Wedding DIYS

Now ya'll didnt think I was going to let my entire wedding go by without making anything did you? I know I dint make my dress but I sure made a few other things!

1. Invitations, these were the most boring a repetitive thing that I made but boy do I love how they turned out! We didn't want anything over the top and I was obsessed with the idea of s having a monogram, the ribbon is just twisted over and secured to the back of one piece of card which is then stuck on top of a card blank. and then I put on a few diamante and the monogram. [The more vigilant of you may have noticed that its roger federers logo! Rikki assured me that people wouldn't notice but a week after we sent the invites out I had no less than four people ask me if it was his logo!] 

The post box was a flat pack from etsy that Rikki built and I loving painted! It took four coats to get the gold just right! Rikki also trimmed down the E so we could have R and F! You'll notice that I used one of our invitations in the display area as well!

Confetti box! our confetti came from ebay and we mixed it in with some that Rikkis Aunty had given us! The cones came from ebay and I was more than a bit miffed to realise they were just doilies made into cones, I mean for gods sake I could have done that!

The box was a standard cardboard box with lots of holes cut in it painted red.

The table plan was a mirror that Rikkis mum found for us, that I painted white and then we just printed off the tables and mounted them on black card. I also used an invitation here too!

How centre pieces were a small bowl stacked onto a large bowl, The small bowl contained sand [marine aquarium standard because guess who was a super fuss pot and couldn't find any sand she liked?] The flowers are foam ones from the range and the red ones are ones that Rikkis Mum brought for us and there's some sparkles in the bottom as well that Rikkis Aunty brought for us! the top bowl has sand and a lego heart. The table numbers were stuck onto the hearts as well!  

My head dress was made the night before by combining two head pieces using floristry wire!

The lego figures were a bit of a labour of love of mine! I hunted high and low trying to find the perfect lego figures for everyone! And I think about 90% of them were perfect! For example Harvey [pictured above] is a chef! my uncle had a Robin hood one because hes from nottingham and Lil man had a Donald duck because that's his favourite stuffed toy. I wrote everyone's first name on the front and their surname on the back!

Last but not least was my flowers! these took me an absolute age! I hunted through my jewellery box and found all of my broken bits then I attached them to wire and then I wedged them in between foam roses and secured them with sellotape and ribbon. This turned out so much better than I ever could have imagined. I love that there's so many personal bits of jewellery in there as well at beads and buttons from my sewing stash!

And that's it really!

My next job is to get my dress dry cleaned and stored because when we move I want to store everything [including my dress] in a huge box frame!!!!

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx

P.s If you'd like a sneak peak of what I'm planning on making in November you can watch a video here 

I'm Back! And MARRIED!!!!

OH MY GOSH, can I just take a moment to process that I haven't stopped in about two weeks? I feel like I might need another holiday!

But here they are. The long awaited wedding details! You guys have been so patient whilst I kept hush!

The excited really started a few days before when I received these lovely flowers from my friend Pin and Tonic! These are still alive by the way!

I then spent the night before the wedding with my bestie and bridesmaid kal, we ate pizza, drank wine and put the world to rights. The idea was we were going to get an early night but lo and behold midnight rolled by and there we were still awake!!

I also wore my Grainline Lakeside pjs to get ready in the morning, as the fabric and pattern were a lovely gift from Pin and Tonic!

in the morning we got up at nine ready for Rikkis auntie to come and put my rollers in [shes a hairdresser!] then my mum and dad arrived, and the photographer and my friend Ali who did my makeup and before I knew it my house was full!

I also received this lovely package from Rikki 

Flowers which naturally I instagrammed 

and a lovely cute teddy that had been fully smushed into its protective packaging!

After what felt like an age of my trying not to panic and having people work on me I was ready to go.

The car arrived at 1 (we were getting married at 2) and we had gone for a fully traditional Downton abbey style car, which was beautiful and wonderful until it BROKE DOWN! I'm not even kidding. As it turns out the older the car the more unreliable it is in cold weather. Luckily there was a back up car not far behind, so on our local crossroads we stopped and I got out of my lovely old car into a shiny new car. Which would have been wonderful if 1. the driver hadn't had the heat all the way up and I mean I was sweating and 2. she actually knew where we were going. A long story short guess who ended up directing the driver?

Anyway we made it there in the end and after a quick chat with the registrar I walked down the aisle and was married! But omg was I shaking, my legs were like jelly!

Here we are signing the registrar, FYI that's not the original headdress I planned to wear, Instead I wore one I made at half eleven the night before. At some point I'll photograph the other headdress, which was lovely but wasn't quite right in the end. This one is actually two head things? joined together with floristry wire!

And this was my dress, it was a fit and flare style skirt and bodice with lace all over and some serious sparkle! I loved wearing the dress mainly because the skirt and top style meant I was super comfortable all day long. And I was fully capable of going for a wee by myself!

The veil was a two tier handmade scalloped edge, with crystals and I loved it.  

Here's a close up of the beading on my dress.

And here's my bouquet which I made, I used foam flowers and pieces of broken jewellery and beads and because I'm a sewer I put a few buttons in there for good measure! I actually had this made for about 15 months which is the beauty of foam flowers they don't die! and they also don't make me sneeze!

Our cake was lego themed, as were our favours and the cake was made by Rikkis, cousins, wifes , Aunty...... I hope you followed that! Anyway after making the cousins wedding cake, Rikkis Auntys wedding cake, Nan's birthday cake and this one I officially dub her the family baker! She also made the donut cake which you can see in the background, I desperately wanted to forgo having a cake and just have a stack of donuts for people to grab but sadly donuts go stale too quickly so as a surprise Rikkis Nan and Grandad had us a donut cake made! 

Here's me and Rikki after we cut the cake, and after I had cut myself a slice. Which is why Rikkis giggling because I immediately cut myself a slice of cake and he was like "babe you don't need to cut everyone a slice the venue will do it" And I was like "I want mine now, this is for me, everyone else can wait!"

#hungrygirlproblems

And these were the favours everyone had a little lego figure which was tailored to their personality, and their name on a lego brick, ask me how fun it is writing names on lego bricks? go on I dare you!

I loved doing the lego figures and they seemed to go down really well! everyone also got a lolly pop and the kids had boxes filled with pencils and activity books, which seemed to keep them all nice and quiet during the speeches. And guess who made a speech? yep me that's who! I was pretty hilarious if I do say so myself but nothing could beat the best mans speech who did a this is your wedding style slideshow with pictures and audience participation!

And then It was time for the first dance and time to PARTY! This was one of my absolute favourite parts of the day! I made sure to greet all my guests early on so I could spend the rest of the night having a laugh and dancing away! 

We stayed at a local hotel who were kind enough to leave the bar open for us, although some of our guests weren't so chirpy after a full night on the beers and no sleep!

and then the next day this happened!

Yeah bless him he carried me over the threshold! He also flashed my pants to the whole road lifting me up but we'll ignore that!

Then we had a day on cleaning and washing, a day of packing, a day of changing money over and before we knew it we were ready to fly!

Here's me looking terrified at the airport, guess who hates flying? Guess who discovered that If you take two really strong travel sickness tablets, a full dose of Kalms and wash them down with a large glass of wine then you don't really care who you are or where your going or how your getting there? 

Me! #feelingbuzzed

Anyway I will cover Vegas in a whole other post because I took some outfit pictures and we did too many activities to tag it onto this post!!!

But we did come back to this

A lovely sign and a balloon at the airport! We actually screwed up this plan , they wanted to be waiting for us as we got off the plan but we arrived an hour early so we were waiting outside!

Notice how rough I look? We'd been awake for nearly twenty four hours at this point!

and this was decorating our house!

as well as balloons and confetti!

So right now, I'm trying to get over jet lag, I spent most of last night trying to convince myself that I did actually need to sleep and no it was not time for food. 

Writing thank you cards.

Doing all of our holiday washing...... Did we really take that much stuff?

Changing my name over on various social media and actual government things! 

And trying desperately to get the house back into some form of order

But mainly I want to sleep,

and eat......

anyway! much love!

Frankie 

AKA Mrs Baldwin

 xxx

  

Quick Update

As I write this, its Tuesday and I get married on Friday........ Squeals

Anyway Rikki's out at his club thing but instead of sewing I'm on the sofa chilling out, basking in the glory of my super tidy house and watching a film.

Lifes pretty dammed good to be honest!

These flowers were delivered today from my very lovely pen friend! Aren't they beautiful and aren't sewing people the nicest! I can't wait to display them on my dressing table when I get ready Friday morning.

So I'm not sure when I'll next blog! I know I want to do a video before I go on honeymoon about what I'm packing but that's the only concrete plan I have! 

But If you do want to watch me fumble my words and generally make a fool of myself here's two of my latest videos!

This is a review I did of the Cotton and chalk Sunday set! with fabrics from abakhans!

And this is my contribution to the seamstress tag videos that have been going around you tube!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

The Shirt Dress That Wasn't

Okay so the idea of this project was to make a shirt dress, no your not mistaken that's not a shirt dress, that's just a sleeveless shirt. Here's what happened, I accidentally forgot to extend my pattern pieces and didn't realise until I'd cut the pieces out.

The pattern incidentally is the same Burda one I used for my I shot bambi shirt. I didn't add seam allowances again, but this time is was an actual decision and not just because I forgot. I was pleased with the fit last time so I just added a seam allowance to the collar and stand so I'd have a bit more room to work with.

I also added waist ties to make more of a drawn in shape. The ties are just tubes of fabric top stitched and inserted into the side seam. [which I did twice because I put them too low the first time]

To be honest I think its a good job I didn't extend the pattern pieces because I wouldn't have had enough fabric, as it is the button placket and the underside of the collar and collar stand are in a contrast fabric. The main fabric is a ditsy print cotton and was given to me by my lovely pen friend.

Here's the back, I love the high low hem detail, I like wearing it with leggings as I don't feel like my bum is on display [oddly enough I never worry about the front just my bum?] and I think it might look cute with shorts in the summer.

The sleeves and hem are finished with bias binding which I also made from the contrast fabric. And the front button placket is pieced due to me not transferring my original alterations to the pattern piece for the placket [yes I have written it on now so I won't be caught out again!] 

I like that the ties give it a more ladylike feel however when I first tied them, the shoulder and bust area looked very square, so I added a small tuck at the bust on each side, and that cleared up the problem. I think if I had sleeves I wouldn't have needed it but because of the width of the shoulder it looked square.  

I will say though, that this is some of my best top stitching. I came up with an ingenious was of making sure I take my time with stitching, quite simply I turned down the speed on my sewing machine. I know right, how has it taken me this long to realise that slowing down my machine would give me a neater top stitch. I also interfaced the collar properly this time and made sure to give everything a good press at each stage. I think it all helps to create a clean finish.

The buttons don't all match, they are all the same size but some have a matt finish and some have a glossier finish, you can't tell when its done up though. In fact I didn't even realise they were different until after I'd sewn them all on. 

All in all I think it looks pretty cool, it's not my usual style but I think it looks pretty cute and I'm looking forward to wearing it more when it warms up. I wasn't sure also the colour of the fabric at first seen as I have an aversion to all things pale but I think it looks okay and it looks even better now Iv'e accidentally dyed in in my washer. Note to self always check the white wash for stray socks! Its  now a slightly pink colour which is nice.

In fact now I'm completely convinced by the pattern I think I might give a shirt dress a go!!!

Much Love 

Frankie

xxx

Little Knitwits Flowers

My Mums uncle and Auntie haven't been doing to well recently, ones poorly and now the other is as well.

I spoke to my uncle a few months ago and he was more upset about the state of his garden than his health. He was upset because he hadn't been able to plant any flowers for the past few years so it didnt look very pretty. And this is a man who's very proud of his garden.

So lil Knitwit decided to do something about it....

These are lolly pop flowers, everything was from lil knitwits craft box and have been put together using masking tape (the glue just wasn't sticking)

I cut some of the shapes from craft foam and coloured paper and he decided how they would look.

I did consider doing a tutorial but its pretty basic stuff , just let your kid go wild with the craft box!

Here is a list of things I put out for lil knitwit to use:
lolly sticks (ours were from a craft kit but you could recycle)
card
foam
buttons
pipe cleaners
mini pegs
masking tape

all in all he had a blast making them and im really hoping they cheer my uncle up, even if they wont last very long inside!

I like the idea of flowers that don't die and think these would make an awesome kids craft for mothers day etc! with the added bonus that they are no mess!

and when your in the first week of the summer holidays trying to remember how to clean with a small child running about your ankles no mess is a big deal!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

Minions and marigolds.

Sooooo I finished another minion today! 

Not much to say really apart from it has one eye and it's pretty darn adorable! This one had been ordered by my mum for the grandchildrens room at her house.

In other news two of my marigolds have come into flower! Which is very exciting! Although my sweet peas still haven't flowered! I am also now in possession of a gardening fork which I'm very excited about, in fact I might make myself a gardening belt and Kneeling Matt at some point in the future! 

If you follow me on Instagram you'll have also have seen this useless bit of knowledge! I can tack a hexy in just over 1 minute although I'd say it's probably under a minute considering I had to pick up the hexy and I cut the thread at the end.

Anyway that's all really , but of a go slow at the moment because of little knitwots bout of poorly ness last week! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

Ooooo, fabricgasm

For anyone who doesn't know a fabricgasm is....... Actually I'm gonna let you figure it out for yourselves, it involves the word fabric and gasm so I think it's pretty self explanatory. 

Anyway, seen as I'm still rocking my no buying fabric till I've used fabric stuff, my fabricgasm a have been strictly the online kind (I sound full on creepy right now) so I thought I'd share some of my favourites! 

Somebody buy me this Liberty so I can make the worlds prettiest blouse! 

I have a weird relationship with birds, owls=yes, parrots/bugies=no. Pigeons I hate!!! Speaking of which are they getting braver or is it just me? When I was young a well placed clap and the little buggers would go flying, but I practically stood on one yesterday and it didn't even flinch! 

There's still a little freaky goth kid in me somewhere! 

I mean she's really trying to get out!

 

I can practically feel her sharp little black goth nails clawing on the inside of my head! 

Yeah I'm gonna have to let her out soon, please expect some Skeleton makes as soon as my fabric stash allows! 

I love the look and style of retro games, anything in 8 bit is right up my alley.

My sister calls me Frankenstein so this is pretty appropriate. 

My little pony - nuff said

And lastly I'm not sure who this is, but it would make the cutest summer dress! 

Anyway if you want to see more of my fabricgasms follow me on Pinterest! I update my fabricgasm board regularly, usually at 3am when I can't sleep! 

Suddenly just realised that most of my choices are Alexander Hebert which says a huge amount about how seriously awesome his designs are! (At least I'm assuming it's a he? And not just a team of "people"? I'm picturing a cool , friendly guy with round spectacles, a deep love for coffee and a wicked sense of humour, if I find out it's a group of university students working on iPads I might cry!) 

Much love 

Frankie

Xxx

P.s if someone could shed some light on the Alexander Henry thing that would be awesome! 

Nannys been spoiling me!

After hearing that I was determined to learn to crochet this year Mr Knitwits Nan was nice enough to buy me a book about how to do it!

Now I could show you all of the beautiful blankets that are outlined in this book but to be honest wouldn't we all just rather revel in the beauty of this bad boy!

I mean seriously! its like the best blanket I have ever seen in my entire life! Its made up of flowers! OF DAISYS! I am going to learn how to crochet and I'm going to make this!

Thanks Nanny for spoiling me! YET AGIAN! Seriously the woman's a legend!

Much love

Frankie

xxxx