OWOP day 6 and 7

I'm a little late for OWOP day 6 ! (What I've been busy!) 

I wore my Robert version with my golf jumper (Dunlop) I promised myself I would only wear the jumper for golf but they looked far to cute together!

And today is very monochrome! 

White dress , black "funeral"  jacket (yes I have a funeral jacket don't judge!)

Black and white brogue style heels and a beige clutch! 

And we are finished! That's OWOP done with! For this year at least! Thank god my washing machine can finally rest! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

OWOP day five and some flower power!

I didn't get a picture of today's OWOP I was too busy getting baby Knitwit ready for nursery and get my hair done! Today I worse my white simplicity and tried desperately to pick a fabric for a third one!! 

In other news I made a cute flowered mobile. 

It shall be making an appearance at the craft fair I'm doing on the 13th of September 10:00am at elworth Methodist church! 

It's so girly it hurts!!! All those cute flowered and the sparkly one as a centre peice!!! 

Right back to the grind!! I've got some more making to do before the fair! And I've got some new toys to play with! But I'll tell you about those another day! 

Much love 

Frankie

Xxx

OWOP Day 4

Oppsie this is a late one! Today I wore the Robert version of my simplicity 4070 and went for very preppy styling! 

Dress - Robert version with box pleats, handmade! 

Cardigan - select (used to wear this cardigan with nothing underneath and about five buttons done up when first got it! Some of my fashion choices make me cringe now!!! (By nothing I mean I did have a bra on! I'm not a complete tramp)) 

Shoes - primark imitation deck shoes! Given to me by mother in law! 

I managed to convince myself that the three strand pearls made the outfit look like a costume! 

Followed coco channels advice as always , always take off the last thing you put on. Good job pants go on first isn't it!!! 

Much love

Frankie 

Xxx

OWOP Day 3

It's day three, and it's sunny so I've opted for my white simplicity 4070 

This time I've paired it with cowboy boots! 

Actual American ones! Hand me downs from my sister in law, the nail in the heel protrudes a bit (really must take them to the cobblers) but pain is beauty.

And my vintage butterfly belt, I got this at a vintage shop in Spain honks ago 

Looking forward to day 4 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

OWOP day 2

Hey it's the second day of OWOP! My Robert dress is in the wash ready in case I need it tommorrow! (It's first ever wash, pray for me people! Other wise the rest of OWOP might just be me butt naked!)

Anyway it's a little warmer today so I've opted for my Scarlett Ohara dress (gone with the wind? She makes the dress out of curtains! This is made from curtains!!)

This is how I'm wearing it! 

Dress - simplicity 4070 , and linen curtains

Belt - to bring out the skirts fullness - primark 

 

Shoes - primark 

Bracelet - handmade? , you know the cheap jewellery that brakes? Well I put all of the interesting bits from them onto a bracelet from Claire's accessories. And voila! Charm bracelet! 

Necklace - a jewellery party years ago - onyx (not cheap!) 

That's day two sorted!! 

I'm loving this challenge it's exciting to see how I can make the same dress look different every day! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

OWOP Day 1

Today's a bit chilly so in wearing the second of my simplicity 4070 dresses (which I'm lovingly calling my Robert dress) and doing some layering!! 

Apologies for the picture , it's pretty hard to get a decent shot! So we have: 

• Robert dress

• red cowl neck jumper (hand me down from sister in law)

• worlds thickest red tights (possibly pretty polly) 

• boots (Car boot)

• ring , Claire's accessories

So that's how I've styled it today, I'm hoping it's less chilly tommorrow otherwise I'll be spending the whole week under jumpers and you won't see the dresses! 

 

Accessories wise I've opted for a chunky ring! 

Happy owoping 

Much love

Frankie 

Xxx

We're nearly there!!!

One week one pattern is nearly upon us!!! It's starts tomorrow! 

I just thought I'd let you know how I'm going to do OWOP, (by the way I'm so excited! It's the first blog event I've ever done!) 

For starters I don't plan on posting pics of me in the outfits, rather just the items and the styling on a hanger. Lil Knitwit isn't quite camera trained, and mr Knitwit will be working so that's the only way I can show you! 

Also although I only have two items at the moment I'm hoping to have a third finished later in the week! So keep your eyes peeled! 

My OWOP posts will also be separate to my regular posts (which I'll still be doing) and will probably go up in the morning, with a few details about the item and accessories!

 Phew this month is so crazy!!!! I've got OWOP, a holiday, my birthday and a craft fair!!! In fact I'm so busy that I haven't even thought about my birthday (which never happens I'm a five year old when it comes to birthdays)

But onto today's finish! 

This is my last large hoop for the craft fair! I'm loving the beads and the flowers, it reminds me of my mums garden, she has a beautiful garden! 

Some of the beads are recycled! I know some people can be funny about second hand things but these were to beautiful to  chuck away. Plus I like to think I'm doing my part for the environment! I should probably mention that momma Knitwit was the one to remove to beads. She's the best fabric slave ever! 

Anyway apart from being crazy busy and everything being mental at the moment! With birthdays and fairs and patterns and holidays and ironing and little Knitwit starting nursery!!! (This is the part were I start sobbing uncontrollably in a corner!) 

Much love

Frankie 

Xxx

What kind of mother am I? Well let's put it this way, when I play play dough I get all the colours out...

Today's been a bit emotional, for starters lil Knitwit had an hour long session at nursery today as a taster. The idea being that you see how they settle and try and slink off into the foyer if you think they won't notice or mind. I slunk off after about half an hour, (surprisingly I was one of the only ones to give it a go) and I would love to see that lil Knitwit fell to hiss knees when he found out I was missing, started sobbing and proclaimed that he couldn't cope with his wonderful mummy!!!!! 

He didn't.

My son wimpered for two seconds, then decided that his new environment was a good enough substitution for his mothers care and love. 

So yeah I'm really happy about that (lil brat I mean you carry someone for 8 months and spend everyday with them for two and a bit years!!! Is a screaming fit too much to ask??)

But I am grateful, I'm very glad that he's going to enjoy nursery, just as long as he remembers who feeds/baths/cuddles him for the rest of the time! 

The other reason today has been emotional is because of starting/nearly finishing my second OWOP dress, I'm using the same pattern as the first dress I ever made and it's coming along nicely, the reason that it's emotional however is because the fabric was inherited from my grandma, and she brought it with the intention of making my grandad a pair of trousers/jacket. 

Three metres of lovely pinstriped brown wool? I think it's wool? 

The stripes are red and blue but you can't really tell from a distance. 

I even had a spool of brown thread! How's that for fate! 

From the moment I saw this fabric I thought I had to make a dress to honour both of my grandparents. I'm using the same bodice from the first dress I made but I'm not going to gather the skirt, I'm thinking box pleats?

This is about the moment I started to tear up, I'm not sure if it was the thought of my grandma thoughtfully picking out fabric for her husband or the realisation that lil Knitwit is growing up, but let's just say things got a bit emotional! 

I did manage to pull myself together for the pinning stage though! And I actually got the Bodice sewn today, and the skirt panel hemmed so tomorrow it's just the zip, pleats and skirt attachment to worry about!!

one week, one pattern starts on the 6th September over on handmade janes blog! And yeah I'm cutting (no pun intended) it a bit fine aren't i?

What can I say I just love the pressure!

Much love 

Frankie

Xxx

Searching For An Extra Inch

I should probably start of by warning you that I am absolutely exhausted. This is not an exaggeration, I didn't get to sleep until about 2am and Little Knitwit decided to wake me up at 5.45am, little swine  cherub. Sadly though little knitwit is just like his momma and likes his sleep, I cannot stress enough that if he wakes up any time after 7.30 my son is an angel, polite, well mannered, plays nicely , eats nicely and well if he gets up before 7.30? He just isn't.

But either way I do have some good news I finished my simplicity 4070 dress! Woop, Yay! Zip is in, trims are stitched down. It's lovely! And It fits thank god!

These are the second set of photographs that I have taken of this dress today, it turns out that taking a picture of a white dress against a white wall doesn't exactly work perfectly.

Still love this pattern, so easy to sew, fairly quick and their are so many skirt variations I can try. Here I just opted for a simple gathered skirt. Mainly because I had to sew two pieces of fabric together to get enough so there is a large seam down the middle. The gathers hide this seam quite nicely.

I added lace around the collar and arm holes after I had hemmed them but next time I might just opt for some bias binding.

I had to add the lace down either side of my very first zip because I hadn't left enough room on one side and one of the gathers got rucked up and almost pleated? The zip works fine and looked stunning on one side, so instead of redoing the zip and the skirt I just added the lace to cover it up.

The key hole detail at the back is so flattering!

My next step with this pattern is to work out how little fabric I can get away with using, I mainly draft my own skirts so the pattern packet is of no use to me . I've found an amazing site online called fabric rehab and it has so many beautiful and fun fabric choices, so I just need to work out how much fabric I will actually need and then I might just have to spoil myself!

The only other thing going on is me trying to finish off my knitting, I'm very close to the end I've just got a few inches to go and they keep eluding me! It doesn't matter how long I knit for, whenever I re measure I never seem any closer! Its pretty soul destroying work so I'm hoping it will be finished tonight! Although feeling how I feel I might just down a glass of wine and go straight to bed!

Much Love

A very sleepy

Frankie

xxx

Will I Ever Learn?

As mentioned in my previous blog post, yesterday I started recovering my cushions. It took a little bit longer than I was expected, mainly due to my inability to measure accurately. I don't know how many times I have had parent/teachers/friends tell me to measure twice cut once. But either way I still haven't learnt my lesson, I might have  definitely measured the new covers wrong, luckily after some swearing and stuffing of inserts into the new covers I got them finished! I did them the lazy way and didn't put in any fastenings just slip stitched the openings closed after sewing. This is for practical reasons, Little Knitwit has developed a fondness for zips and for stuffing his toy cars into the covers and reclosing them. I'd just like to say you have not felt pain until you've plonked yourself down with a nice hot brew and found yourself with a matchbox car up your jaxi and hot tea over your lap.

 

 

I only recovered the brown cushions they used to be a mix of grey, white and beige. So know we have three "accent" cushions (Mr.Knitwit laughed at me when I used this term earlier) and the rest are dark brown suede.

 

 

This my little nest, do you like my cushion? Its a vintage sewing machine cushion and was given to me this Christmas by my brother and his family, it reminds me to make something beautiful everyday.

 

In other news I've started the top half of my dress for OWOP, I'm using simplicity 4070, well the bodice at least I always tend to go a bit rouge on skirts depending on how much fabric I have left. I've used this pattern before and loved it but always managed to avoid the zip putting in part. I've never done a zip before, I've read up on it in pretty much every sewing book I have but to be honest its about as clear as mud so I'm envisioning a lot of ripping out in this project.

 

 

And yes that is a pattern envelope with ALL the pieces inside! Anybody who has used a pattern before knows that once you've opened that envelope your chances of getting anything back into it are slim to none! But I used to go walking and spent years folding ordance survey maps! Patterns are nothing!

 

 

This is my start to the bodice, I'm working in a nice white linen, and hoping to add a linen skirt. It has princess seams and it's going to have a zip. My first one ever!!! And as with everything else it needs a good iron!

 

Now I'm off to try and finish my knitting! I keep saying that but other things keep cropping up!

 

Much Love

 

Frankie

 

xxx