Swirls and Leather Dress

This dress is one of those hit and miss type items. On one hand there's thing I like and on the other there's things I know for a fact are an issue.

Lets start with the fabric, the green is an upholstery weight fabric that was given to me by a friend, in fact she was kind enough to give me a roll of it. Whilst I like the pattern of the fabric I wasn't entirely sold on the colour as I don't wear much green. The leather that I used for the waistband and the side panels was from a leather jacket that my sister gave me. I had intended to refashion the leather jacket however it was absolutely plastered with seams so my ideas just didn't work.

I didn't really pattern match on this, the pattern is so large that its impossible so I just tried to make things as symmetrical as possible, you can't really tell on the pictures but the fabric has swirls and pillars and elephants on it. Its sort of an Indian vibe.

Here you can see the leather sections more easily, I definitely think they update the dress quite a lot.

Here's my big issue though, because I made the darts in the front of the skirt too deep [stupid drawing them in error] I had to unpick the back darts and just add a small pleat on either side. Yes I could have redone the darts but at this point I was already out of love with the idea of the dress so it seemed pointless. Luckily you can't really tell from the back but it still bothers me that I messed up.

I am pleased with my hack of the pattern at the back though. I altered the back piece to have a lowered V back. WHICH I LOVE! I think it looks kind of sexy in a subtle way, I do have to be super careful which bra I wear with it though! In fact between you and me.... here the tatas are......free ......GOSH!!!!

The bodice is fully lined usually I just face the neck and armholes of my dresses but because of the leather a fully lined bodice seemed like a better option. [especially seen as you have you go bra less because of the back. No one wants chafing in that region]  

Its such a weird dress for me sometimes I look and I'm like yeah its cool, and sometimes I'm like eurgh what is this filth that I created? My mum loves it funnily enough. I think mainly the green is putting me off, I don't wear green because it washes me out. But on the other hand maybe this looks okay? If I actually bother to put lippy on that is.

I think the influence came from reading the pink suit I had this idea in my head that I was going to become some sort of quirky Jackie Kennedy. In fact I've got a matching jacket cut out that's languishing at the bottom of my sewing pile, I should really start that huh?

In fact I might do, I have another skirt project ready to roll in this fabric and having a jacket too might make a mini capsule wardrobe of sorts.

hmmmmmm?

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

Pansy Print Shift Dess

I'm actually dreading putting these pictures up, mainly because I was too lazy to do my hair [Which seriously needs cutting] or retouch my make up or put on lipstick so I know for a fact I look ill, which means my mother will probably see the pictures and decide I am ill and need to rest more....and she'll probably want to feed me broth... which isn't always a bad thing.

Put yes I'm not sick , I just always look this unhealthy!

Now onto the dress, I won the pansy fabric over at a stitching odyssey in a give-away Marie was running and I believe she got it from Miss Gingers. I got 1m of the print  in cotton and although its a lil crazy I kinda love it, my mum suggested I make a skirt but I loved the idea of a 90's style shift dress, something I could dress up with heels or down with boots and a cardi. Being stubborn I went my own way however I didn't have quite enough material hence the colour blocking.

The pink sections came from an old dress lining, its a similar weight to the pansy print and the colours work well together so its a winner for me. The bodice is a princess seam so having both the front and back in pink and the sides in pansy looks pretty cool...to me at least!

Pattern wise I kept it simple and used the shift dress pattern from the second gbsb book. There's really nothing else I can say about the pattern as I've made it here and here and used the bodice here . I did shorten the skirt on this one quite a bit more though to keep a young vibe. The best way I find to shorten dresses that I want right on the cusp of decency is to lay them next to a rtw dress your happy with the length of and work off that as a guide. No more flashing my knickers for me!

Construction wise I just finished my seams with another row of stitching and I faced the armholes and neckline with the pansy print fabric. And then very neatly topstitched. Like a Boss! The hem is hand sewn because eek hand finished hems and basically looks like it was done by faeries! 

I did a lapped zip at the back, its not my neatest work but I'd already ripped it out once and I wasn't in the mood for another go. Luckily for me my hair is that long now that it covers any zip issues!

Heres a better shot of my colour blocking, As you can see I didn't bother pattern matching but now i look at it, I might have used the print the wrong way up. woopsie.

It didn't take a huge amount of time to make, I think about two episodes of the sopranos and half an episode to stitch the hem? In fact the longest part was trying to work out if I actually had enough material. 

And that's it! Yay!

Its a half recycled, half free, kinda crazy shift dress but I love it! Its completely out of my comfort zone but I can still see it getting a lot of wear!

Much Love

Frankie 

x

Blue velvet GBSB Shift dress

After the success of my first GBSB Shift dress I decided to make another and finally cut into my blue velvet!

Okay so my pictures came out in a weird order and I'm far to lazy to fix it, so here's the back I used a shorter zip than the pattern called for so its half zip and half cool button feature. I think it looks cute I made my loops using a needle and thread technique that's also used on the basic shell top. The only down side is you can see my bra but it doesn't bother me a huge amount . Although I did remove it for the purpose of this post.

I still like the shape and I think the hem length on this is good, i could go a little shorter but I'm not a huge fan of showing my pants anymore.

I faced the neckline using scraps from my Halloween dress which means the inside has a secret creepy agenda which is awesome in so many ways! i also stitched the facings to the seams where i could to stop them flicking up. usually i just top stitch and be done with it but i wanted a really RTW finish.

Here's the back again, the buttons are vintage and either came from my mum via a charity shop or my neighbour? I'm not sure but i like the vintage feel they give to the garment.

Fabric wise i used some of my blue velvet, it was a good project to see how the fabric works, i learnt that it sheds like a mother and frays on the edges and shifts faster than usian bolt. i think its something to do with the nap of the fabric because it only did it on certain angles, in fact the princess seams were easier to do than the back seam. But i used my new walking foot and although its really loud it seemed to help with the shifting problem [I'm now really looking forward to using it for quilting!]

Incidentally for those who haven't gathered this is the dress i got stuck in in this post.

All in all I'm very pleased with how its turned out, It fits well and i find it very flattering. And I like that the skirt isn't overall fitted the slight Aline makes it more comfotable.

I actually wore this on Thursday for taking lil knitwit to nursery and then going to swimming and MacDonald's as a special treat. Lil knitwit has been very well behaved this week so we thought he deserved some spoiling.

In other news Lil knitwit is now the very proud owner of his own fish tank as a reward for doing so well with his toilet training. would you belive that he now goes for his nap without a pull up on? and he gets a sticker if he wakes up dry! or trys a new food! basically stickers are like crack in our house!

Annnnnnnd today we adopted a hamster, Sandy is a small syrian hamster who hadn't been sold so had been put up for adoption and surprisingly enough it wasn't me who fell In love with her it was mr knitwit!

Soft git

Much love

Frankie

P.s yes this does now bring our animal count to 

1 hamster

1 rabbit

tropical fish

2 guinea pigs

Very Grown Up Dress

I don't usually make dresses like this, Its a pretty grown up style and whilst i don't mind dressing like a grownup i always tend to find grownup outfits are a little less than comfortable.

However needs must and Ive decided to start dressing a lil bit better to help me feel more chirpy. Its not that I'm miserable don't get me wrong, but Ive found that i seem to spend less time on looking good now I'm a momma, so i though i might start trying to look better again in the hopes it makes me feel a bit more like a human and less like a cleaning, feeding , poop mopping up machine. 

So the pattern for this dress is from the second gbsb book. Its a princess seamed shift dress with a darted skirt and arm and neck hole facings. I loved the facings they give a really lovely finish to the dress without bulking out the seams too much.

Generally i think the shape is pretty flattering, and i like the style of dress with the abstract print. This fabric was given to me by a friend and is a very heavy curtain weight, Its probably too heavy for this dress but i like how it turned out and i thought the print was kinda cool with the big flowers. I'm not sure how much wear ill get out of it becuase3 the fabric is so thick, so i might just chalk it up as a wearable toile.

The colour means its more of a summer dress, in fact i could see me wearing this on a safari! We've been looking at different honeymoon destinations for next year and Mr knitwit thinks its highly amusing that I'm already planing what ill wear. 

zip wise i changed it up a bit, i basted my back seam together with a long stitch and then sewed in my zip using a smaller stitch and then stitched the remainder of the seam. It kind of makes a closed double lap zip.

I did wonder if the placement of this flower was a bit awkward but i really couldn't do anything else with the amount of fabric i had.

I'm still shocked at how well this fits, Although i do think i might have used the wrong seam allowance sewing it up. I'm not sure why but i think it might be because of the pretty evil cold i was rocking.

The only thing i hate is the hem i hand stitched it and the fact you can see it is a bit annoying hopefully it might change after its had a good wash and a press.

I think I'm going to make a winter version of this next using another thicker material but in a darker colour.

I'm hoping these pictures turned out okay, its my first time using my wireless remote for my camera. I realise my face and hair are a mess but i was sleepy and as i said i have a cold. Not even a stay in bed kind of cold though just the annoying I'm gonna make every day feel like a climb up mount Everest type.

Much Love

Frankie

xxx