Thursday 30 June 2016

Prima daisy print dress

When I finished this dress I was all like "OMG this is bad"

and then I was like "FRANKIE YOU FOOL YOU'VE WASTED FABRIC!"

and now its like "hmmm maybe its cute?"

And then I realised I'd made a dress for my baby god daughter in the same print and if somebody did a who wore it better she'd definitely win! And then I decided if shes going to upstage me then I'm not sewing for her anymore.

Yeah things went crazy fast!


It all started out with a hankering to try something new, I was going to make a lilou dress out of this cotton daisy print fabric I got from abakhans but then I was just bored withe idea. so I dug through my patterns and found a pattern by prima [which I forgot to photograph before I cut, Woops. But it was from 2014 anyway so Its not like your gonna be able to pick it up.]


The bodice is a simple darted bodice with a scoop neck and cap sleeves, and then the skirt is an a-line. In the image on the pattern the skirt looks bigger so I was a bit gutted when I tried it on and it was less big than I expected.


I shortened the skirt pieces by 3 inches and then had to hack off another 2 when I went to hem it anyway! And I scooped out the back neckline because the idea of having a high neck at the front and back made me feel claustrophobic.


The armholes and neckline is finished with bias binding and I hand hemmed it. The bodice is unlined but I finished all my seams with a second row of stitching and my pinking shears. To be honest I wish I had lined it but that might be a personal preference thing,


I cut out the pattern according to my size but OMG apparently prima patterns just require all of the ease! Its big and that what really got my goat. All i could think was I should have used one of the bodices I spent forever altering instead of rushing in and ending up with something baggy.


That was until I gorged myself on food and was like "oh wait, wheres the uncomfortable I might pop out of my clothes sensation?" I mean this might actually end up as my eating dress. Its kind of nice to be able to reach for more food without worrying I might pop out of my clothes [Prime example being when I wore my african wax print dress to the cinema, the fit is bang on...until you've eaten a tub of popcorn and a bag of smarties as well as guzzling down lovely bloaty coke. Then Its like wearing a straight jacket whilst trying to burp quietly.]


And I feel kind of adorable in it? Like the kind of girl who listens to indie music and has a cat named dog or something super hipster like that. [no word of a lie, I really want to be a hipster but I have no idea whats cool, whats not cool and whats ironically cool. So I'm screwed guess I'll just have to settle for being gawky. Plus I hate cereals and milk and I'm pretty sure eating cereals with milk in a cafe is the most hipster thing you can do]


Its shorter than usual which is a nice change and I think it will work for winter.


So the bad points:

the weird fade line in the fabric which made me want to cry [No idea how it got there, but if its wants to do one that would be awesome]

Its not lined 

I wish the skirt was a fraction fuller

Necklines a bit gapey

good points:

The print is all the 90's goodness rolled into one super cotton bolt!

the length, I'm embracing my legs

Room for a second slice of cake.... nuff said.

Darts hit the right place on the old bosom.

Looks adorable with my granddad cardigans and brogues.

And that's it really, I thought it was a complete flop but its actually not too bad. I think I like it better after seeing it in these pictures,

In other news! 

You may have noticed I been posting less often. I feel like a day on and a day off is a good place for me at the moment. It kind of felt like I was churning posts out just for content and to be honest it was all a bit soul destroying. I want to show you guys awesome stuff I've made that I love, or at least crappy stuff I've made but I can laugh about. Not stupid little projects that I've made for the sake of a post and then chucked in a drawer.

I'm also trying a lot more new techniques now so It is taking me longer to finish things.

I am considering posting throwback links to old blog posts as well. Mainly so I can see how far I've come but also so you guys can see some of the awesome crazy stuff I made when I started this blog! like this!

I think its just about trying to find my groove. 

Much Love

Frankie

xxx







Tuesday 28 June 2016

New Baby Bunny!

I don't want to alarm you all but......

I'M GOING TO BE AN AUNTY AGAIN!

Seriously was there a power cut I don't know about? everybody seems to be popping out the babies!


