£20ish Hobbycraft Haul Vlog

So I thought I'd share my latest video! 

This one is all about the things I brought from Hobbycraft with a voucher I got for my birthday! 

How you enjoy it! 

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx

Days by the Sea Quilt!

So this is pretty exciting guys but I have a tutorial on the Hobbycraft website! 

Basically the Craft cotton company got in touch with me saying they had a new line of fabrics out and would I like to make a quilt and well nobody has to ask me to make a quilt twice!!! So I drew up some ideas and in time honoured tradition they picked the most difficult one!!! 

The quilt is made up of five simple blocks and uses a 1.5cm seam allowance mainly because it a great introductory quilt for people who have previously done dressmaking and secondly because I find larger seams are easier to work with! 

The fabric itself is from the "days by the sea" collection by the craft cotton company and is full of gorgeous sea side nostalgia!

Anyways this is probably one of my proudest makes ever! So please go and take a look and make one for yourself!!! Its the perfect size for kids to snuggle up under although I've been doing a fair amount of napping under it myself!

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx 

Hobbycraft Haul!

It's always suspicious when your Husband says why don't you buy yourself some things from hobbycraft. But as it goes he genuinely just wanted to spoil me..... Or at least I've not found anything broken yet!

Okay so here's what I got!!!

Pins £1.00

I recently read that every time you find a blunt pin you should bin it and well lets just say my pin tray as been dwindling! 

A Hemline Sewing Gauge - £2.00

Okay so confession time, I eyeball my hems. I never measure them and I never iron them. Its a terrible habit but I think it stems from having the most tedious textiles lesson where all we did was measure and press our hems.....for about an hour and a half! But hopefully this little tool will help me to be more precise! 

Tailors Chalk - £2.00

My last lot of tailors chalk was from a market stall and it was quite frankly awful! It didn't transfer onto fabric and nearly put me off chalk for life! Hopefully these will be a lot better! 

Value Dressmaking Scissors - £1.50

Its a good job my fellas good looking because he cannot grasp that some pairs of scissors are only for cutting fabric! So I generally only buy cheap scissors and these value ones are some of my favourites! I mean their not the best in the world but until I've got him fully trained they do quite nicely!

Hayfield Bonus Chunky in Sandstorm - £2.30 per ball - 5 balls

This is for another wool and the gang double trouble jumper. I knew I wanted a pale colour but I love that this has little flecks of black and copper in it too!

Jelly Roll - £12.00

I've never had a jelly roll before so I was pretty intrigued and so far all I can say is that its smaller than I thought? I'm hoping to make a quilt using this [and some stash fabrics too!] for our living room. My idea is to have a handmade quilt in every room of the house and these are the colours I want in the living room.  

Caron Cake -  Funfetti - £10.00

I first saw these on the stand at the CHSI stitches stand they said they were huge in America and that they think they are going to be huge over here too! Now its hard not to be biased because they also gave me a cake whilst I was chatting to them but I can confirm that its super squishy and that the colours are very vibrant! Now I just need to see how it knits up! 

And that's it! I can't wait to start making things! 

and if you've used any of these products please let me know! 

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

Wool and the Gang - #doubletroublejumper

Okay so I've reached the point where I think its impossible to hate something you've spent HOURS knitting. I mean after putting all that effort in only to decide something is hideous seems a bit like sacrilege really doesn't it?

That's the journey I had with this jumper. My problems started when the Hayfield Bonus chunky I ordered from Hobbycraft was a bit more orange than I was expecting. The name Paprika should have given it away but in my defence it did look red on the website.

 

The pattern I chose was the double trouble jumper by wool and the gang. Its a free pattern which to be honest is pretty much how I like my knitting patterns to be! [BTW they actually have quite a few free patterns on their site so its definitely worth a look] I didn't use their recommended wool "wool me tender" because I had a voucher for hobbycraft so it made sense to use the equivalent weight from their.  

I started it on valentines day and finished it in bed last week when I was feeling poorly. Because of the chunky wool and the size 8mm needles the whole thing knits up pretty quick which is very satisfying.

Knitting up wise it was an absolute breeze, there was no complicated instructions and the only trouble I ran into was when I went to cast on the sleeves. They tell you to cast on 25 stitches and knit the rib pattern but I kept getting moss stitch, In the end I just cast on 26 stitches and decided I;d fix any problems with the stitch count afterwards. 

