Basic White Shirt - Prima Pattern

I love sewing shirts!!!!!! I dunno what it is but I love it! All the top stitching , making a collar its one of my favourite things to make. Although I was struggling to find the perfect pattern until now!!! 

This pattern is from Prima Magazine of all places. I know its not a go to pattern place for most people but in my experience the patterns are always well drafted with clear instructions. Yeah you have to trace them but lets face it, you have to do some sort of tracing on most patterns now days!

The fabric is from the abakhans fill a bag sale. Its a beautiful white cotton with an embroidered pattern. I dread to think how much it would have cost off the roll or as a remnant but I got it in a bag with other fabrics for £10 so it was a bargain!

The instructions were simple to follow but I changed the sleeve plackets because I wasn't happy with how they turned out. They don't look brilliant but I mainly wear it with the sleeves rolled up so its not a huge issue. 

The buttons down the front are from my mums old white trouser suit and make me smile every time I see them. They are little hexagons with a mother of pearl type look. 

I used the button gauge my mum and dad got me for my birthday and I would highly recommend getting one if you ever do button holes. It makes getting them evenly spaced much easier.

The shirt went together really easily even the collar and collar stand. Even the buttons holes went in first time! 

The yoke is lined so you have to use the burrito method to turn it through. Which did make me scratch my head for a second but I got there in the end. 

I missed off the collar buttonhole and the top button hole because I never do them up anyway so whats the point? Plus I didn't have enough buttons....

Next time I make it I might lengthen the pattern a bit. Its not awful now I just think I'd feel better with a few more inches of length.

The only other thing I can say is I didn't have any white interfacing so I used some white cotton instead and its holding up well.

All in all I really love this shirt and I'm chuffed with how it turned out. 

In fact this shirt had its first outing a few months ago when I went bowling with my mates and the Ultra violet light made the stitching on it show up and look really cool. 

oooh I nearly forgot to say the breast pockets are actually pretty useful! The fabric is quite sheer so the breast pockets [which are lined] mean I can wear it with just a bra rather than a bra and a vest top! WINNER! 

As it goes I actually used this pattern to make another version of this shirt almost straight after and I love that one too! 

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx

New Look 6390 - Skull Fabric

Yet again I'm behind with blogging. In my defence I was going to blog on Friday BUT we had a new set of kitchen knives delivered and well Rikki ended up slicing his fingers open....So instead we went to A&E and Rikki had five stitches in his finger and I've been listening to him moan ever since.....

This make is ages old, In fact its so old that I wore it all summer and its officially been retired to the bottom of the ironing basket for the past month. I mean who has the energy to iron summer dresses when there not going to be worn!

The pattern is newlook 6390. I demonstrated how to make this at abakhans a few months ago and this is the actual dress I made in the demo. I cut a size 12 [I have a 36" bust] and I had to shorten the straps and remove a wedge from the front neckline to stop it gaping and I took about 2 inches out of the back seam. Oddly for me I didn't shorten the length, mainly because it was the perfect summer length for wearing without tights and not flashing my pants. 

This quilting cotton was from abakhans and was really beautiful to work with. Everything pressed so nicely and the fabric behaved really nicely resulting in the BEST invisible zip I've ever done. There is a bit of rippling at the back so I may have to shorten the bodice a bit but the zip is BANGING! I actually wish I'd taken a better picture because OMG..........

Also eurgh bra straps. One thing I'm not going to miss about summer is having to wear a strapless bra with basically everything to stop my bloody straps showing. Can't see bra straps under a big fluffy jumper now can ya!?

The bodice is fully lined. And in typical Frankie style I used an old pair of curtains instead of just using up the rest of the fashion fabric so now I have 20cm of skull print fabric lying around and nothing to use it on. Note to self : If your going to be left with a piddly bit of fabric for gods sake just line the bodice in the expensive fabric!!!!! 

So yeah I love this dress I wore it a lot over the summer. In particular I think the nipped in waist and flared skirt is very flattering. Plus it was nice and easy to wear when it was stupidly hot and I didn't really want to have to think about actually putting a whole outfit together. 

And how cool is this print!!! I love the way the skulls sort of blend into the pattern so you don't really see the skull until you actually look for them. 

And that's it really this is my 3rd? 4th? version of the dress so by now I really have done the pattern to death and I can't honestly see me making it again for a looonnnggg time. 

In other news:

- I added a few more rows to my miette cardigan and totally balls them up so now I hate it and I can't be bothered to undo them.

- I added a few more hexys to my hexy quilt but its still not growing...... In all honestly I'm already a bit bored with it [hides face in hands]

- I have three quilts ready to be quilted and bound. I sense a big trip to abakhans in my future! 

- I demonstrated at abkahans on sew Saturday! As usual I had a blast! Even if I was supper tired from dealing with Rikkis finger situation the night before!

And that's about it!

Much Love 

Frankie 

My First Sew Over It Cami

It always amazes me how some indie pattern companies because royalty in the sewing world, Tilly and the buttons, grainline studios and of course Sew over it.

And if we are gonna be honest Lisa Comfort of sew over it would be the queen because LOL is their anything that woman can't do?

This is my first ever experience of the sew over it pattern company. As far as I know they don't have any free patterns and as I've said many times before I'm very cheap and don't like to spend money on things that aren't fabric. 

Luckily I was given this pattern during the #greatbigpatternswap I think it came free with one of the sewing magazines so naturally it didn't have any instructions. Luckily for me there was a sew along on the sew over it blog so I used that.

Fit wise I cut a size 12 as my bust size was in between a size 10 and a 12 and I'd rather I cut my pattern too big and altered it from there. For reference my bust size is 36 inches.

Fit wise I think its okay. I like the way its quite modest and doesn't gape when I bend over.

The construction is fairly simple it has an all in one facing and you attach it through the shoulders which to be completely honest is a method I absolutely hate. In future I think I'll just add in a centre back seam and then I can do the facing in my preferred way.

As it goes if i had realised I could have done my usual technique on this one because it has a centre back seam. I ended up putting in a centre back seam because I was running out of fabric and cutting both the front and the back out on the fold just wasn't happening. 

The fabric itself is this awesome skull print cotton by the craft cotton company , realistically its a bit thick for this kind of top but I'm still going to wear it just becuase i love the print. Plus I'm guessing the more I wash it the softer it will become.

I really really like the curved hem, however I am wondering if I should add a bit more length into the body just to make it a bit more flattering? 

All in all I do like the pattern but its just not very exciting is it? I'm sure I'll get a lot of use out of it though when I'm trying to use up all of my fabric scraps. 

In other news!!!

- Little man goes back to school tomorrow. SOBS. I've really enjoyed having him with me all day even if it means I can't sew. It took me back to when he was really little and it was just the two of us all day watching movies and having cuddles. On the plus side It will be nice to sew and he is really looking forward to going back. 

- Bake off is back! I actually really enjoyed the last series on channel four and dislike the last series on bbc. I guess that makes me a traitor but I'm glad its back. 

- My knitting project is nearly done [its a winter blanket for Polly, she sleeps in the kitchen and it gets pretty cold in there at night] after that I'm going to get back on track with my cardigan and then I'm going to give one of my nans vintage patterns a whirl.

And i think that's about it!

Much Love

Frankie 

Dungaree Dress - Free Pattern

It's no secret that dungaree dresses are super popular now in both the sewing world and the fashion world. 

I personally am on the fence about the whole dungarees thing, on the one hand its easy to throw on and wear but on the other hand it kind of makes me feel like an over grown child, plus peeing in trouser dungarees is not the one! But I still wanted to make myself some.

Now as you know I'm a bit of a spendthrift when it comes to sewing! I blame it on being on a pretty tight budget for two years whilst we payed for our wedding. Plus I always think I'd rather spend my money on fabric! 

So whilst there is a very popular dungaree dress pattern out there [Which I've heard very good things about BTW] I didn't want to spend my pennies on it. Especially seen as dungarees are such a simple silhouette that I could probably draft one myself. 

As it goes I didn't have too! Whilst perusing Pinterest I found a link to Pootle and Makes blog and saw she'd made some dungarees from a free pattern by Sew Now Mag! [the templates are available here]  

Naturally as soon as I wanted to print the dammed pattern my printer decided to throw a hissy fit and generally faff around. That thing hates me, yesterday it printed something two hours after I wanted it too......I was sat alone watching American crime story so I think you can imagine how much I jumped when the printer started up!

Because I only printed the templates and didn't have a copy of the magazine, that meant I didn't have the instructions. Which isn't a huge deal because its fairly simple construction wise but it did mean I have to message pootle and make to get her views on how the sizing is. In the end I went for a size 12. The fit is okay but I think I would like a bit more ease in the hip area.

The pattern originally had patch pockets to put on the front of your hips but I didn't like those so I went traditional and drafted this front patch pocket. I also added in a centre and back seam because I wanted the traditional look. Thinking about it I didn't add in any seam allowance for these so that might be why I need more ease in the hips!

I was going to do flat felled seams but I couldn't work out how to do it and get it central and I knew if the seam was off centre it would give me some serious twitchy eye. so In the end I sewed the seam normally and then stitched up either side of the seam line. I'm not sure what this technique is called but I want to say "french stitching"? although I could be wrong. As a bonus this way also secures the seam allowances down.  

I didn't have any dungaree clips so I just used buttons from my stash! [The buttons were also recycled from an old coat]

There is a deep front and back facing that lines the top portion of the dress and leaves a really clean finish. For the facing I use a cotton that I got from a carboot. Its not a print I love so its nice to use it up on a facing.

I did a lot of white top stitching on this to bring out the white flecks in the fabric. Speaking of the fabric I have zero idea what it is, I brought it at a car boot on a whim [I think there is like 3m of it and I paid 50p?] Anyway I though it was a cotton but its a bit harder? Which makes me think its upholstery fabric? The other thing that makes me think its upholstery fabric is that you can't set fire to it, so I think its one of those fire resistant ones.

But I think it looks a bit like denim and as a bonus if i do end up on fire it'll go out very quickly. Every cloud eh?

All in all I do like it and I think its a great pattern especially seen as its free!!!! 

And I'm hoping that it will transition from winter to summer just by changing what top I wear under it. 

Speaking of summer I CANNOT wait to wear all of my summer dresses again!! I'm buzzing! Although it does make me wonder if I should start packing up half of my wardrobe and changing it over? 

Does anyone else change over their wardrobe? How do you like it and where do you store the out of season clothes?

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx 

Mr Men Orla Dress

I often get asked why I sew. Yes its cheaper to buy clothes and its less time consuming.

BUT 

It does mean I get to make myself a Mr Men dress!

Mr Men guys! MR MEN! The fabric for this dress came from my friend Steve during his loft clear out. There was about a metre and a half? Which meant I had to be careful what pattern I chose. I was tempted by the Lilou pattern but I;m trying to get a few different dresses in my wardrobe so I opted for the Orla Pattern by French navy Now [You can down load it for free here]  

The Orla dress only has waist darts so its pretty perfect for making sure you don't spilt up busy patterns like this one. 

Pattern placement wise, I tried to make sure I didn't have a Mr Man on my boob but other than that I just tried to get all of the pattern pieces out of the limited fabric I had. Although the sleeves are cut on this opposite grain due to shortage. You can't really notice tit when its on though. 

I did ignore the instructions though as I chose to fully line the bodice. I think the actual instructions call for bias binding on the neckline but I'd rather have everything tucked and tidied away. 

I also swapped out the zip in the back for some buttons. I think I'll do this the next time I make it too.

Unlike my first version this one is a lot looser due to me using the 1cm seam allowance rather than trying to ramrod a 1.5cm seam allowance in there. [You wouldn't think that 0.5cm would make that much difference but it does!] This dress is cut in a size XL, which I confess I'm struggling not to let bother me. I know size doesn't matter and realistically looking at this I could go down a size but The XL label is just...... I dunno maybe this a throwback from all my days of shopping and how having to size up could seriously put a downer on my day. 

On the plus side though the XL size and the button back means I only have to undo one button at the waist to get in and out! Which is a huge bonus because it means I don't have to ask Rikki to do up the back buttons whenever I want to wear it. 

Incidentally the buttons also came from Steve's house, I think they were his mums? [Who's also an absolute babe!]

It turned out to be a pretty quick make, I even hemmed the sleeves and hems by machine rather than hand stitching them down. 

So all in all I LOVE THIS DRESS! And little man thinks its hilarious that mummy has a Mr Men dress because he loves the books! He likes Mr Bump but I like Mr Chatterbox because I find him very similar to myself...... No seriously if we ever have to good fortune to meet in person you will see that I can talk for England, hell I could probably throw in Ireland , Scotland and Wales in for good measure too!  

In other news! 

Its freezing - I've invested in some thick tights for the school run but its still chilly!

I've been reading Eat pray love and I'm just not into it. I dunno why but I'm just not relating to the lead character at the moment. I might try a few more chapters but so far its loving like a might have to ditch it off in favour of something else.  

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx

Days By the Sea Dress - Simplicity K1418

Today is Rikki's birthday and like an absolute trooper he's still gone into work. Apparently he didn't have enough holidays to take my birthday and his off and he decided mine was more important...... AWWWWWWW! But seriously though he's not that bothered about his birthday really? In fact seen as he gets up at half four in the morning we actually did his presents last night so today he just has his cake to look forward too. He's weird but he'd rather no fuss than lots of fuss. [Me? I like a fuss! which is why I'll be starting my birthday countdown in September!!] 

But you didn't come here to listen to me talk about birthdays did ya? This is another of those dresses that has been made for quite a while . In fact this dress has already been "out" for the day when we went to Barmouth. And yes I wore my "days by the sea" dress by the sea! The irony was not lost! The fabric itself is by the Craft Cotton Company [this is the same collection I used for my days by the sea quilt] Its a really lovely quality cotton so if your searching for some fun nautical prints check them out! 

I really really took my time pattern matching those stripes!! They match along the back and side seams but for some reason they go a bit funny around the box pleats? I'm not sure why but its not the sort of thing that's going to bother me! They don't look too bad in these photos but its definitely something I'd notice. 

The pattern was simplicity K1418 which I used for my gingham dress, only this time I went for the strappy version not the off the shoulder version!

The fit of the bodice is pretty bang on. I did have to take 2cm out of the center back seam and shorten the straps but other than that its pretty good. I think it could do with being shortened at the waist by about an inch though because when I wore it all day at the beach I noticed it was tucking itself up and not sitting right. 

I do love this neckline though its so lovely and flattering. BUT it hates all of my bras! It's such a pain in the bum! Why do all the pretty necklines require certain bras? Why can't I just wear it with any old bra? and why oh why does it have to be a strapless one?

The skirts a good compromise between being an a line [which I don't like] and being a fully gathered poofy skirt [which I love!!!] Its enough to feel girly but it doesn't get in the way. 

Length wise its on the longer side. Typically I like my dresses short but with having to put lil man in and out of the car and bend down and well just all the other crap I do day to day the short dresses were not practical and I was spending a good amount of time flashing my knickers!

Here you can see the print a bit more clearly. That row row with the blue anchors was what made pattern matching so hard! I couldn't just match the background colour I had to match the anchors too.

The facing's work really nicely on this dress. I always like using facings for cotton dresses because they press so nicely.

All in all I love the dress. I always forget how much I love a novelty print dress until I'm actually wearing one! The pattern needs a few more tweaks before its perfect and I think the back zip could do with a big press but other than that I think this has turned out really well!

In other news!

I had a great Charity shop haul today! Basically our local charity shop is having its yearly sale where they try and clear as much stock as possible. Anyway that had brand new in the box shoes for £2.00 each! I went along with the intention of buying two pairs but when I got to the till they lady offered me a 3rd pair and said she'd do it for half price. Now I only had four quid on me which I told her and she said "No I'll do the lot for half price... So three quid, the boxes are taking up loads of room we want them gone..." I dammed near bit her entire arm off! Three brand new pairs of shoes for £3!!!!!! I can see why they were struggling to sell them though, they are 7/8inch platform wedge shoe boots, which I'm not sure appeals to most people!!! 

They are pretty comfy though!

Much Love

Frankie 

x 

disclaimer - whilst the craft cotton company sent me this fabric for free all thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Vintage Linen Slouch Top

The weather is awful today, I've got some lovely fabrics set aside to make some summer dresses but this rain is sapping all of the joy out of me. On the plus side I'm sat in my double trouble jumper watching project runway and I've got a whole packet of chocolate digestives at my disposal....so I guess its not all bad. 

I made this a few weeks ago whilst we were having that hot spell and I was sick of wearing clothes that clung and stuck to me, all I really wanted to do was wonder around naked but sadly that's not appropriate for the school run!

It all started with this embroidered linen pillowcase that came from my Aunty Shelias house. It had a small bit of embroidery on each side [It looks like it may have been done by hand?] but sadly the rest of it was badly damaged so I decided to use the embroidery as a feature on a garment and use a different fabric for the rest of it.

So the embroidery was used for the sleeves and the main body of the top was just made of a light cotton. The weights of the embroidered fabric and the main fabric are slightly different but you can't notice it when I have it on. I also added a piece of lace in a band around the top because the front felt too plain. The lace came from a craft market and is fairly thick. I just attached it using a straight stitch on the top edge, the bottom edge hangs free.  

The pattern for the top is by prima magazine, its just a very basic boxy top with a boxy sleeve. In fact the sleeve is so boxy the sleeve head is practically flat! I've never had an easier time of setting in a sleeve. It does mean that it sits rather low though, you can't really see on the pictures because the white on white photography isn't exactly brilliant for showing details. But the shoulder head reaches the top part of my arm and then the sleeve starts. This kind of goes against all of my fitting knowledge but it looks okay right? So maybe its meant to be like that! 

The prima pattern is really simple, no darts no tucks no pleats just two sleeves a front and a back! I cut a size 14 but I think I may size down next time? 

To add a bit more colour I did the hems using a coloured thread, it just ties the colour of the embroidery to the rest of the top, 

All in all I like it. When I finished it I absolutely hated it, it was just lying on the table all big and shapeless but then I tried it on with my jeans and with a few skirts and I decided that maybe its actually sort of cute in a kind of french way. I'm looking forward to the weather warming up so I can wear it again. And I love that it uses some of my Aunty Shelias stuff and that I managed to cute around the damaged fabric [although there is still a small stain on the top of one of the sleeves, but I live with a small boy so stains are part of my life at the moment!!] 

Much Love 

Frankie 

x

Threadcount 1607 Shirtdress

There is something very satisfying about making shirts, In fact as much as I love a quick and dirty project I love a slow project as well and shirts are an awesome slow project, lots of top stitching, lots of ironing and lots of construction!

Anyway this time the shirt pattern I went for is for a shirt dress, its Threadcount 1607 and it came free with Love Sewing Magazine  whilst I love sewing magazines I only buy them when I really like the pattern otherwise I'dd just end up with loads of patterns that I'll never use. Anyway I was really really drawn to this shirt dress because of how simple it is. I immediately started thinking about how well it would work for both summer and winter!  

Anyways I actually cut this out about two months ago so I could sew it up and wear it on our honey moon then I promptly forgot about it in the panic of OMG I'M GETTING MARRIED and only found it when I was trying to reorganise my house.

Here's how it turned out. I used a white cotton that's covered in little tiny dots from the craft cotton company I can't find it on the website now though. The cotton did behave beautifully and I sewed the whole thing up in about two days.

I have honestly never been so proud of something I've made, I mean seriously everything just slotted into place perfectly. I did meet a few snags though,

I forgot to add interfacing to the collar stand so it was all kinds of floppy and gross [that sounds ruder than I thought it would] But I had an absolute genius moment and stitched some gross grain ribbon to the inside to stiffen it up [also sounds filthy! I wonder if these innuendos are in anyway related to the fact I'm watching magic mike right now!]

It sorted the problem right out and I'm so pleased I manged to bypass my own stupidity. 

Now the button holes went in beautifully including the one of the collar stand which is usually a beast! But I had another idiot moment and lost one of my buttons, now I did have 12 buttons and I'd already done 10 button holes on the front placket and 1 per cuff and then.............I lost one. I spent a good half hour crawling on my floor trying to find it but sadly no luck which left me with 12 button holes and 11 buttons!

Its a good job I think feature buttons are cute right? And its an even better job that I like the sleeves rolled up better as well!

Now pattern wise its pretty cool, I cut as size 12 and everything fits pretty well apart from the collar which looks a bit big even when its done up. And I must have taken I good 5/6 inches off the length? It was a massive chunk either way and now I can't decide if it was drafted for super tall people, OR if I'm super short OR If I'm just a bit trampy and like wearing my dresses too short?

Construction wise I inserted the sleeves in flat and did the side seams and shoulders on my over locker the rest is done on my regular machine. Including all the top stitching.

All in all I really like it, its a very simple shirt, It doesn't even have a yoke, actually I kind of wish it did have a yoke just to fancy it up a bit? I loves a good yoke , I think it makes for a better fit. Speaking of fit its pretty good apart from the collar issue but its is just an aline shape so it looks much better belted! Its got no other darts or shaping.

And the instructions are pretty clear and I did follow them pretty religiously for most of it, Until I reached the home stretch and then I just made it up. 

Now my last disaster was by far the worst! I put it on the day after I made it and low and behold I got pasta sauce on it and then as I was blotting the pasta sauce I also noticed I;d managed to get some gloss paint on it!

I don't think I'm really describing how frustrating it was to stain something I;d just finished so here's the little rant I had in transcript [Note: I have changed all of the swear words to various fruits and vegetables for those of you who are of a more delicate disposition, those of you who aren't can have fun deciding what words you would have used] 

Frankie: Oh for broccolis sake

Rikki: What?

Frankie; I've got pasta carroting sauce on my new Banana shirt and its going to leave a Apple stain!

Rikki; Oh

Frankie: Oh mother Potato

Rikki; what now?

Frankie; Its got kiwiing cauliflowering gloss paint on it as well, that's never going to swedeing come out! Its ruined! Its pomegranated! I can't believe I did all that beaning top stitching and now I've pearing ruined it!

Rikki: If it helps I didn't like it anyway..........

Frankie; Well your just a lettucing idiot then aren't you?

Frankie:MUSHROOM!

So yeah as you can imagine I was chuffed to bits...... 

Anyway the pasta sauce stains have come out and the gloss pone has faded a lot and I have high hopes that maybe it might fade over time?

Any ideas on how to get rid of it?

Much Love

Frankie