Anyway I've already started its gift basket in fact its what this quilt top is for! 


I've tried to go pretty neutral on the bunny, both of the fabrics are from the craft cotton company. and as a nice touch the triangle fabric that's on the body is on the bunnies I made for its elder brother and sister for Easter.


I used my own Easter bunny tutorial, and didn't make any changes. I was tempted to make a mouse but its mum and dad requested a rabbit.


I'm very pleased with how it turned out I'm just wondering if I should change the ribbon round its neck for something darker? 

And I've already decided if its a girl I'm going to put a tutu on it!

Frankie

xxx




Sunday 26 June 2016

Wrap Yoga Pants

This might be the oldest project I've ever shown you. These are the trousers I made during my first few textiles lessons at GCSE. So yeah they are OLD! 

Our lovely textiles teacher brought some of those wrap beach trousers on holiday and brought them in so we could all copy them and make our own versions. Naturally we had to do some changes to fit our body shapes, mainly on the hems and waist, but I also remember a good deal of giggling from us about having to measure our crotch curve.

They wrap at the front and back in a pretty similar way to the vintage top I made.


I was so darn proud of these trousers. I was the only one who went out and actually brought fabric instead of just sing the nasty cotton from the textiles store. I'm not sure what the fabric is but its heavy and drapes beautifully, its also a lush shade of aubergine. 

It also frayed like a mother and meant I was the only girl in the class who got to use the over locker. Funnily enough I had to overlock each leg in a separate lesson because I need "supervision" and in between lessons somebody changed the over locker thread from black to white and my teacher was all like "can't you just use white on the other leg?"

  Um can you just breathe water and not air? Yeah I made her change it, I have standards woman!


I also gathered mine at the ankle because otherwise they flap around and expose your legs.... and nobody needs to see that! They also have little hand embroidered flowers and sparkly bits sewn on. Teenager Frankie was a HUGE fan of embellishment!!! 


I actually hated my textiles lessons, not because of what we learnt or the teacher just because nobody actually cared and I REALLY cared. Even at a young age textiles was such a huge thing to me.

Embarrassingly I actually used to loose it if somebody used the machine I was on and ran the bobbin out. [I'm thinking about it now and I can feel my blood boiling!] And its not even like we didn't have enough machines! there were plenty!!!

But that was NOTHING compared to the cheating that went on!

I can quite safely say I sewed every stitch on every project I handed in, but I think I may have been the only one! So many of the girls in my class left with the bundle of rags they were calling a project on one night and then suddenly arrived with haute couture the next day.

"no miss, my mother/nan hasn't helped me, this is all my own work!"

Yeah love that's why I've been threading your machine for the past six weeks!



Anyway why are these back in my possession! I needed yoga trousers and my mum still had these squirrelled away! [Here's me getting my yoga on being all zen and stuff]


And I've gotta say I had them on all last night and they are pretty darn comfy!

Kudos young Frankie, Kudos!

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx

Friday 24 June 2016

Daisy Dress For Pudding

I cut out a dress recently and found myself with a small piece of fabric left. well a medium sized piece, Not quite enough to make myself something but a bit too much for it to go in the scraps box.

Luckily for me I have a lovely lil god-daughter "pudding" and it seemed a shame not to make her a lil something.

Now normally I don't do children, there's a few I like [my own included] but mostly I just think they are sticky, loud, obnoxious little beings. 

I like pudding though, luckily for me shes still small enough to think I'm humorous and doesn't require much more attention than the odd silly face!



Anyway the pattern came from the second great british sewing bee book, but I omitted the collar and added a ruffle along the bottom. For a dress the pattern seems very short?


I lined the bodice and left an opening in the back neck so it can be easily gotten on and off. I used an odd button and a loop for the closure.


I put lace trim around the join between the skirt and the bodice, mainly because I was caught up in a whirl wind of adorable baby making! Luckily I had just enough of this lace to do it!


