Blue African Wax Print Cotton Dress

Its no secret that I'm a fan of an African wax print cotton. I mean seriously digging through the bargain pre cut bins at Abakhans is my happy place!

Anyway I think this piece was about a metre and a half and it had more of the awesome sparkles that Abakhan seem to be featuring in their wax cottons! Its another panelesque print so some careful planning was used when trying to work out how to cut out the bodice.

Anyway because I am the most boring person in the world I basically decided to make a copy of this dress. Yes I know I'm dull but its my favourite dress to wear at the moment and if it ain't broke don't fix it.

So its the same princess seam bodice and box pleat skirt [both from the second GBSB book] as before in fact the only thing I forgot to do was put the slit in the front of the bodice. But now I'm wondering if forgetting was actually a stroke of luck because my centre pattern down the front is actually pretty bang on.

The back is less bang on but the pattern wasn't printed on grain so it was a bit of a struggle. And the skirt isn't central either which is because I stupidly lined up the bottom of the skirt and not the top, like a muppet! Its not something that'll bother me too much but its annoying that I made mistakes because I was tired!

Yeah the back is super crumpled, I wore this dress all yesterday and didn't get around to taking pictures till the whole thing was a crumpled mess. So I decided to leave it, Get up early and iron the dress in the morning and take pictures today.......Who was I kidding? Get up early to iron? no you can have the crumpled version thank you very much.

 By the way I did an invisible zip which went in really nicely. And everything matched up on the waistband too [Insert smug face here]  

So yeah I grand success even if I did screw up on a few things. I love the colour and how the pattern placement turned out.

In other news....

Its less than a month this my birthday! YAY!

But today I feel pretty grouchy to be honest, I'm hoping its just a touch of PMS but all I want to do is sit and watch Disney in my jammies and maybe have a lil cry? however that's looking pretty unlikely seen as lil man is on super awful whingey form today. Yay...... I might try and do some yoga later and let go a bit, but I'm not sure if it will help, Ideally I'd eat a bar of cadburys whilst reading a sewing magazine but its raining and nothing depresses me more than a walk to the shops in the rain!

And so we don't end on a completely sucky note, I tried lil mans new school uniform on him yesterday and he looks ADORABLE!!! I mean I'm not saying my kids the cutest in the world but its going to be a pretty close race! [totally regretting calling him a whinge bag before, he's sitting good as gold doing a puzzle right now]

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

A Tribute

Today I received some bad news. I did have another post ready but this seemed more important. 

When I was eighteen and studying for my a level textiles I was the only student in the class and I had two teachers, miss Jenkins who was sweet and free and kind. 

And Mrs Leigh, who has recently passed away. 

She was a wonderful teacher and a fantastic person , she taught me how to care about my work and inspired me to be better. 

When you were taught by Mrs Leigh you worked hard, she pushed for excellence. Find your best and beat it.

She was also funny and kind, she made me cups of tea when I had to write my essay (I hated writing then). 

She showed me how to make a collar and how to do French seams. And she taught me that it was okay to like this stuff. That it's okay to knit and sew, to think embroideries cool and to want to spend hours designing the perfect gown. That it was okay to be me, to just be creative and to skip the intellectual stuff. 

She was pretty dammed cool, even if she did terrify me at first. 

I think that the people of this world are moulded by the people that taught them, the ones who imparted knowledge and who gave inspiration. To Mrs Leigh I was probably just that strange girl she taught, that she had to deal with one on one (I'm presuming I was fairly trying some days) but to me she was one of the people that shaped who I am, and who put me on the path to my future. I would have liked her to know that I'm still doing this stuff, and that I always think of her when I clip my corners, fabric wise of course, you did not cut corners with Mrs Leigh, you aimed for perfection.   

I hope that her family can find comfort in her memory just like I do.

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