Thomas the Tank Engine Pyjamas

I'm not quite sure how to start this post so I'll just launch straight in..... 

I made Thomas the Tank Engine Pjs

Me the 25 year old woman made Thomas the Tank Engine pjs...................

And I basically think they are the coolest thing in the whole wide world! Because well Thomas duh!

So this all started when my friend was having a clear out and found a load of his old childhood curtains. Including a pair of Thomas the tank engine ones. Now to begin with I did think "dress" I mean after all I made a He-man dress and I love that. But I don't actually like Thomas as much as I like He-man. 

I have a theory that having lil Man ruined Thomas the Tank engine for me because lets face it when you watch something on repeat it does kind of take the shine of it. Also Runied : Fireman Sam, Noddy and The Simpsons

Thus why Lil man will never be watching He-man or Thundercats......

Anyway then I stumbled upon the idea of making some Pjs. Mainly because Sew now mag was offering a free pj pattern at the time that I really liked.

Would you believe I couldn't pick up a copy of the magazine anywhere! We tried 5 supermarkets, our local newspaper shop and whsmiths but I couldn't find it anywhere. So I looked online trying to find something similar and then I had an epiphany. 

Why not just pattern hack some pjs? 

So if you own Love at first stitch by Tilly Walnes then our can make these jammies [you will have to find your own Thomas the Tank engine curtains though.] The bottoms are straight up the Margot pyjama bottoms but I changed the drawstring waistband for an elastic one. 

And the top is just the Mimi Blouse but I lengthened the sleeves and omitted all of the iron on interfacing for comfort. I did keep the regular facings though because they leave a nice finish on the collar. And I swapped the gathers on the front and back for pleats because they look a bit less twee.

As it turns out the combination of the two patterns ended up making a pretty cute pyjama set and as an added bonus I didn't have to spend any money. 

I was a bit worried the Mimi blouse might not work but as it goes I quite like the loose fit and the lower neckline as it means I can pull it over the top of my head without faffing with any buttons. In fact if I make another set I might just sew the buttons directly on and leave the front closed. 

Lets all just take a moment to appreciate that Edward is bang on my crotch area! I swapped the draw string for elastic because I tend to find that the drawstring likes to become really blooming difficult to undo just as I'm desperate for a wee! Elastic however just means I can whip them down!

Sadly I didn't have quite enough of the Thomas fabric so the back is cut with the trains going down and the sleeves, yoke and collar are cut using a different fabric, also from my friend.

Changes wise next time I think I might add an inch to the sleeves and make the top a fraction longer. Its not necessarily too short now but I do like the idea of having a bit more length. I'm also thinking that a pocket on the chest might be nice for keeping biscuits in and stuff. Because well biscuits.....

All in all I'm pretty darn pleased with them! Rikki thinks they are possible the most sexless thing I own and hes right but they are comfy and I love the style. So much so that I've already got plans to make another pair in some silky Pyjama fabric! But before you think I'm making a grown up set please bear in might that said silky fabric has MONKEYS on it!

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx

Red Gingham Lilou Dress

As soon as I made my first gingham lilou dress I knew I'd make another. In fact sometimes I find it difficult to not just sew the same dress over and over again if I love it. Which is why this dress originally started out as something else. I decided to challenge myself and sew a different bodice. That particular bodice was by Prima Magazine and made me look like a starter for the England rugby team. It was boxy and awful so it got scratched and I went back to my beloved Lilou pattern. What can I say if it ain't broke don't fix it.

This dress I like very much! Its not a carbon copy of my first version. This time I used a smaller check and opted to bind the edges of the placket to make it stand out a bit more. I also didn't cut the placket on the bias. Whereas it worked on my first version because it was a larger check it felt like it would be a bit wasted on this version.

That said the construction is still roughly the same, my lilou bodice with all of the usual changes [deeper back darts, and an inch off the shoulder seams] and a gathered skirt. I am debating if I need to do a bit more with the straps? My sister once mentioned that I have no shoulders so I think I may need to take a bit more off them? My other problem is the *ahem* under arm fat issue. Now I have no idea why this fat has decided to deposit itself there, I mean if your going to sit there you might as well hop across to my boob and make yourself useful. But its there and I have zero idea how to get rid of it? I looked at some pictures in a magazine [I know a stupid idea] and none of the celebrities seem to have it? Although I;m pretty sure I've read that they just lipo it out? So I guess my question is..... Can I get rid of it and do you have it? 