I spent most of my time basking in how adorable it was turn out and the rest of the time trying to make sure there were no scratchy seams.


I top stitched the neckline and armholes so everything would stay in place and so It wouldn't need ironing.


I'm really pleased with this, It was actually quite nice to make something for someone else even if I don't think I'll be doing it a lot! babies grow too fast!!!

And I'm definitely glad I added the ruffle onto the bottom!

Now I just have to hope that baby likes it, mum likes it and that it fits!!!


Much Love

Frankie

xxx



Wednesday 22 June 2016

African Wax Print Dress

This is one of those dresses when you finish it and you just can't help but smile cos its just so cracking!


The fabric was this African wax print cotton from abakhan fabrics. Its a panel print which is always a bit of a mind boggler when it comes to cutting out, and it was a pre cut but for less than £4.00 you can't really moan can you? Well you could but its considered rude..... [sorry about the naff quality of this picture it was taken on my phone moments before I started cutting out.]

If your thinking of using a wax cotton I'd definitely recommend it. Don't be put of by how it feels in the shop. [which is pretty similar to card to be honest] when you've washed it, it will soften up to like a quilting cotton type weight? I think its a great option for beginners actually because it handles and presses so nicely! 


Now for the cutting out. I decided a princess seam bodice was the best way to go because I thought the front seams would be less disruptive to the pattern than darts. So the bodice was cut with a centre fold running down the large pattern section and both the skirt pieces were cut with the fabric folded the other way! and then the waistband was cut from the middle part where the skirt pieces had been cut.

I'm chuffed to death with the pattern on the bodice but I wish I'd centred the pattern on the skirt pieces. I'm not sure if I had enough fabric to, but it would have been a nice touch.


The bodice is the princess seam bodice from the second GBSB book and the skirt is the box pleat skirt from the same book. This fabric loves to pleat by the way! Its like "yeah! fold me and iron me and I'll be the neatest lil pleat you ever did see!" I also used the waistband from the box pleat skirt because I've had issues with the bodice being too short before now.

It was quite nice to realise that the box pleat skirt and the bodice fit together without any alterations. I don't know if its a fluke just for me. But if it isn't it might have been nice if they'd mentioned it in the book. A girl likes to have options ya know.


I did add a slit detail to the front of the bodice just to keep things a bit different. This might actually be my favourite part it add s a classy bit of boobage without being like "HELLO PLEASE STARE AT MY VERY NEARLY EXPOSED BREASTS!" 

Its not the neatest slit in the world [god that sounds filthy!] but it was my first one ever so I can't really complain. 


The bodice and waistband are both lined. I actually finished the inside of the lining by hand which is pretty standard for me. What wasn't standard was me sewing my unpicker lid into the lining! I was stood after finishing, feeling like the queen of Sheba in my new frock having a quick bodice feel [which is kind of like groping yourself to check for excess fabric] and then was like OMG what that in my back? and then I realised! Damm near peed my pants laughing! Luckily for me the zip had been a swine to get my needle though so my stitches were pretty big and I managed to squeeze it out! 

If you want a giggle there's a cracking selfie of me on instagram giggling away when I just realised what I'd done!


Anyway disaster averted! I did a concealed zip at the back seam... well at least I tried. And the hem is a teeny weeny 1cm because of the length.


Anyway! Thoughts?

Love this dress, in fact no! I LOVE THIS DRESS! I feels all kinds of sassy! 

Love the box pleat skirt its pretty darn flattering.

Lengths good!

Looks cute with black tights and a black cardi which is a winner.

Its just one of those projects that turned out exactly as I wanted!

Although the zip could be better and so could the keyhole.

The fits pretty smack on as well, but to be honest seen as I've made this bodice so many times now I'd be a bit ashamed if I screwed up the fit!

Much Love

A proper chuffed 

Frankie

xxx





Sunday 19 June 2016

Prima Sleeveless Jacket in Suede

Okay so its not a success and its not a failure. My very lovely pen friend sent me this prima pattern after seeing that Lisa Comfort from sew over it had made one and she thought I might like to give it a whirl. And she was nice enough to send this fabric as well and I manged to squeeze it out so I could make my own.


