done and now me and lil dude can go on bike rides again!!!!!!

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx

welcome to the thunderdome and socks

its 2021, its been five/six months since my last blog post, we are currently in our second? major lockdown and here i am writing my blog. 

Who'd have thunk it?

So what have I been doing? and why haven't i been blogging?

WELL LIFE!

First of all there was the lovely thing called divorce , which I'm pretty sure is designed purely to suck the living soul out of a person and cause enough grief that most people think screw it and stay together no matter how miserable they are. 

Next up i had to figure out how to juggle being a working mum and having a small child, huge shout out to my mum and dad for providing childcare and very often hot food when i was too tired to make my own. 

Then i got a very lovely boyfriend, who although wonderful is a complete time suck. Suddenly i was faced with the choice of cuddle or sew and what can i say hes a really good hugger. 

Then I had some medical problems to contend with.

Then the pandemic came and suddenly i was having to cope with having said small child at home all day and trying desperately to remember all of the things i learnt about at school. 

Then i sold my house and moved in with my boyfriend, which is very similar to divorce in its soul sucking nature.

And now more pandemic.

So yeah that's basically been the last two years of my life in a nutshell.

Which hopefully explains my absence from blogging. 

The past two years has been a bit of a trial to be honest. I completely lost my sew jo, my motivation to create and my energy. But in return I found some wonderful friends an excellent boyfriend and i was reminded of just how awesome my family are. 

I've had a few projects on the go but nothing really filled me with joy the way it used to. I made blinds for my dads campervan, I made some stuff for work but everything else just seemed like a bit of a chore. Especially sewing. 

Until today. After a few days of having the inkling that i might like to sew I finally sat down and actually made something and now I'm feeling pretty darn chuffed with myself. 

Naturally its now to dark to take any nice pictures but i do have something else to talk about.

I MADE SOCKS!!! 

These were my first pair, during one of the spells between lockdowns me and my friend Aly met at hobbycraft for some retail therapy. She had just learnt how to knit and wanted to pick up some more wool and she was quick to spot a kit that apparently would make two identical socks. 

She decided despite being a beginner knitter that she wanted to make socks and somehow i got roped in.

I had to learn some new skills for this, including how to do a long tail cast on! and how to knit with DPNs. FYI i am terrible with double pointed needles and ended up swapping them out for a circular sock needle. 

SO MUCH EASIER!!!!!

I knitted them up reasonably quickly and found the instructions quite easy to follow, after they were finished and i had worn them around the house i realised quickly that socks were going to be my new addiction. 

So naturally i went online and ordered some more sock yarn and started another pair.

Oh yes we also got a new kitten , meet Buffy. She was my birthday present. john was insistant that we were having no more cats but his friends have a farm and this little ladies mum didn't seem to be coming back so we took her home and i ended up bottle feeding her. 

These socks are in the rum paradise colour way by the west yorkshire spinners. 

I was slightly nervous about running out of wool so i split the ball in half. 

However, i didn't think it through properly and as you can see the stripes now go in the opposite order on the second sock i knit. 

Its irritating but less noticeable than I thought it would be. I knit up the first sock quickly during a period of self isolation. Little man had a cough so we both ended up getting covid tests. Luckily we were both negative. Although it was a horrible experience, lil dude was not impressed with me ramming a stick up his nose and i was nearly sick in the car.  

Anyway the second sock took ages. And by ages I mean I had finished one section of self isolation and then had to start another one, this time my phone pinged asking me to stay at home. As it turns out my phone pinged because the people in the house next door had tested positive and it made my phone go off. 

Anyway I did finally finish the sock and now i own two pairs of hand knit socks!!!! 

So yeah I guess I haven't been completely unproductive!

Hopefully i wont leave it so long next time!

Stay home, 

Stay safe 

and look after yourselves

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx

Making Facemasks eurgh

So its been a while again huh? What can I say homeschooling has been taking up a lot of time and I didn't particularity feel like blogging. 

I have been making things, mainly crocheting cute animals and i have made some play suits, a dress and a shirt but haven't gotten around to taking photos yet. 