Other than that its a winner! The fabric was from abakhans, they have a great selection of gingham's and I sort of want a dress in every colour? I debated the pink but would that be a bit too "barbie"

By the way the buttons are from my stash and I had the hardest time finding some that would work! 

Its go a lapped zip, which is pretty neat by my standards. I didn't bother pattern matching because its a such a small check and well Life = Short. I also considered cutting the skirt as a circle skirt but by so they peeve me off when the wind blows! One small gust and its "OH HEY EVERYONE LOOK AT MY KNICKERS!" that's a lie... I don't wear knickers [No I do wear knickers, I definitely wear knickers!] 

The fit on the back seems pretty good to me there's no pull lines so I guess that means its a good fit? For some reason I'm obsessed with fit at the moment! I've even found myself look at rtw clothes on people and mentally adjusting the fit! 

This dress actually got its first outing in April to have dinner at Lil mans godfathers house with his mum and dad and fiance. We are lucky to have a great relationship with their whole family and well they do these roast potatoes and OMG. I literally have no idea how they make them taste so good! Also they have a dog which is me sold!  Anyway I felt very comfy in this dress for my roast dinner plus cake! [plus extra potatoes, and then more potatoes] I had enough room for food and the skirt is long enough for me to sit on the floor and pet the dog, and then complain when the dog left me to be petted by another human........ Dogs are so fickle!

Excuse the creases in the dress, we'll all just pretend it hasn't been sat on the bedroom floor waiting to be photographed..........

I also wore it to school a few weeks ago and one of the girls in Lil mans class asked me where I got my summer dress from....... Which basically means I dress like a child. But she liked it and after I told her that I sewed it myself she promptly told her mum to make her one....... The mother looked like she might cry and mumbled something about not owning a sewing machine!!!! [I'm so deep down the sewing rabbit hole now that the idea of not owning a sewing machine baffles me!]

In other news:

I brought a new handbag today, my old one had given up the ghost so I treated myself. Which was weird because I haven't brought something from a shop in ages! And also because I chose a relatively small one. Typically I carry a huge handbag because my anxiety tell mes I need to carry EVERYTHING. But this time I got a small one in a effort to test myself and only carry the essentials, which is far more than most women carry anyway! Three different lipsticks isn't over kill is it?

Pattern - Lilou dress from Love at first stitch by Tilly walnes

Fabric - red gingham 2m [which I used all of because of my stupid experimental bodice!!!] Abakhans 

Much love

Frankie 

Tape Measure Lilou Dress

I'm currently sat in my dressing gown after being evicted from my bed. To cut a long story short I took a sleeping pill last night because I haven't been sleeping well so you can imagine my delight when lil man woke up at 6.00am this morning. Naturally he has since fallen asleep in our bed so I've been regulated to the settee.

Anyway I was going to write this last night but the lap top threw a dizzy fit and I spent the night nodding intelligently whilst Rikki muttered about IPs and Wps and Connectivity........ Literally didn't understand a word............. And the swines just popped down stairs to disturb me and left a guinea pig on the floor!

But anyway here's what I'm actually here to post about! 

So its a basic lilou dress from tilly and the button "love at first stitch"! But on the plus side I found all of the details of the alterations I've made hidden in a notebook down the side of the sofa! So I only work using the bodice block and tend to wing the skirt portion depending on how much fabric I have. But on the bodice block I originally traced a size 3, but since then have take about 2cm out of the top of each strap [front and back bodice piece] and widened the darts on the front bodice by 0.5cm and widened them at the back by 1cm and that's it! The fit is pretty banging if I do say so myself! 

The fabric is a cotton? that I got from abakhans [Sorry I cant find it on their website guys!] It came in this sort of greys and red colour way and a more muted beige colour way. I decided I like this one better but I know for a fact it also comes in a pink and orangey colour way and I've got my eye on that one next!

It behaves as you expect from any cotton really. Which did sort of remind me how much I love working with cotton! after sewing with knits and floaty fabrics so much recently the idea of using a fabric that actually behaved itself was quite novel! 

The zip is also from abakhans and came out of one of those £1 assorted bags of zips. Its an open ended zip so I stitched about an inch about the bottom so it can't come undone. This zip is also one of the neatest I have ever done in my entire life! seriously for an exposed metal zip its just so pretty!

I brought two metres of this and did some pretty crafty cutting to eek out this dress, I also went for a slightly less full skirt mainly for practicality reasons! I learnt in Vegas that the fuller the skirt the more likely a gust of wind is the flash your knickers! So the skirt is 20inches deep and I'm not sure how much across? But lets put it this way I have enough left from my 2m to make a skirt aswell! #winning 

The bodice is lined, and I sewed the hem by machine, which is pretty unusual for me as I usually like the hand sew my hems! This change of heart was because I wanted to finish the dress before I had to pick up little man from school!

Anyways I actually made this dress a little while ago when I was fed up of the miserable drizzle we were having and I thought a summer dress might encourage the sun to come out! The next day it snowed.............So yeah I guess you can blame me if your car got stuck!

Much Love

Frankie

xx

Delphine - Cotton and Chalk Mashup

This was finished way before Christmas, In fact its been finished since November and has been systematically leaking blue dye in the washer ever since [Thank the baby Jesus for colour catchers!] Anyway what with Christmas and New Year and what not I just didn't have time to blog like at all!

So down to details, the skirt part is the Delphine skirt from Tilly and the buttons love at first stitch and the bib part is from the cotton and chalk Sunday set.

As its just a bib there's no need for fangled pattern drafting or redrafting to make it fit. In fact the whole thing went together pretty seamlessly apart from having to take an inch out of the centre back seam because it was a bit too big. Which naturally meant I had to unpick THE BEST invisible zip I had ever done which is gutting! Especially when I re put in the zip and It wasn't as good. [Insert all of the sad faces here]   

I'm loving the dungarees fashions that are happening at the moment and I love that this is a slightly girlier version. In fact the only issue I have is that its a wee bit short. Or at least I feel like it is? Its the typical "oh this is too long, I'll re hem it......woops a daisy now its far too bloody short!" But maybe its okay if I wear really thick tights?

All of the topstitching was done in bright blue thread and is pretty dammed neat if I do say so mayself! and oh wait whats that.................................???????

OMG the bib comes off! SURPRISE I made it detachable! Mainly because then I get two outfits for the price of one!!!! So now I have a dungaree skirt set and a cute denim skirt! Which has been on my sewing list for a while! Two birds with one stone! God I love it when that happens! 

The bib and straps are attached to the skirt via buttonholes and buttons. The buttons are sewn to the skirt waistband lining and are not visible from the outside. 

The lining of the bib and skirt waistband is just some left over upholstery fabric. Which worked pretty well because I didn't have any interfacing! The main denim fabric is from abakhans and it like all new denims seems to loose a lot of dye. I've been putting all my denim in with some colour catchers and I've not been having any problems!

All in all I'm pretty pleased with how this project turned out I love the practicalities of having two outfit options [can we say space saver!] and the fit is pretty good. I still love this skirt pattern for its simplicity the lack of darts is really flattering and its nice to have a simple skirt pattern to hand.

In other news:

I didn't really get much sewing related stuff for xmas,  I received a book on crochet and some money from friends and family to go fabric shopping and some fat quarters but I think my favourite gift my be the record player my lovely hubby brought me! In fact I love it that much I've moved this posh cd player with sub woofing thing and 300 wires so I can have it in pride of place!  

My god daughter turned one! she was born at the very start of 2016 which just proves that 2016 wasn't a complete bust!!!!!

And as if 2016 was trying to prove to me that it wasn't a complete waste of space, my lovely new niece snuck in just at the end of December! So between my God daughter and a new Niece I think 2016 and book ended rather nicely!

And yes new baby niece has a handmade hamper all of her very own! 

And I think that's it! Mainly I'm just recovering from Christmas and new year and trying desperately to get back into the "swing" of things!!!!

Much Love

Frankie 

xxxxx 

Foxy Lilou Dress

I am exhausted! Lets just say lil man woke up yesterday morning not feeling well and by yesterday afternoon I was washing or actual duvet in the bath [it doesn't fit in our washer] whilst Rikki tried to track down a new one!

Anyway its only a cold [hes always sick when he has a cold] so we popped out later on to give him some fresh air......and .......... we ended up coming home with!!!!!! GERBILS!!!! If you check out my insta you'll see a cute lil video I've shot of them! I'm hoping to get some pictures to but boy are those lil guys rapid!!!! So if you do get to see it you'll meet Snowy, Daisy and Buttons [Guess which one I named?]

But your'e not here to hear me ramble on about my new furry friends!

Instead Your here to see this! A dress with furry foxes on it!!!!

Okay so the details! The fabric is from the craft cotton company and they sent it to me as an early wedding pressie so I could make some stuff for Vegas! It features a sitting fox and a sleeping fox and is about the most adorable fabric I have ever seen! 

Interestingly enough Rikki is a firm hater of novelty print fabrics and he doesn't mind this! I think it could be because I spent 10 minutes strutting around our living room singing "I'm a Foxy Lady" [if your wracking your brains truing to think how that song goes, it doesn't.....I made it up on the spot.............and the dance too]  

The pattern is a Lilou dress, from Tilly and the Buttons love at first stitch! BUT I added sleeves, mainly because I needed a dress with sleeves just in case Vegas has got some serious sunshine on the go! 

The sleeves are from the Megan dress from the same book. But instead of gathering the sleeve head I decided to just pleat it over. I'm always wary of gathered sleeves because they look like puff sleeves and hello I'm not five! So I just pleated them over to make it a bit more grownup. 

The skirts gathered, which is pretty standard for me, I tend to find gathered skirts, box pleat skirts and circle skirts the most flattering.

I think the scooped neckline works nicely with the sleeves and I'm glad I've opened up a whole new relm of Lilous to be made!

The zip is blue! I swear to god when I was finishing this at 10 at night I thought the zip I pulled out was black and then low and behold its bloody blue! Note to self : Having energy saving light bulbs where I sew is not energy saving at all! 

I'm wearing it belted here, but I'm not sure it needs to be. In fact these pictures show the belt in completely the wrong place which is a bit annoying!

The only thing I did that was really different was not doing a lined bodice, I thought I might really regret it but I just didn't have anything suitable to line it! Anyway I don't mind it, and I hope it might take me out of my EVERYTHING MUST BE LINED PHASE!!!! which I was worried might make me a bit sweaty [yeah I know too much info!]  

All in all I love it, I think its a really cute print and I can see me wearing it a lot through the darker months because of the colour!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx  

 

Tartan Delphine Skirt

I had about a metre of fabric left after making my tartan pencil skirt so I thought it might be nice to whip up a delphine skirt from love at first stitch.

Every time I put on my first delphine skirt I think "wow I really like this I should make another" and well after saying that for about 2 years I've finally got around to it!

Its pretty basic construction wise, four pattern pieces and no darts. Its not particularly fabric hungry either I think I got this out of about a metre and that's with pattern matching as well.

I did have to cut the waistband on the bias though because there wasn't enough fabric to pattern match there. I'm glad I did though because its a nice feature. cutting the waistband on the bias did mean I interfaced it though, usually I skip the interfacing because 1. I'm lazy and 2. I don't think it added that much structure? I mean this folds anyway and its got interfacing, but I added if for this so my pieces wouldn't stretch out of shape.

As it goes The waistband didn't stretch at all, probably because of the interfacing but I had to steam the bejeezus out of the front skirt panel because it had stretched. Seriously I must have been steaming for a good 10 minutes trying to work out why it was shrinking back down to size but at the same time not really caring as long as it did.

The pattern calls for a concealed zip But I didn't have one to hand so I just did a lapped zip. [I'm pretty sure this zip came from an old pair of trousers]

Here's my pattern matching down the back, Its about 2mm out which isn't too bad.

And down the sides, all the lines match up which I'm happy with but I think because of the nature of the shape of the skirt this is as good as it gets pattern matching wise.

And here's the waistband lining, I used a teddy bear print cotton because.......well teddy bears?

So yes all in all very pleased, I made a nice job finishing it and I'm glad I took the time to pattern match where I could!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

Black and Teal Lace Skirt

So this is my first make using fabric from my abakhan shopping haul . This is the Black Lace and Teal lining material I brought instead of the £25 per metre lace I fell in love with.

I based this loosely on the Clemence skirt from love at first stitch, But for some reason my waistband came out to big and I had to take it in by about an cm on either side. Its hidden inside the lining but its still a bit too much bulk for my liking.

Its a lovely full skirt and I really like the pop of colour underneath. I'm also happy about the fact I can dress it up or down depending on my mood.

I used an invisible zip at the back and my waistband isn't quite level. I'm not sure if its going to annoy me enough to want to unpick it all and re sew the waistband, although if I do I guess I can shrink it down a bit so theirs no bulk at the sides.

I think the length is pretty good, its not trashy but its not old lady either. I hemmed the lining but I havent hemmed the lace yet, ideally I'd like the hemming to be invisible so I need to work out how to do that.

Here's the offending waistband, I think its out by about 3/4mm? To be honest I don't think its going to bother me that much. And I'm not sure the bulk at the waist will either Ill probably just clamp it down with a belt.

and here's how the lace and teal fabric look together! Pretty cute right? I love that its not a traditional lace and more like a corded lace type thing!

The only other real technical bit is that the lace and the lining fabric are only joined at the waistband and the zip. I treated bot fabrics separately at the end of the zip so they would move as two separate layers! I'm pretty pleased with that to be honest, because old lazy Frankie would have just stitched the back seam through both layers.

In other news I fell over on saturday, I'm okay but basically both legs went from under me and I landed on my hip and my hand and shoulder so I'm feeling pretty uncomfortable. Turns out Marcus had been polishing the floor with his polish cloth and not the table liked id asked. Kids do the darndest things eh?

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

A Sewing Skirt for a Sewing Girl

I'm back! After 10 days without internet I've been getting a lot of stuff done, the plan was to have a load of blog posts ready to go so I could ease myself in...... but naturally I was lazy and forgot to keep up to date! So its going to be the pretty standard writing and posting routine I'm afraid.

This skirt was a pretty simple one evening kind of make, I wanted the fabric to speak for itself so I used the Clemence skirt pattern from love at first stitch. But like a dolt I forgot to take 2cm off the waistband so its a lil big.

The fabric for the main body of the skirt was a birthday present from my sister and her husband and the waistband is from my stash, I think both are a quilting cotton of some sort I had 1m of the main fabric hence the contrast waistband, I say its a Clemence skirt but really its just a 1m of fabric split in to two and then one of those panels split into two again. The main fabric is printed with scissors and mannequins and French haberdashery advertisements, its a pretty bold pattern but I didn't bother pattern matching instead i just made sure that the fabric was all facing the right way up. 

Its pretty standard construction I used French seams on the sides and did a 1cm hem although I might take it up a bit more. It feels a lil long to be honest I feel a bit too mumsy. 

In fact I followed the instructions pretty much to a T apart from putting in a lapped zip instead of a concealed one. Mainly because I wanted to see if I could actually do one. Spoiler alert I can! 

I came out pretty neat actually, and it might just end up being my favourite zip technique.  

Although I finished the hem by machine I finished the inside of the waistband by hand and even added a little handmade label. You know just in case I forget.

I'm not quite sure why I look like I have a wind machine on the go in these pictures, I must be having a bad hair day.

All in all I'd say it was a success , apart from the length which I think I'm going to fix, although I don't want to look too trampy. I've worn it all day and although it creases a lot I think it looks pretty cute.

In other news my internetless self has done lots of knitting and sewing so I'l have plenty to blog about over the next few days ..... If I get around to taking pictures I lost my tripod mount for about a week so that's held me up no end!