Now it could be because I've never worn a sleeveless jacket before, but I'm not quite sold on how it looks on me. At least I don't think I am, For starters I don't really have many long sleeved tops. In fact I had to take these pictures in one of Rikkis jumpers and that I'm feeling a bit potatoey at the moment anyway, due to you know, that babe mother nature. So that might be effecting how I feel.


That said, this is some of my best sewing to date! 

Its fully lined, I finished the arm facings and hem by hand, and that people is my first ever notched jacket collar.

I really took my time on making sure it was made as well as I could manage. But I didn't use the instructions, I'm starting to think I have something against instructions but sometimes OMG they just complicate matters to the extreme! So for this I flew solo, ignored the instructions and ploughed ahead!

Lisa actually mentions in her video that she didn't think the instructions were great and that a beginner would struggle and I agree. There's not a huge amount of detail on the pattern pieces and cutting out the lining pieces was a bit of a mind boggler.


I added the belt myself because its always worth having a tie waist option but now I'm not sure if I prefer it open? Or if it might ject look nicer with one of my black leather belts?


Here's the inside lining, I really am proud of the finish on this. I just wish I had pressed it better. In fact I'm thinking I might get my Mother in Law to have a go at pressing the collar and stuff because shes really pretty cracking with an iron. Whereas I'm just not good at ironing at all.


I am pleased with the collar I think its even and for my first proper collar I'm pretty darn chuffed with myself!


The outer fabric is an off white suede which sews lovely but hates to be ironed, and the lining is some sort of synthetic thing I had in my fabric cupboard. The armhole facings should have been done in suede but I ran out of fabric. They are stitched down nice and neat though and you cant see them when I'm wearing it,


I folded to hem over once and finished it with ribbon like I did on my cape. It takes a while but I prefer this finish because it can't be seen from the outside. Plus it means you can use sparkly gold ribbon , and well who needs an excuse to use sparkly gold ribbon?  


Here's another picture of the collar just in case you hadn't realised how chuffed I was already!

So what changes would I make if I made it again? [which I think I might, but in a grey wool]

- do the longer length, this isn't too bad but I am aware that it hits me right at my widest point my hips.
- Put pockets on. I really wanted pockets on this one but I ran out of fabric. My next version needs pockets.
- Get enough fabric [goes without saying really doesn't it]


So yeah I am pleased. I just think its a step out of the old comfort zone! It was lovely to try something new though so thank you to lovely pen friend for sending me the stuff!

In other news

my hayfever is raging

I've got my sewing area back!!!!!!

And I'm hoping to be able to share a new and exciting project with you in the next few weeks!!!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx






Thursday 16 June 2016

Quick Toddler Pirate Costume DIY

Yet another costume for lil man for nursery, seriously its starting to feel like I'm making one of these very week. And if its not a costume its wear a certain colour or wear transport themed clothes or something!

Anyway this week was pirates, and being me I wasn't going to pay for a cheap and nasty costume instead it was just quicker to do some googling and throw something together!


Okay so from the top!

-Bandanna, this ones my dads which I stole years ago but you could just use a square of fabric.
- white shirt, Its raining today so we went with a shirt but I did have a short sleeved t-shirt option if it was warm!
- waistcoat, this is from his wardrobe and I just appliqued a quick skull and cross bones to the back.
-trousers, I especially put these to one side just in case I needed to do a costume, they were too short in the leg so I cut them down in a zig zig pattern. I might hem them into shorts now pirate day is over!
- red belt, this is just a long piece of red fleece but you could just use a scarf.
- stripey socks


as always the priority was making sure he would be comfy for the whole morning at nursery, and warm enough for the walk down.

He didn't seem to mind wearing this too much, I think he might be getting used to costumes a bit more now hes older.

I can't say I'd change anything about it I think he looks pretty good to say it took about 10 minutes to make and I didn't spend any money!

