Post Lockdown Work Trousers

 Shes back again?

So looking back at my pictures I found that I was actually a bit more productive than I thought? These are a pair of work trousers I made during the first lockdown. 

I knew at some point I was going to have to go back to work but I also knew that after weeks of wearing pyjamas and sweat pants that my waist would not be able to handle a "traditional waistband".

Instead I found myself, for the first time in my life I hasten to add!!!! Wanting a pair of elasticated trousers........

The pattern was k1620 by simplicity.

I brought my copy off ebay for the princely sum of £2.00, I doubt I'll actually make anything else featured on the pattern envelope. But you never know.

The fabric was a cheap find at work. one of the main perks of working in a fabric shop is being able to check out the sale rail before anyone else. In this instance, this thick black jersey was on sale for two pounds per metre. Naturally I stashed the roll under my table and had two/three [god knows I can't remember] cut with the intention of making trousers. 

all in all they turned out very well, I sewed them up on my over locker and had no great difficulty in putting the elastic channel in. 

I did however forget to leave any indication of whats the front and whats the back. This led me to walk back into work for my first post lock down shift and when asked how I was, respond.....

"Not too bad but I think I might have my trousers on backwards"

Luckily the place I work is relaxed enough that our duty manager for the day took a good look at my bum and promptly responded that I probably did have them on backwards. 

A quick trip to the toilet and the problem was solved and I felt a lot more comfortable 

In other news:

In home schooling an absolute bloody nightmare? 

We are flip flopping between getting everything done in an hour to spending the whole day trying to open the various power points and work sheets that have been sent. 

However yesterday we did go on a bike ride which was nice. Neither me nor little man have been sleeping particularly well and i thought a bike ride might help. It didn't. Instead we both just got covered in mud and came home freezing but at least we had a nice time. 

Plus I spent the entire time living in fear of falling into the canal. Lil man had a new bike for christmas and his tyres and suspension seemed to cope quite well. I however was dealing with the bike that a neighbour kindly gave to me [I did previously have a bike but my ex took it when he collected his things].

Anyway I had mentioned the issue to my neighbour Jane during the NHS clapping after she commented on seeing me try and keep up with lil dude on a too small scooter whilst he rode a bike. 

I am not built for the coordination scooting requires. 

As it goes she had a much loved bike that she had ridden to work for 30 years and had been languishing in her garage for the past ten [this gives you a fairly good idea of its age] 

Its a bit rusty but otherwise it gets the job done and now me and lil dude can go on bike rides again!!!!!!

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx

Check Trousers - Newlook 6421

I have no idea if I love these or hate these. Typically I;m not a trouser girl and if I am its jeans. But I wanted a pair of check trousers. I didn't know what kind so I asked instagram whether I should go for flares or a skinny leg pattern. 

The general consensus was that I'd look like a member of  the bay city rollers if I went with flares and most people liked the idea of trousers better. 

The pattern I used was Newlook 6421. Its a fairly simple pattern, front and back trouser pieces and a waistband. I opted to swap the side zip for a back one because I hate side zips but other than that I stuck to the instructions. Oh apart from swapping the darts for little tucks. The wool I used was quite bulky so I thought a gentle tuck would be better than a dart because if you have a dart you also have the excess fabric behind it. 

The pattern matching is not 100% especially on the back. I know I should have cut out the pieces flat and flipped them over to make it perfect but I just couldn't be bother. Especially for a pair of trousers that might not get a lot of wear. 

I do like the way my bum looks in them though. I basted up the side seams to try and get the right fit and I think I did okay. I do wish I had tapered them more at the ends though. 

This is my major gripe with them though. The way I placed the pattern basically makes a little triangle over my "goods". I cannot believe I didn't think about where I placed that part. I was concentrating so much on trying to match the pattern on the side seams that the crotch didn't even cross my mind. 

In future I'll make sure the crotch is always the first thing I think about.............. 

But the big question is are they wearable or do I need to wander round shielding my crotch? 

If you saw me in the street would you be like "HEY EVERYONE LOOK AT THE GIRL WITH THE WEIRD TRIANGLE ON HER CROTCH!!!!"  Or would you just think my trousers were cool?

The sewing inside is neatly finished. It does occur to me that I should start showing you the inside of my makes but its just such a faff, its hard enough finding ten minutes to actually take the pictures with decent lighting.  

You let me know what you think of the trousers, are they suitable for out and about wear or should I just stick to wearing them to mooch about the house in? [by the way, I'm not sure heels are the way to go with them but my black ballet flats are currently in the bin!]

In other news! 

-Polly is still settling in nicely, we've been on a few walks and I think she'd eating and drinking better. I am realising how few bins their are in the local area and I tell you , walking around with a little bag of poop is not the one. 

- Lil man has lost his voice. He's quite well in himself [no fever , not sleepy] but he has a bit of a cough and he voice is gone. So if anyone has any remedies on how to get his voice back please let me know. He has his school play next week and he's worried he won't be able to say his lines. 

- I've got a mountain of projects to photograph......

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx

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

2nd Ever Pair of Trousers

I don't make trousers very often, mainly because my style tends to lean more towards dresses and skirts and I only really tend to wear trousers in winter or if I'm not feeling particularly sassy and only if they're jeans.

This trousers are from the 5 in 1 wardrobe builder by threadcount patterns 1604 , which came free with an issue of love sewing magazine. I've already made the skirt here, and was really pleased with the style and fit.

Funnily enough I made these in the same fabric, what can I say now I can mix and match to my hearts content.

Now I was trying to emulate some of whatkatiesews casual, effortless trouser vibes. what I appear to have made is a pair of MC Hammer pants. But in an odd way I sort off don;t hate them? for one they are super comfortable and secondly they make me feel all kinds of bohemian like I should be living in Paris smoking cheap cigarettes, eating French stick, getting drunk on all of the wine and having loud passionate arguments with some bloke named Claude at three in the morning.

Anyway here's the details;

I cut a size 12 at the waist and graded up to a 14 at the bum/thigh area because mommas got a lot of junk in her trunk.

I also ended up tapering the legs in at the ends to create more of a peg look, this looks better than the original straight legs but doesn't have the same vibe as Kates.

The pattern calls for a mock fly zip, which is a new one to me. I couldn't quite get my head around the instructions so I you tubed it and managed to cobble something together. Hopefully my next attempt will be better but I think I learned something at least.

I think I cut the wrong size for the waistband so this is one I cut from some scrap fabric, the original one wouldn't even go all the way around.

The fabric is the same as my suede skirt and I have a small amount left. I'm sorry these aren't pressed so my darts are just embarrassing but this fabric burns like a mother and I couldn't find my ironing cloth! 

The crotch isn't as god awful as I thought it might be, Its pretty low so I guess I won;t have to deal with the camel toe issue which is always a bonus.

The fit on the waist is pretty good to be honest and I like that they skim the bum, I think I might need to loose some length and taper the leg to make them a bit skinnier.

Things I'm going to change next time;

taper the legs. or widen the top of the pattern and switch the darts for box pleats.

shorten.

do a better mock fly zip.

More subdued colour.

Here's a few close ups of my mock fly zip, not perfect but not a bad try! The overlap also closes with a press stud and cant be seen from the outside.

Okay so its not a grand success but I do now have trousers for pottering around in, these basically feel like pjs so I can see them coming in handy on my off days when I feel like poop but opening the door in a pikichu onesie just isn't an option.

Next up from this pattern is the dress, I think I have the perfect fabric I just need to work the sizing out! 

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

First ever trousers!

I should probably mention this is the third time I've tried to write this post! 

Anyway after being inspired by the great British sewing bee, I decided to try and make trousers. 

I've never made trousers before, pjs yes but I generally don't wear them outside of the house, unless you count that time we all had to flu and I have to do a midnight run to tesco to pick up medicine and on that occasion I was just glad that I didn't collapse in the aisle. 

But anyway here's my effort! I used the free pattern from sew magazines January issue it's simplicity k1699. 

To be honest I'm not sure about them, I can't decide if I look fabulously retro or like a 70 year old woman on a cruise, (before she finished the sherry and tries to seduce the captain)

I think I prefer them rolled up? It seems more youthful? 

Alterations wise I took a 1cm of each side seam for a better fit and did nothing with the crotch area (giggles) as it all seemed to fit quite well and I didn't want to ruin it by trying to make it better. 

Another change I made was to do a back zip instead of a side zip. My side zip wasn't really working and I only had a black one to hand. 

All in all I think they are okay apart from the fabric. I used a rose coloured cotton that I inherited in my grandmas stash. I kind if like the colour (maybe I wish it was a lil darker?) but it creases like no ones business! Seriously sat down for ten minutes and suddenly my backside has more wrinkles than a pugs face! 

So all in all I think I like them (and momma and poppa Knitwit think they are cool) I am not however looking forward to ironing them! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx