A Tale of Two Ties

Lil man went back to school today. Naturally though we added a bit of excitement by my alarm not going off in the morning [I definitely set one not that Rikki believes me!] Anyway that meant I was woken up by lil man at 8 o'clock. Bearing in mind he has to be at school by 8.45 and neither me or Rikki had slept particularly well, that left us with a bit of a rush on our hands to say the least!!! 

But we made it and now I'm sat without a lil man to annoy me / snuggle me. I've been trying to convince Rikki to watch Moana with me but apparently after six weeks of Disney movies he's not watching anything with a singing, dancing or a happy ending! 

Anyways on to the ties. Me and Lil man made these one afternoon of the summer holidays. The weather was rotten and he was reaching fever pitch so I decided to let him have his first ever proper go on my sewing machine.

Cheifly his job was the lower and lift the presser foot, press the reverse button , take the pins out and guide the fabric. He did really well actually and he listened really carefully to make sure he was doing it properly.

I chose the patterns, Rikkis is made from a pattern from the sew everything book , and Lil mans is drafted to his exact size using freesewing.org. I'd been planning on making them matching ties for a while but I was going to scale down Rikkis tie pattern. Luckily the drafting website saved me a lot of time and effort! 

The fabric I used it a bit thick really but I chose it so it would match my dress. [Wearing matching outfits as a family is way way underrated by the way!]

You can see the difference in scale here. As I said the fabric was a bit thick so it makes quite a big knot, but it did mean I didn't need to use interfacing. The cotton on the inside of the tie tail is just a scrap from my quilting drawer. I didn't follow the instructions on freesewing.org, the website has you sew the end so you can't see the tie lining edge but I was sewing with a small child so I just went for a simpler option. 

I used my labels from the dutch label shop as tie keepers which I think is a really cute feature.

They did take a lot of pressing but we were both very pleased with how they turned out!!! Plus it was nice to see him getting excited about sewing and letting him do something very grown up like sew on my machine! 

In other news:

I'm looking forward to getting back on schedule with blogging and sewing again.

My friend turned up yesterday with some wool, curtain fabric and buttons that he'd pulled out of his mums loft. I love it when people think of me when they find hidden crafty gems or stuff they are getting rid off. 

I went to see my mums neighbour and we had a really great chat. You might say she's the one who properly got me started on the whole loving to sew thing! But I'll cover that in another post!

Plus in that post you will see one of the biggest projects I've ever done [and on the tightest deadline] and its not ever for me!!!

Much Love 

Frankie 

x

Finally Finished V8974 - In Red Waffle

I have finally defeated the v8974 pattern by Vogue. I'm not gonna say what I nicknamed this dress but it starts with "B" and ends in "itch". I made my first toile a little while ago and that one was huge, so I sized down the pattern and well it was still too bloody big. Now it could be my fault I used the last of my red waffle from FCfabricstudios. Now its not an overly stretchy fabric but it does have a certain "bounce?" shall we say?

Anyway long story short I took a grand total of four inches out of the back and now it fits exactly like it should! #winning.

But the reason I persevered is because that bodice is the bomb diggity. I love the v neckline, the centre front seam and the those slanted darts are so beautiful. But as I said its a [Insert naughty word] to fit.

So details!

- I swapped out their Aline skirt for a circle skirt, I liked the a-line on everyone else but on me it just looked meh.

-I added a centre back seam because I hate side zips, and thank god I did because otherwise I have no idea how I would of made it fit me!

- Took loads of length off the straps. In fact the straps are meant to be inserted in between the bodice and the facing but mine are just stitched to the inside because I had to alter them so many times.

- Went down to a size 12. My first toile was in a 14 and it was too big so I sized down. I'm going to make this again in a 12 and see if I still have the same issues. If I don't I'll size down again to a 10.

Fabric wise I've already said I used this red waffle from FCfabricstudios. I love this fabric so much it just looks expensive! In fact I like it so much this dress is now the main contender for the wedding I;m going to in September.

The zip was from one of the £1 grab bags from abakhans. Its sewn in pretty well but would benefit from a good press.

I hemmed the whole thing by hand after letting it hang for a week. And then I celebrated finally finishing ti with a big ol glass of wine.  

All in all I love it. It was definitely a challenge for me. Whilst the construction wasn't too difficult the fitting was an absolute brute and made me want to sob hysterically on more than one occasion. Anyway if you want to have your own fitting nightmare and possible crying fit you can find the pattern here for £15.00.

In other news:

- I've got a new iron! My old one just decided not to turn on one day so I went out and brought another. I'm actually pretty pleased because I HATED that iron and it stupid non stick plate that stuck to bloody everything! So YAY!

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx

Sew Style Essentials, Jersey Dress

I'm all about comfort at the moment. Seriously I brought 2 sensible bras and a two packs of sensible pants last week [You know the kind, the ones that don't give you panty lines and are basically seamless]. So yeah I am all about comfort and this dress pretty much sums up my style five days of the week. You see I'm not a morning person, so when I get up with lil man for school some days I struggle to dress myself. 

This is the perfect dress for me though because all I need is underwear, tights and a belt and I am good to go!

So lets get down to the knitty gritty. The pattern came from Sew Style Essential magazine and was one of those "enlarge by 200%" monstrosities. Now I normally ignore these because LOL I have zero idea how to enlarge anything using my printer! But luckily for me it also came with a download version which you can find here. Now don't panic I know its got every single pattern from the magazine in it BUT there is a magical way just to print the pages you need. I mean I don't know how to do it, but I have a husband who does..... [It prints on 16 sheets of paper btw!] 

Anyway Its a stupidly simple pattern designed for jersey fabrics, Its three pattern pieces and I did most of it on my over-locker in about an hour [Including cutting out] The only thing I had trouble with was that my pattern only printed one size? But that could be my printer, as you may have grasped I'm pretty printer illiterate. I measured the pieces and took a punt that it might fit me. To put it into perspective I'm a RTW size 12 on the bottom and either a 10/12 on the top depending on whether I'm having a good boob day. The only part that's tight is on the arms, so I've marked that pattern piece to use a smaller seam allowance. 

My fabric is a jersey from FC Fabric Studios, It has two way stretch and washes like a dream! I've had this through the wash umpteen times and so far no issues. Its a lightweight jersey, sort of like a t-shirt fabric but its not primark t-shirt fabric thin! Sadly I can't find it on the website now but they have some other cool prints. I'm already coveting this and this for two more comfy dresses!

Okay so all in all , I love it. I mean its not the sort of make that's going to set the world on fire but I love how the clean lines really showcase what to be honest could be a bit of a difficult print. Anything too fussy and this fabric would have drowned it but I think the dress keeps things simple and chic. I even like the higher neckline, typically I tend to prefer to show a bit more chest [flaunt what yo momma gave ya] but I think this combination of a high neck and not too much leg looks very classy. In fact it kind of makes me gutted that I don't work in an office because then I could wear these everyday.  

In other news I've nearly finished my knitted blanket! Yay!

And I've started a cross stitch , the less said on that the better!

I didn't really do a huge amount over the weekend. Lil man had football practise on Saturday morning so spent Sunday morning in bed watching films and eating brioche! And then Mummy did some knitting whilst lil man watched the football! 

I think its nice to have a lazy day especially seen as we had to be up and dressed so early on the Saturday. And it was the first time I stayed and watched and it was fairly entertaining and I became quite the source of amusement to the coaches , mainly because I flinch whenever the ball comes near me! 

Much Love

Hope you had a fabulous weekend!

Frankie 

xxx

Disclaimer - Whilst FC fabric studios sent me this fabric for free all comfy/jersey dress love is my own!

Red Waffle Dress - FC The Fabric Studio

Hey guys! Lets take a moment to appreciate the 30 seconds of sunshine we had yesterday! Today however it was gone, and I am still waiting for nice weather because it makes taking blog pictures 1000% easier. 

Anyway I'm here today with possibly my favourite dress that I've ever made thus far. This dress was a serious labour of love and I made sure to try and do everything to the best of my ability.

So lets start from the top! The fabric is from FC FabricStudio who were kind enough to get in touch with me a while ago and ask if I wanted some fabric to blog about. And well Momma didn't raise no fool so naturally I said yes! 

I sent a list of fabric I liked from the website and was sent this awesome red polyester waffle and another red floral jersey. Now because they were both red I pre washed them together with a colour catcher [FYI I now do all of my washing with a colour catcher just because it saves so much heartache]. Now the colour catcher came out red but I'm not sure which fabric ran and neither looked different coming out of the wash. So no harm no foul just something to be aware of. 

The websites easy to navigate and the washing instruction for each fabric are really clear which I love. 

They have just under 300 fabrics on the website and they start from £2.00 and go up to £14.00 which is hardly bank breaking now is it? The other thing I love is that all of the fabrics have a great RTW sort of vibe to them. There's no novelty stuff which is great if you want to have a high street sort of look.

Pattern wise I wanted a really classic dress something that wouldn't look out of place in a restaurant but that I could dress down for assemblies at Lil mans school. Naturally I went for the Princess seam bodice from the second GBSB book because I've altered it to fit me perfectly. I added a waistband and spent a good hour umming and ahhing between having a full circle skirt and a box pleat one. In the end the box pleat won because I knew the fabric would hold the shape beautifully. The box pleat skirt is also from the second GBSB book.   

I made sure to press all of my seams really carefully and I under stitched my facings. Normally I line all of my bodices but because the fabric is thicker than a cotton I thought a lined bodice might be a tad warm and well ummm sweaty..... That said I did line the waistband so the seams from the skirt and the bodice would be tidied away. I just trimmed the seam allowances on the rest because the fabric doesn't fray.

The zip is recycled from an old hoody [I really love an exposed metal zip!] and hurrah it went in first time.

Typically I don't make dresses in plain fabrics but I think the waffle texture adds a good amount of interest to something that could end up being quite dull.

So I;m marking this a GRAND success! I love the look of the dress and I love how RTW it seems! And the colour guys! Its just so beautiful I feel like Chris De Burgh should be following me around singing lady in red! 

And I highly recommend the website for finding beautiful prints that aren't to "out there" I've got my eye on this one and this one next!

I have decided what to do with the floral jersey but the pattern needs printing off so I need to wait until Rikki is out of the house so he's not all like "WHY ARE THEIR 40 PAGES COMING OUT OF THE PRINTER!!! DON'T YOU KNOW HOW MUCH INK COSTS!" Its much easier we both just pretend that our printer spontaneously runs out of paper and ink.......

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

Disclaimer - Whilst this fabric was sent to me free of charge are waffle loving goodness is my own!