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx



Tuesday 14 June 2016

Owl Print Box Pleat Skirt

First of all the quality of these pictures is just not good, please don't blame me... blame the muggy, awful weather we've been having. 


Anyway recently my sister and her lovely husband sent me some of this awesome owl print fabric because they saw it and thought of me!

Anyway when I first saw it I had to have a good think about what to make. I thought this might be a bit too twee for a skirt and I had almost convinced myself to make a full set of bags for when we go away. I was about one step off cutting out when I thought to myself, jeez Frankie don't be a massive bore! Just make a fricking owl print skirt for the days you want to pretend to be a 1940's housewife! 

So I did! [as it goes I had enough for a makeup bag as well!]


I used the box pleat skirt pattern from the 2nd Great British Sewing Bee book, and to be honest I was pleasantly surprised it's a pretty good fit straight out the bag and with only having three pattern pieces to trace its not overly mind numbing.

Its actually a pretty quick sew, and I think I'll make it again as I love the look!

 However!

I did encounter my biggest pet peeve. Side zips. 

eurgh side zips I just hate them, I really can't explain it more than that they just suck and make me feel wonky! So I'm going to alter the pattern for a back zip instead! 

I've already took an inch off the length, which is pretty standard for my short lil legs!


I''m not sure what type of fabric it is? Its not heavy enough to be upholstery fabric but its got sort of a canvas feel to it? It works nicely for this skirt though and it sewed up really nicely too. 


I always struggle to style lighter skirts but I think this top works pretty well. Actually that's a lie, I struggle to style anything lighter because I'm a messy person and I know Its inevitably going to stain.


I think the two box pleats at the front and back are pretty flattering for my shape. 

Construction wise there's not much to say, it went together pretty quickly. I didn't baste my pleats in I just pinned them. Its a lapped zip with a button tab. Although I think the pattern calls for a hook and bar but I thought it would be a nice opportunity to use one of my single buttons [sounds a bit like a personal ad doesn't it really, single button seeking fabric for fun, fashion and maybe more?] 

I stitched in the ditch the waistband down, its not perfect but its not awful so I won't be getting my seam ripper out. 


I didn't bother pattern matching but I did spend a long time trying to work out which way to use the fabric. I'm pretty sure I've got it the right way but the owls are pretty random so I'm not sure it matters.


And I whacked a lil label in right at the end!


I'm trying to put these in all my me made clothes, every time I iron I seem to be sewing one in!

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx 

Monday 13 June 2016

New Makeup Bag!

This is what my makeup bag looks like..... Yeah seriously I have a LOT of stuff! Funnily enough when I was like 17 my makeup bag consisted on face powder, eyeliner, mascara and lipstick, and that was it, I only needed four items it didn't matter if I was going out or staying in that was all I used.

Anyway I sat in the pub one night and showed my friend what I used and she was like "is this it?" Anyway in the end she ended up giving me a LOAD of makeup and showing me how to use and and suddenly my eyes were opened!
  

anyway this makeup bag situation is a big ridiculous, everything falls out all the time and me stomping round the house because I've lost my foundation at 7.30am when I NEED! to put some sort of acceptable face on for nursery is not a pretty sight. 


And surprisingly I use a lot of it, so a new makeup bag was needed and luckily for me I had a scrap of cute fabric lying around.


How adorable is this owl print? My sister and her husband brought it for me because they saw it and thought of me! and they posted it to me as well! which fills me with more excitement than it should because I never get post! 


Anyway its a basic square with a zip and a pocket on the front. I didn't really need to pocket but I had the fabric so thought I might as well use it. So far I've been using it to store my bobby pins and my compact mirror. 


The zip is from one of lil mans old hoodies and that's it really, I didn't line it I just threw it together whilst watching desperate housewives.


But luckily It fits all my makeup in!

So yay! and as a bonus! I made a skirt from this fabric as well an its turned out super cute! 

And hopefully Ill be able to get some pictures of that as soon as the sun decided to make an appearance again!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx