Fabulous Frocks - The Little Black Dress

I've got 3 makes that need photographing, a pile of ironing to do and I need to put some more music on my Ipod before I take the train to Birmingham next week. 

But instead I'm sat on the sofa watching Derry Girls and drinking hot chocolate. 

So instead of doing something productive I thought I'd show you the book I got for Xmas!

This the the Fabulous Frocks Little Black Dress Book by Dolin Bliss O'Shea. I got it for Christmas from one of our best friends. He got me this and a picture book that documents the life of Coco Chanel.

The books comes with full sized patterns which you have to trace and each pattern comes with a variation. So for example the one above is the regular Liza Minelli version but the variation is for a long sleeved version which looks a lot like DVF.

The Audrey Hepburn dress above is my absolute favourite, in fact I've already made this dress [minus the bows because they just looked a bit daft on me] and the variation. Both of which need photographing! but if you head over to my instagram you can see a sneak peek.

This Joan Crawford might be the next one that I make!

I love this Coco Chanel dress but I;m not sure It would suit me, or if I'd even wear it a lot. 

All in all I'd say this book was an excellent Xmas present and I'm chuffed to bits with it. The sizing seems to be pretty spot on, I measured as a size small and both of my dresses fit properly with minimal alterations. 

So this book is worth a buy if you want to make some iconic frocks!

Hopefully I'll pull my finger out and get some outfit pictures done soon!

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 pink suit - book review

Sometimes you hear about a book and you know you have to read it. That's how I felt about "the pink suit" by Nicole Mary kelby. 

Luckily for me my sister and her husband brought it for me for Christmas! 

It follows the story of an Irish seamstress living in New York , who is asked to make the famous pink suit that Jackie Kennedy wore when her husband was shot! 

Well I presume its Jackie Kennedy, the person the suit is being made for is only ever called "the wife" 

I first came to hear about the book on Karen's blog, where you can also read an excerpt- http://didyoumakethat.com/2015/09/05/made-up-quotes-nicole-mary-kelby/

As soon as I read the excerpt I knew I wanted to read the book, even if the main story was dull I knew I would really enjoy the descriptions of sewing techniques and fabrics!

I'm not sure how much someone who doesn't enjoy sewing would enjoy the book, there's a lot of talk of basteing, and fitting and whilst you don't need sewing knowledge I do think that the best written parts of the book are about dressmaking. 

All in all I think it's a wonderful book! I loved the sewing descriptions and the romance plot is very good too. It's quite hard to write a review without giving it all away, but I'd say it's definitely worth a read. I finished it in about 3 days of casual reading. 

Have you read the pink suit? 

Much love

Frankie 

X