But today I had to bite the bullet and sew something corona related. EURGH! Now don't get me wrong I love the way that members of the sewing community have thrown themselves into making scrubs and face masks but I couldn't face it. In the beginning of lock down I was tagged in posts asking for scrubs and I just couldn't do it. Number one I didn't have the right fabrics or time and two I just didn't have the heart for it. In typical me style I had decided to deal with the pandemic by putting my hands over my ears and saying LALALALALALA very loudly. 

To be completely honest this pandemic has messed with my mental health in ways I didn't think it would. I have spent years being told by family, friends and various medical professionals that my fear of germs and illness is a touch on the crazy side. And now its like "Oh yeah wash your hands forty million times a day and take a bath in dettol or your gonna die" 

Luckily for me my boyfriend is very much of the relaxed variety and hes been doing a lot to calm me down. 

At the start of lock down I toyed with the idea of making face masks and even made some but sent them to my sister and her husband because I thought they get a kick out of having ones fitting their personality [my sisters is harry potter and her husbands is guitars].

But the general consensus seemed to be that face masks didn't really do much and that wearing one could actually provide a perfect breeding ground for bacteria. 

And now its like "oh yeah you have to wear a face mask at the shops or we'll fine you £100"

WELL THAT WAS AN ABOUT TURN OF EPIC PROPORTION !!!!!!!!!!!!!

So ive finally had to force myself to make something corona related.

So far I've made us two each. We chose our own fabrics and I was luckily enough to find a pattern that comes in different sizes so i could make them based off our measurements and hopefully that makes them fit better. 

I chose Harry Potter and Penguins and I managed to find some manly fabrics for Johns. He's going to need a lot more face masks than we do because he goes to work everyday.

Little dude chose the same harry potter fabric as me and some stars. Technically he doesn't have to wear one as hes under 11 but I gave him the option and he said if I'm wearing one he'll wear one as well. Hes got a little tiny face so the different sizes were very useful. 

He's actually pretty pleased with his and stated that he thinks he looks "cool" Pretty sure face masks are going to end up being the new fashion accessory. I've noticed places like asos are already trying to cash in on peoples fear. 

Anyway in other news!

Im learning guitar and I bloody love it!!!! I've wanted to try and learn properly for ages and now seemed like as good time as any. 

I'm still practising ukulele

I'm enjoying crochet and I've been watching a LOT of TV series. so far I've finished Roswell and Buffy the vampire slayer and I've started desperate housewives.

I've also finished two books "Eleanor oliphant is completely fine" and "this is going to hurt" I'd recommend both of them for "this is going to hurt" is about a junior doctor and it gives excellent insight into how the nhs works. 

So yeah thats it. 

I'd say I'll try not to leave it so long again but my momma taught me not to tell lies!!!! 

Much Love

Frankie 

xxxx

Galaxy Print Leggings

So hows things? I've been hit with a combination of loss of sewjo and home learning. So my days tend to be filled with trying to remember how to do maths that I didn't really pay attention to in school and English that I never understood in the first place. 

Luckily we seem to have hit a good routine with the whole school thing, we have a box and I've been racking my brains for fun things to do when the school work is done. 

Anyway on to something not lock down related! These are some leggings that I made ages ago when I actually had the motivation to sew. 

The AMAZING galaxy print fabric is from a shop in liverpool that I can't remember the name of. I think I brought 2 and a half metres and I got these and a dress out of it. 

I did my best with the pattern cutting to make sure that the pattern was in the same place on both legs.

My Dad takes the best pictures of me. 

I made them for rock climbing and the first time I wore them I was actually complimented on them but a lady. 

In fact full story we were in the bouldering room and two women came in who were very intimidating rock climbing wise. Me and Marcus tend to be of the "have fun" variety of rock climbers and these ladies were clearly very serious, and one of them kept LOOKING AT ME!!!! So me and Marcus retreated to another room. [I tend to prefer it when we have a room to ourselves because I don't have to make sure Marcus isn't wandering around under where someone is hanging off a wall.] Anyway one of them came back over to us and was LOOKING again [which gave me serious anxiety] and then she said she liked my leggings and I decided maybe she wasn't that scary after all. 

Construction wise aside from the hems I did everything on my overlocker which made them really quick to stitch up. and because the leggings are only 1 piece per leg it wasn't very many seams either.

The pattern is the free pegs pattern by patterns for pirates. I find they fit really nicely and as I said before there quick to sew so thats a winner as well. 

In other news!

- So yeah no motivation to sew, but I have done some cross stitch.

- I've still been knitting away but I seemed to have eased off on crochet a bit.

- I've been doing some nail art on myself and now I'm itching to paint someone else's nails. 

- AND I've been learning to play the ukulele, It all actually started with little dude. He had a cheap ukulele and was playing it constantly so I decided to order one for me as well. Well that one turned up and instantly it was clear that it was much better than the cheap one little dude was playing so I let me snaffle that one and ordered another for myself. I've actually really surprised myself with it. I enjoy practising and at the minute with everything that's going on its one of the things that actually relaxes me.  

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxxx

Japanese Fabric Dress Pattern Hack

God that titles a bit ropey isn't it? But to explain, the dress is a heavily hacked Tilly and the Buttons Lilou bodice, and by heavily hacked I mean heavily!

As you can see I took the bodice and tried to wrangle it into being a tie front. Its not a bad job but I did have visions of me looking a bit more buxom in it. Boobs squished together that sort of thing. 

But I think for maximum boob squish The knot would have to be a bit lower. 

Ideally I would have made a toile but what can I say I'm not that kind of girl so instead it judge that the knot would need to be in the *ahem* nipple region to preserve my modesty best. So I put the knot in line with the bust dart because that points the the *ahem* nipple region anyway. 

Naturally because of the knot I do have to go bra less. Which is a bit of a nightmare. I did buy some of those sticky boob things but they are a bit of a pain to get on and for some reason I always end up with wonky boobs. 

* for those who haven't heard of sticky boob things, it a thing shaped a bit like a rabbit and you stick The bottom bit to your boob and then hoist it up and stick the top bit to your chest. The theory is you can wear strapless and backless and still have perky bosoms BUT I think they are designed for a slightly smaller bust and I wouldn't recoomend them for anyone over a B cup. Plus peeling sticky stuff off your boobs is the next level of hell as far as I'm concerned*

The fabric was a gift from my friend and ex work colleague Lewis. OMG that boy was an absolute babe! He used to really brighten my shifts at work and we always had a good chat. To the point where we ended up having to work on separate ends of the shop. And then he left.........traitor. 

Anyway he went to Japan on holiday and was kind enough to bring this back for me. He thought I'd like the colours and the print and I thought he'd like the bow front because its a bit saucy.

The skirt is a lovely full gathered one and makes me feel a bit like a princess. Its really wrinkled in the picture above because aside from Lil dude school stuff I've sort of given up on ironing. 

All in all I do really like it. And it will be nice for the warmer weather we are having. Even if no one else is going to see it. 

So in other news!

- We are still on lockdown....... So yeah. Again I've been trying to keep busy. Its nice spending so much time with lil dude but he's gone to his Dads for a week now and I'm worried that I'll fall into a pit of despair. God that's a bit dramatic isn't it? But in all seriousness having him here has been keeping me sane and giving me something to focus on.

- But John [my lovely boyfriend] and my Mum have been brain storming ideas on how to keep me busy and I have a pile of sewing projects to be getting on with. Its nice to have people who really care about you. My sister and her husband have also suggested we have a video chat Harry Potter quiz at some point so I'm looking forward to that.

- I'm getting on nicely with my knitted blanket and I've started the decreases.

- Dinnerladies is on netflix and I'm chuffed to bits because I love Victoria Wood. 

So yeah that's about it really. I hope your all keeping safe and I hope my blog posts are giving you a bit of light relief from the news. Even if 80% of this one was me talking about boobs. 

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx