The Purple Jackie O Dress

I feel like every time I re read the pink suit I end up making something very Jackie O inspired! And its one of my favourite books so I re read it a lot [Rikki thinks this is bizarre by the way! He says why would you re read something you've already read because you know how it ends? In fact he doesn't even re watch films unless they happen to be on and theirs nothing else on!]  So yeah that's where the idea for this dress came from and it paired nicely with me actually needing some sensible grown up clothes in my wardrobe as well as novelty print dresses!

Isn't that purple bright? I literally don't think I have ever made anything this bright in a plain colour before! The fabric was from the lady at the carboot and well I'm not 100% what it is? Its definitely a type of knit but it has no stretch. Its not a woven, which I could tell from the fabric structure. It has a goods amount of "bounce" and it was very difficult to press in fact the whole thing had to be done on the lowest setting under a pressing cloth [LOL I don't have a pressing cloth I just use a clean hankie!] 

It also hated my machine, It kept getting jammed and I had to use my walking foot in the end!  

I only had about a metre and a half of fabric which is why I did the pencil skirt option rather than my favourite box pleat version.

The pattern is..... Do I even need to say it or have we seen it so many times its second nature? The whole thing is from the second GBSB book, But I added a waistband because the pattern is far more empire than it looks on the model [I'm still not sure how they managed this? The sample picture and the actual pattern are completely different!]

I've pretty much perfected the bodice on this now, but back in the day before I tweaked it I cut a size 12 and my measurements are 36" - 27" - 38". 

The waistband is about 3 inches fit and I just cut it to the same length as my bodice. 

The zip is a bit jacked up. I'm not sure if It needs an iron or if it just needs ripping out and the zip seam interfacing to give it more structure? Its just come through the wash so I think I'll try a good press first. The zip itself came out a £1 mixed bag from abakhans. It has a little "p" at the top which is weird? I;m not sure where it's from? I did ask Rikki to cut off the middle bit and make it an "f" but he said something about tools and structures and it not being possible so I guess the "p" will have to stand for "princess"!.

The waistband is lined and the neck and arms are faced. I line the waistband by cutting two waistbands and then constructing the dress normally including inserting the zip. Then I take the second waistband, turn down a 1.5cm seam allowance and press, then pink on top of the actual waistband and hand stitch into place all the way around. There is probably a better way of doing it but that's how I do it! 

Its not too bad I suppose, Its just a bit bubbly above my bum area.

Here's a cheeky shot of my label inside, I put it on the inside waistband which makes it difficult to show people but does mean it won't flip out. You can also see the slip stitched waistband lining. The only other finishing I did was pinking the princess seams which I always do because I think it makes the curve sit nicer. 

I also pinked the facings, I always have to cut them down loads! I'm not sure why the pattern has them drafted so wide? Maybe your suppose to do a double turned hem on them? But who has time for that?

All in all I kind of like it? Its a bit of a variation away from my usual style, although to be honest I'm not 100% what my style is? Sometimes I'm punky sometimes I'm prissy! And at thew ripe of age of 24 I am wondering if I should have an actual style? But then I think to myself the best part of getting dressed every day is DRESSING UP! So I'll probably just keep wearing a crazy mix of clothes until I;m sat in my nursing home teaching my grandchildren all the good curse words. Oh yes I plan on being that kind of Grandma!  

In other news! 

- I've still not been sewing much what with both Rikki and lil man being off but I have nearly finished my new winter scarf so hopefully I'll be blogging that soon. 

- And I have an idea for a crochet jumper that I am itching to get started on! 

- We've also been talking about when we might be able to next go camping, mainly were trying to work out if there is anything else we need [a chair for lil man and some wellies for me!] And how we can save room in the car i.e convince Marcus he doesn't need to take all TEN of his bedtime teddies and pack the contents of the picnic basket into another box! I also have plans to sew a lil windbreak for our stove, just something to keep the wind away from the flame and to keep lil man away from it!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

#

Striped Dress

One day I'll stop posting princess seam dresses made using the pattern form the GBSB book. But today is not that day.

I know I know, at this point I'm even boring myself! But seriously how CUTE is this dress!

So yes the pattern is the princess seam bodice and box pleat skirt from the second GBSB book, but as per usual I've added a waistband in.

You can find this dress in other fabrics here, here, here.

It all started with this striped cotton that I was given by the lady at the car boot. At a guess I'd say there was about a metre and a half? If that? I had to do some proper tetris cutting to get all of the pieces out of it. 

The waistband is some mesh type fabric that the lady also gave me, I made sure to press the seam allowances on the skirt and bodice away from the mesh as its slightly see through. The neck and armholes are faced and then top stitched in place. The zip is recycled from one of lil mans old hoodies but it does means I have to put the dress over my head rather than step into it.

There was no way I was going to be able to match my seams due to the shortage of fabric so I just did my best to keep the lines straight. 

It was a super quick make I think it maybe took an evening? I even hemmed it by machine to save time, I did opt to use one of the fancy looking stitches on my machine though instead of using a plain straight stitch and I've got to say I quite like the effect.

All in all I love this dress! Its super cute and flirty for the summer, although I do wonder if its a bit short? I wore it to my mums over me made may and she mentioned that she could see my bum at one point and not to bend at the waist when putting Lil man in his car seat. Looking at these pictures it doesn't look too short? So maybe I just need to be more ladylike in general???

in other news!!

: good god its hot! I spent more of the day with a rather attractive pink sweaty tinge to my face!

: My sister sent me a copy of "the handmaidens tale" by Margret Attwood! Basically since the series started on channel four me and my sister have been having weekly discussions about the episodes and stuff [we even tweeted Attwood to ask a question but she didn't reply :( ], anyways I had asked to borrow her copy of the book when she had finished re reading it and well she only went and got me one of my own! I've already started reading it and have brought a stack on post its so I can make notes! Shes my favourite person to discuss books with and its like sitting in my English lit classes all over again! 

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

P.S Happy Fathers day to all the days out there! The biological ones, the step ones, the adopted ones and the mums who are doing the jobs of fathers! 

xx 

Striped Pencil Skirt

Its Sunday, and what can I say I'm already facing the Monday blues. I've just eaten a huge pizza and I'm trying to convince Rikki to pop to McDonalds and get me a Mcflurry. It's not going well, apparently he wants to watch the F1 and he's just asked me if I've done the ironing and if he has work shirts and Lil man has school tops.......FYI they don't .

Mainly I'm just feeling a bit meh? Which seems ridiculous but its true, I've cleaned the house today so I'm hoping some sewing tomorrow evening will chirp me up. 

But here's a thing I made recently! [i.e possibly the start of may?] I got this striped fabric from the lady at the carboot, It's some sort of waffle fabric with no stretch. First of all I wanted to make a box pleat skirt but opening up the fabric revealed that it was just a very thin strip. So I had to skip my plan and make a pencil skirt instead. I also had to give p any idea of matching the stripes across the side seams.

I did however managed to squeeze out enough to try and make a "bow back" Which actually turned out pretty awful, I should have realised that this fabric was to still to make a beautiful draped bow. So far I've been wearing it tucked into the skirt so you can't see it. I also cut the waistband/bow on the other grain so these stripes are vertical.

But if you do want to make your own bow tie all you do is cut your waistband longer than you need and then whip stitch the edges closed, I also recommend using a fabric with a give of drape.

  

Here you can see the awful pattern matching, the annoying thing is whilst one side is pretty much matched the other side is a hot mess. The perils of working with less fabric than you need eh?

I;m trying to remember if its horizontal or vertical stripes that are meant to be flattering? 

The pattern is the pencil skirt from the 2nd great British sewing bee book.

Here's how it ties at the top, its actually a cut variation on having a button tab. I am wondering if maybe it would work better if the waistband were wider? so the bow would be bigger? Kind of like the "Jojo bows" all the lil girls at school are wearing? If you don't know what the "Jojo bow" trend is just picture a small girl [under the age of 13] with a MAHOOSIVE bow on her head, these bows are typically a bright colour and are cover in glitter or diamante. Yes they are hugely tacky, and yes I am trying to work out if I'm too old to wear one......... 

Apart from the bow the skirt also closes with a bad ass lapped zip. I mean this thing is beautiful, its definitely one of my neatest lapped zips and it went in first time! Any I think I've finally worked out how to make sure the actual zip is concealed under the lap as well.

In other news!

We are fast approaching the summer holidays! I'm looking forward to spend time with lil man but I know my sewing and "me time" is going to take a pretty big hit! On the plus side we also have a wedding coming up in August and I'm really looking forward to that.

 Rikki also won a Hoverboard this week! 

We popped to our local Holdcroft Renault so Lil man could see a F1 car they had displayed there and they had a racing simulator and said that you got to do two laps and your fastest time went p on the board and the fastest overall won a prize. Anyway because Rikki is Mr videogame he was gagging to have a go! I decided not to because simulators tend to make me feel a bit queasy at best. In fact watching Rikki made me feel a bit woozy!

But long story short he had the fastest time of the day and won!

He's already pretty good on the over hoverboard [which is kind of like a segway but without anything to hang onto] I on the other hand have no sense of balance and it took me agggesssss to get it and even now I'm not brilliant!!!!

Much Love 

Frankie

xxx

The £2.25 Dress

The titles a lie actually. I brought 3m of this fabric for £2.25 but I've only used a metre and a halfish so technically the dress cost even less!

The fabric came from abakhans just after Christmas, when I spent a blissful morning wandering around by myself spending my Christmas money and generally basking in the glory of having 5 minutes to myself! It was on the sale rail for a whopping 75p a metre so I brought 3 with the intention of making a maxi dress for an up and coming wedding in Spain [I actually wish I'd brought more but at the time I couldn't decide if it was really fricking hideous or absolutely fabulous!]Anyway lo and behold they changed the date of the wedding and Rikki's work wouldn't change his holidays which means we'll only be able to make the after party that's being held in England. 

To be honest I did still toy with the idea of making a maxi dress but I only really wear maxi dresses abroad so I figured a nice going out dress would be better and would get more wear. 

So then I thought about one of my favourite going out dresses and set about trying to make a better version!

The bodice is the same princess seam bodice from the second great British sewing bee book that I always use, but this time I added a waistband and some long ties so I could give myself a clinched in look. The skirt is just a very simple circle skirt cut to my measurements. I chose a circle skirt because nothing quite falls the same way, I have a theory that a circle skirt can make any bodice look instantly classy.

The biggest issue I had was placing the pattern. Its a very large and vivid jewelled print? It kind of reminds me of Elizabeth Taylor just because that girl liked her diamonds! I knew a princess seam bodice would be easiest for getting nice symmetry in the front so I just worked out where the pattern centre line was and folded on that line and then cut everything out VERY carefully. I'm really pleased with the front but the back is a little bit wonky.

With the fabric being a fairly thin Poly peachskin? I opted to line the bodice just to give a bit more body. I top stitched the neckline to keep everything in place. 

The circle skirt was a BRUTE! I have never had so many problems hemming a circle skirt in my life. In the end I cut some bias binding from a dashwood studios fat quarter and used that the bind the hem. In the end I actually think it worked out better because 1. It stopped me swearing at it and 2. It gives the hem a bit of body and makes it hang nicely.

I'm still considering this for the after party with purple shoes and I have some purple fabric that might make a nice Chanel style jacket? and then I'm toying with the idea of one of those rockabilly petticoats just to introduce more colour! Plus you know poofiness is life. 

Its actually one of three dresses I'm considering, all of which are homemade!

Eurgh my hair is a mess it is in dire need of a good cut but me and my hairdresser are having scheduling conflicts!

Here's me demonstrating how long the ties are. The idea being you can wear them at the front/back or wrap them around yourself Obi style. Although I'm not sure how much room that would leave for food/frolicking. 

So a grand success I actually really love it and I can't wait to find an occasion to wear it too!

The only thing I'd do differently is the position of that second green jewel on the skirt! I wish it was lined up with the one on the waistband. especially after I spent so long lining up the one on the waistband.

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx

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! 

Valentines Day, GBSB Wrap Dress

I'm not sure if this is a success or not. Part of me likes it and the other part of me thinks this isn't quite the right velvet. Its a bit thin and I;m not sure it has the weight that this wrap dress needs.

Anyway from the top! The pattern is the gbsb wrap dress from the second book. I'd already made it in a stretch poly knit and immediately afterwards I wanted to make one in velvet. 

This velvet was from abakhans and cost £8.40. I had originally wanted something in a dark teal or more of a burgandy colour but couldn't find anything so I picked this up instead. Its more of a raspberry colour than the pictures show. 

I sewed up most of the seams on my overlocker only using my regular machine to stitch the sleeve hems and to hem the outer edge of the dress.

I used a twin needle for all the hems and even managed to find two spools of thread the right colour. But my god was it a pain in the bum! The threads kept twisting and snapping and jumping into one needle it was more trouble than it was worth and I cursed myself for not using a simple zigzag.

I also Made one small change from the instructions, instead of leaving a gap in the side seam for the ties I simply made a button hole. It seems to be a lot more secure and looks a lot neater.

The only other thing that sucks about this dress is that I cut it out the wrong way so the pile of the fabric is the wrong way up. So basically if you want to stroke the velvet you have to stroke down to up instead of stroking down! 

All in all I'd say I'm about 80% happy with it, I think it probably looks a bit nicer than in the pictures but I definitely want to make another velvet one hopefully using a slightly richer velvet. The construction is good and I still love this style.

I'm wore it for valentines day, we didn't do anything particularly special just exchanged gifts in the morning and then I cooked us a tea later on. Its a darn sight better than last year though where we didn't even celebrate because we were saving for the wedding!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx 

Make It , Own It , Love It by Matt Chapple - Book Review

Recently I was lucky enough to win a copy of Matt Chapples debut book, Make it , Own It, Love It on an english girl at homes youtube channel. 

And after I had read it myself I thought it might be nice to do a little review.

So obviously the book is about dressmaking. Its got clear chapter and the whole tone is very simple and no nonsense, everything is explained very clearly and Matt does a good job of explaining various techniques and tools.

There are some beautiful illustration in the front which gives a bit of an idea of some of the projects in the book.

The photography is ON POINT! Seriously whoever took the pictures for this book deserves a turner prize. They are clear you can see everything but at the same time they are just soooooooo beautiful! I would genuinely have these as prints in my own home!

There's a huge chunk on altering existing clothes to shorten them or make them fit better. I think this is a really nice touch as it eases beginner sewers into things [however it was a bit wasted on me] But one thing I really do like is that he covers three different types of hem, most beginners books only do a double fold hem and Matt covers a blind hem and a rolled hem as well which is really lovely.

The one thing that really gutted me is that the dress below isnt a pattern or a download, its just used as an example for putting in bust darts.....sobs.

Now down to the knitty gritty, the projects!

Some like this skirt and the Sunday sweater are patternless projects so Matt talks you through how to draft them yourself using your own measurements. I love this kind of project because its nice to make something that made just for your measurements! Plus that Sunday sweater looks amazing!

It also includes instructions for sewing the collette sorbetto [which is a free online pattern] and for the dress below which can be downloaded for a website that takes your measurements and creates the pattern based on that. [you do have to pay for this pattern but its nice to know there are websites out there that create patterns that fit your measurements.]

I also really liked the parts about making clothes last longer and polishing shoes!

So here's my final round up!

Good Points:

Photography

clear and concise

Sunday Sweatshirt

The section that talks about types of fabric

Less Good Points:

No paper patterns included

I could imagine it would be outgrown fairly quickly.

So would I recommend it?

So I probably wouldn't recommend it to someone who wanted to seriously start sewing, however I have already recommended it to one mum at school who enjoys knitting and said she wanted to do some simple sewing and too another mum who was asking about clothing alterations and easy ways to make kids costumes and make kids clothes last longer.

In fact I'd say this is a brilliant book to give to anyone who's setting up a home, Its got a lot of advice on fixing clothes and hemming trousers and shining shoes which is stuff I get asked about all the time!

It sounds like I hate it but I did enjoy reading it! I just think its more suited to casual sewers rather than us more hardcore bunch!

Anyway if you wish to purchase a copy you can find it here [Fyi if you want to save some pennies you could buy the kindle version! you don't need a hard copy for the project!]

and you can find Matts Blog here!

If you do buy it let me know what you think!!!

Much Love

Frankie 

x 

The hen party dress that wasn't.........

I'm having some serious flip flopping about this dress, at first when I tried it on I thought the bodice was too long and considered taking the waistband out, then I wore it whilst washing up [standard do I like this dress procedure!] and I decided maybe it was okay but not perfect.

and then I though well I only really want perfection, and then I showed it Rikki and he said he didn't think the bodice looked to long [and even remember that this is the fabric from my big haul that he liked best!] 

Okay so the fabric was a spandex jaquard from Abakhan fabrics and cost me £23.70 for 1.5 metres, I actually winced when I typed that because OMG that's a lot of money for fabric!!!!!

So anyway onto the techincal stuff, the bodice is from the third great British sewing book and is the hack from the corset! Its fully lined and I did some top stitching down each seam for a modern vibe. The halter neck is stitched to one side and clips with a button on the other side.

I thought the bodice might be too short which is why I added a waistband, and now I think it too long! sods law eh? 

The skirt is just a basic circle skirt that I cut directly from the fabric! FYI the bloody circle skirt is one of the reasons I didn't wear this to the hen party! The thing stretched and then it stretched some more and then just when I thought it was done I gained an extra centimetre! It took and hour to level it all of and an hour and a half to hem!

The picture above is why Ill be ripping out that waistband later! just look at that bunching!!!! I'm not sure if its my wonky stance or the waistband but either way I'm going to be getting up close and personal with my unpicker!

If I wasn't so darn fussy I think I'd leave it but it just doesn't look quite right?

Much Love

Frankie

xxx