Sew Saturday! My Day!

Yo
His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy
There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti
He's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready..............

Wait no that's Eminem during a rap battle not Frankie gearing up to do her first ever sewing demo at Abakhans Hanley!

Although I was definitely nervous. As in awake at 4am, re packed my sewing box four times and sent up a few prayers to god nervous. 

I eventually got up at 7.30am mainly because staying in bed until my alarm went off seemed like torture. I started to get read, threw lil man into bed with Rikki, made a brew and then I was off to Hanley.

 When I got to the store they were already open and serving customers, I got their at 9.30 so I'd have half an hour to set up [and hopefully calm the blooming heck down] before my demo. As soon as I walked in I was met by the lovely Glenis who manages the store and is possibly the NICEST PERSON EVER! She made me a brew and we had a good gossip about all things fabricy and then I started. 

And I didn't stop!

First of all I showed a Young girl how to thread up a sewing machine as she'd got her first one and wasn't sure, then I made a regular daisy dachshund 

Then I made a small felt daisy one by hand!

Then I showed everyone how to do some really quick half square triangles!

and then I made a BIG dog using the enlarged pattern Rikki had sorted out for me [Our printer hates me and wouldn't do it but apparently if Rikki asks it to print something enlarged by 200% it will!] That dog turned out super cute and even had a little felt bow on its head ! I was rather taken with her and was going to take her home until she caught the eye of a small girl and well what can I say I'm soft as muck! 

And before I knew it I'd gone over my time slot and it was time to go home! 

And I couldn't even remember what I'd been nervous about! In fact I'd go as far as to say I had a brilliant time! I loved taking to people about sewing the the staff at abakhans were really friendly.

But what I liked the most was seeing how many young people were interested in sewing although it did upset me a bit that both of the young girls I spoke to said that their schools either didn't have textiles lessons at all or that they only had the opportunity to do it for a short time. 

By now I'd have expected schools to have realised that students have all kinds of different skills and to try and encourage them all! 

But it was nice to see them taking an interest and buying all sorts of crafty things afterwards! 

Here's me trying to turn through a lil tiny doggy tail, it wasn't going well mainly because I'd forgotten to trim off the excess fabric! I felt like a right Muppet! 

This picture was taken by my sister who turned up enforce with my mum and Aunty Debbie! And then later a lady I used to belly dance with came too! Although I didn't really get chance to speak to them I did really appreciate having some friendly faces around! 

  So yeah it was really really fun!

And a huge thanks to all the staff at Abakhans Hanley who were so nice and welcoming! And to Lisa for organising for me to do it!

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx

90's Style Dress

Today turned out to be such a bust, I was going to be all productive and stuff. Ya know take blog photos, sew some stuff, finish my bladdy winter jumper which seems to be taking FOREVER!

Instead I drank copious amounts of tea, snuggled under the piece of fabric I was suppose to be cutting out and watched teen mom two [FYI don't judge me its well better than Eastenders] 

And then I watched Bridget Jones' Baby, which was just as hilarious as the first two BUT [SPOILER ALERT!] You don't actually learn who the father of Bridget's baby is? I mean there's a moment when your like okay so its definitely the other guy, and then Mark Darcy is all like "I'll love it anyway", and then they do the test, and then its a year on and you DEFINITELY think its the other guys and THEN! Mark Darcy says something and your like wait? Is it actually yours? 

Anyway I found it very frustrating. I've sat through all three of the Bridget Jones movies now and I feel emotionally invested in her relationship with Darcy and I think I deserve to know for sure, who the baby daddy is. I mean for gods sake is a DNA too much to ask for? Or a birth certificate? JUST GIVE ME SOMETHING CONCRETE!

But anyway I did actually do some sewing a while ago not just stare at the telly and rant about movies!

This dress is based off this Tie dye dress which I love to bits!  In fact the only thing I dislike about that dress is the length as a its a tad short for day to day use which pretty much just leaves it as a going out dress and LOLZ as you may have gathered from my Bridget Jones rant I DO NOT get out much!

The pattern is a bit of a Frankenstein, although I have copied it all out nicely and it has its own lil envelope now so I guess it counts as an actual pattern. The bodice is the GBSB Cami top but with about 10cm taken off the bottom and the skirt is just a gathered rectangle. Its a very simple dress but I love the style Especially when its worn with a belt.

Oddly enough I'm going to re hem this one because I think its a bit long, I swear getting the length right on handmade things is my nemesis. I'm starting to wonder how RTW shops judge the length? Everyone's legs are different lengths? How on earth do they decide?

I didn't have a lot of fabric because this was one of the pieces from the lady at the carboot but I had just enough for the bodice and for a slightly gathered skirt. Ideally I think more gathers would look better, but I worked with what I had and I don';t think it looks too bad.

Its not lined its just faced so I did the majority of the construction on my overlocker apart from the top stitching which I did on my regular machine and I was so lazy I didn't even change the thread I just used what was in there. Luckily its an okay match.

All in all I think its okay. I mean its a cute summery dress but I don't love it half as much as my tie dye version. The prints okay, I thought it might be a bit twee but its not too bad from a distance and I;m sure as soon as I've had chance to take up the hem a little I'll like it a lot more.

In other news!

Rikki is settling into his new job nicely.

Lil man is tired from school and cannot wait for half term. In fact I'd say we both need a good rest!

I;m looking forward to doing my demo at Abakhans Hanley on Sew Saturday, but I am absolutely bricking it! Which Rikki thinks is hilarious considering he went out for an hour and came home to about 5 of the dogs I'm demoing made up "How on earth are you nervous if you can sew them that fast?".....Haha Maybe he has a point! 

Much Love

Frankie

And if your in the area this Saturday pop over and say helloooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!1