The other issue I had was that after I'd shaped the sleeves it says to knit another 50/60 [I can;t quite remember] rows and well that just seemed like a lot! I think I did about 15 and then cast off and well as you can see the sleeves are pretty long! I'm not sure if this is a pattern error or just because I didn't use the recommended wool but either way if you do make it its worth taking a look at your sleeve length as you go.  

The same applies to the fit as you can see its pretty slouchy on me [More room for cake] and I knit the smallest size so I'm not sure if its because of my wool choice. Naturally I didn't do a swatch test!

This is the best part of the pattern, whilst its simple in the front it is PARTY in the back! I love this detail! Although I would recommend wearing a crop top or a bralette underneath because when you bend forward it does gape quite a lot.

I can see it being the perfect jumper to fly with though because the open back means its really really easy to get on and off meaning you won't disturb your possibly sleeping neighbours too much!

The other thing I did differently was to crochet the collar and not knit it by picking up stitches. Picking up stitches it a pet hate of mine and I'm lazy so I just crocheted one.

All in all I kind of like it? At first I hated the collar and the whole thing just hung so stiff but after I popped it in the wash it softened up got a great slouchy vibe. I'm definitely going to make myself another one in a cream colour or a grey because its super duper warm and cosy!!! And surprisingly I actually really enjoyed knitting it! 

In other news me and Rikki went on a date to Alton towers water park yesterday. It was so nice to spend a day just the two of us and as we are both big kids we really enjoyed it!!

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx 

Hobbycraft Haul!

Yet again I was very lucky to receive Hobbycraft gift card for Christmas, and naturally I spent a good couple of hours trying to navigate their website [is it just me that finds it really annoying that you can't just view the whole of sewing?] and sorted myself a little delivery! So without further ado here is a £30 delivery from hobbycraft!

Cross stitch kit!  Recently my fingures have been itching to cross stitch! I'm blaming the fact that Rikkis Nan has so many beautiful framed cross stitches around her house!

Unpickers, I'm not sure how I ended up with two I think I must have accidentally double clicked! Luckily I can never have enough seam rippers!!!

Bias binding - not a clue which one I chose! This was added as an attempt to get free p&p!

Felt tip Pens -  Yet another attempt to get free p&p, I think these cost 50p! 

Safety pins, I always put off buying these but I really did need some for quilting, currently I've been using regular pins and those tricky little devils just love to fall out! 

Ball point needles, I's really enjoying sewing knits at the moment so I thought it was best to stock up!

8mm knitting needles! These have been brought for my next big knitting project, I had asked Rikkis nan if she had some and she didn't so I brought some and then lo and behold she managed to track a pair down through her sister in law! Sods law eh? 

Little scissors, I have an obsession with scissors seriously the amount of pairs I have is just embarrassing! But in my defence I only buy cheap ones so It doesn't matter if they get trashed. These are actually pretty sharp scissors and I have taken to wearing them on some ribbon around my neck!

5 balls of hayfield chunky wool, I had a bit of an issue with this actually , on the website the wool looks red but when it turned up its more of a burnt orange! Which I probably should of realised by the name paprika. Anyway I would send it back but I'm far to lazy so I'm just going to roll with it and hope it suits me! 

And that's it! 

In other news, I just had a pretty luxurious middle of the day bath and I'm feeling really zen! A feeling which I'm sure is going to go as soon as I start cleaning up!

And we have little mans birthday yesterday. I managed to hold it together this year and although he had to spend the day at school we did have a lovely meal at pizza hut after! 

Much Love Frankie

xx

Hobbycraft wooden advent calendar Review.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Haha no it isn't its still November! Although if you make your own Christmas presents chances are you've been playing Elf for about the past 6 months.

Anyway I LOVE advent calender's! But not just the regular chocolate ones! I like the EXCITING ones! And last year we treated Lil Man to a lego advent calendar because that is basically the most exciting calendar you can buy! FYI don't buy it its absolute rubbish. Seriously it was the most disappointing thing I have ever seen. It was basically pointless.

 So this year I decided to be prepared and buy a solid advent calendar that we could use every year [Actually I wasn't being prepared the original plan was to put the contents of the lego advent calendar into a solid advent calendar with some sweets and stuff........then we realised that opening doors to that would be soul destroying] 

So instead I think we are going to go hunting for some stuff to put in it! which may or may not include lego!

anyway so this is how it turned up from hobbycraft. brown MDF. If you have a rustic Christmas you would probably leave it like this?

So I painted the white parts first, I used two coats of emulsion and two coats of white acrylic paint. I had some serious trouble trying to get even coverage on this thing. 

Next I painted the insides of the doors green which two coats of acrylic. I was going to paint the insides of all the compartments but its just so fiddly I gave it. we're going to use it for 25 days a year I can live without perfectly finished insides.

Next I painted the red parts with red gloss, this part probably took the longest because oh look super fiddly again! I think I did two coats of this and it does give a nice shine!

I free handed all the numbers on the doors using sharpie and scattered them about at random. Or at least I hope they are random.

Okay so the nitty gritty! Its a pretty good kit. Its very fiddly so i wish there was a way to take the doors off or to build it form flat pack or something. 

I like the simple house design it really does leave the door open for lots of imaginative decorating opportunity! like gingerbread house, sparkles, Santa! I kept ours with our red and white colour scheme though as we like to have a very tradition Christmas! 

In fact I think it would be super cute to just give these to your kids to decorate and then they have their own personal one!

Things I'd do differently:

If it was less fiddly id have loved to decorate the inside of each compartment with pretty paper or scrap paper so when the door opens its all beautiful and bright.

I'd have sprayed the whole thing white to begin with [or if hobbbycraft could just made a white version that would be awesome!] about half was through painting I had an "it would have been so much easier to spray paint this" moment. and then maybe I could have finished the insides of those pesky compartments!

I'm still debating a bit of glitter but part of me thinks we have a lot of glitter on our mantle piece at Christmas anyway and I don't want it to be too much.

I am going to add something to the bottom red square wheres there no door though, I'm just not sure what yet, I think I'll raid the Christmas box when we decorate and see if anything jumps out at me! 

So yeah I'm pleased I just wish the whole process had been less painful!!!

Frankie

x

Hobbycraft Haul

You may have noticed that I dont actually do many Haul posts and well that's because I don't really buy much stuff throughout the year. Instead I tend to rely on kind family and friends who are getting rid of fabric #GIVEMEYOURCURTAINS!

And birthday and Christmas money and vouchers! Luckily for me I got two hobbycraft vouchers for my birthday and I finally found time to email Hobbycraft and get them combined [fun fact, you can only use one gift card at a time on the Hobbycraft website however if you message them on Facebook they will combine them and send you a new gift card with the full amount] and spend them!

So without further ado here's what I got!

So I got three balls of wool on the three for two offer that they were running and they were £1 each but because of the offer I only paid £2. These are destined to be baby booties and hats.

I picked up a pack of hobbycraft pins for £1 and a magnetic pincushion for £5. this pincushion is a game changer I literally just throw pins at it and I love how neat and tidy it looks!

My first ever set of Washi tapes! These ones are Christmas themed and came as a three pack for £1. 

Some red paint, this was meant to be for my wooden advent calendar, but I ended up using gloss because it covered better. £1

paint brushes, because you can never have enough paint brushes!  £2

I got a pack of assorted sewing machine needles because I always stock up at Hobbycraft, they were £2.50 and I picked up a magnetic seam guide in an effort to make my seams neater. This wasn't the one pictured on the website which miffed me off a bit but I mentioned it to Hobbycraft and they said hemline have changed the design and they have updated the website and for any inconvenience they are sending me a gift card. But anyway the seam guide was £2.50 and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! I love the accuracy it gives me particularly with going around corners. 

A set of measuring spoons, £1. These seamed like an absolute steal! one side is spoons and one sides is cups. They sit inside each other and have a little magnet so they stay together in the drawer.

And this was my big spend, this cost £12 and is a wooden advent calendar. I've been wanting a wooden calendar for a while now and I think this one is going to look super cute sat on our fireplace! Ive already started painting and my only quibble is that it takes loads of layers of paint to get a decent finish and that its super fiddly to do. I think I might have liked it better if It had already been sprayed white so you had a plain base to start with!

and it might have saved me some curse words! FYI if you do buy one of these use acrylic paint! it gives the best finish!

And that's it! 

Hopefully I get some Christmas spends so I can go fabric shopping and do a fabric shopping haul!!!

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx

Do babies still wear bonnets?

So seen as we had no internet for 10 days I got a LOT of knitting done! Mainly I stuck to baby knits because they are quick and adorable and you don't get much better than that.

It all started off with this pink set, the pattern is one I borrowed from my Nan It's Hayfield 00738, Its a cool pattern it has 4 hats, 3 mittens and 3 bootee patterns.

These aren't the matching booties for the hat but I think they look like a set, and these were quicker to knit anyway. 

The ribbon was from my stash, the pattern says to make twist ties but I really could not be bothered, and apart from using a power drill to make it quicker I had no more ideas on how  to save time. 

The bonnet I'm really proud of, I had to do a repeated pattern and everything and I'm pretty sure I only screwed up on two rows.

The wool was hobbycraft value, Its actually pretty good for the price and as an added bonus I got it in the 3 for 2 sale. I just wish they had a better variety of colours.

Project wise I think its cute and it stopped me going stir crazy, I'm not sure if people still put kids in bonnets though? I'm all for keeping warm so I would but I'm not sure about other people? And I knitted the smallest size so I'm not even sure if there's any babies that I know that would fit into it!

In other news its cold, which isn't too bad at least its not raining but it does mean me and lil knitwit are fully wrapping up in the morning. Hopefully I'm going to photography some other clothing makes today, seen as we seen to be having a rare cold but sunny spell!

We have also completely overhauled the dining/sewing room so that we can fit the computer in so ill have some pictures of that soon hopefully! 

Much Love

Frankie

xxx 

 

Hobbycraft treats!

Hobby craft is like my Mecca, it's absolutely the happiest place on the world. Even if it can be a touch expensive! 

Anyway luckily for me , for Christmas I was given a hobby craft voucher and as usual I had no trouble spending it! 

As usual I went for a mixture of items! 

5 balls of wool

Thread wax (omg this has changed my life!!!)

Spotty fat quarters, I'm working on a new quilt and these will be an integral part! (These are also by the craft cotton company who's fat quarters have never let me down.) 

Sewing needles , for some reason I loose needles so needed a restock. Although I dress to think where the lost ones are. 

Felt tips, for my sketchbook

White thread, I always buy white thread from hobby craft as its a staple of my sewing room.

And some ribbon that has "handmade" on it, which I'm going to use as tags for inside my makes. 

So yeah I think I've got some more fun bits and pieces to play with! 

And they are having a sale at the moment so that helps! 

I'm other news apparently tkmaxx is selling catch kidston bedding for £15 rather than the usual £45 (single bed) I only mention it in case it's cheaper to buy a bedding set rather than purchase the actual fabric! 

Also aldi has s pretty good deal on wool at the moment! I know I'm pretty tempted!! 

Much love

Frankie!! 

Xxx

Ps this happened today! Isn't it adorable!!! 

Hobbycraft Felted Penguins

For my birthday I was lucky enough to get some Hobbycraft gift cards, and one of the things I brought was a penguin felting kit. Mr Knitwit like penguins he wouldn't say it himself but he thinks they are very sweet and adorable.

Anyway as soon as I received them I started them, and worked solidly on them for about two days and then Christmas happened and I chucked them to the back of the to do pile thinking they'll be pretty quick to do ill get them finished next week.

That was in October!

Anyway I finished them yesterday! Just in time to put them out as Christmas decorations!

The thing i like best is that there is a mummy penguin, a daddy penguin and a lil penguin just like US!

I enjoyed doing them I just didn't really get it, its no where near as therapeutic as knitting and sewing. Also they are kinda hairy? I'm not sure if that's because I've done it wrong or because they are meant to be.  

I had to add my own beaks, they do come in the kit but I had an incident with the hoover and Ahem....... Lost them........

All in All I'm pleased that I gave felting a whirl, it was certainly something new and I didn't hate it, it just wouldn't be my first choice in future. At £3.00 the hobbycraft kit is really reasonably priced and the instructions are fairly clear. I might try again with another kit but I'm pretty sure ill never be making master pieces like some of the creations I see in pinterest.

In other news Lil Knitwit has been under the weather and I'm hoping it'll pass before Christmas, but bi have a feeling he'll just pass it onto Mr Knitwit and they'll both end up in bed. GOD PLEASE NO!

All the Christmas wrapping has been done which is a huge weight off my mind, and I've started to categorise the presents. Yes I categorise the presents, Otherwise I'd never get all of them out! seriously plus I don't want to mix up the presents coming into the house [we have a small child so we have a lot coming in] with the ones going out!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx  

P.s what do I do with all of the felting wool I have left over?