Post Lockdown Work Trousers

 Shes back again?

So looking back at my pictures I found that I was actually a bit more productive than I thought? These are a pair of work trousers I made during the first lockdown. 

I knew at some point I was going to have to go back to work but I also knew that after weeks of wearing pyjamas and sweat pants that my waist would not be able to handle a "traditional waistband".

Instead I found myself, for the first time in my life I hasten to add!!!! Wanting a pair of elasticated trousers........

The pattern was k1620 by simplicity.

I brought my copy off ebay for the princely sum of £2.00, I doubt I'll actually make anything else featured on the pattern envelope. But you never know.

The fabric was a cheap find at work. one of the main perks of working in a fabric shop is being able to check out the sale rail before anyone else. In this instance, this thick black jersey was on sale for two pounds per metre. Naturally I stashed the roll under my table and had two/three [god knows I can't remember] cut with the intention of making trousers. 

all in all they turned out very well, I sewed them up on my over locker and had no great difficulty in putting the elastic channel in. 

I did however forget to leave any indication of whats the front and whats the back. This led me to walk back into work for my first post lock down shift and when asked how I was, respond.....

"Not too bad but I think I might have my trousers on backwards"

Luckily the place I work is relaxed enough that our duty manager for the day took a good look at my bum and promptly responded that I probably did have them on backwards. 

A quick trip to the toilet and the problem was solved and I felt a lot more comfortable 

In other news:

In home schooling an absolute bloody nightmare? 

We are flip flopping between getting everything done in an hour to spending the whole day trying to open the various power points and work sheets that have been sent. 

However yesterday we did go on a bike ride which was nice. Neither me nor little man have been sleeping particularly well and i thought a bike ride might help. It didn't. Instead we both just got covered in mud and came home freezing but at least we had a nice time. 

Plus I spent the entire time living in fear of falling into the canal. Lil man had a new bike for christmas and his tyres and suspension seemed to cope quite well. I however was dealing with the bike that a neighbour kindly gave to me [I did previously have a bike but my ex took it when he collected his things].

Anyway I had mentioned the issue to my neighbour Jane during the NHS clapping after she commented on seeing me try and keep up with lil dude on a too small scooter whilst he rode a bike. 

I am not built for the coordination scooting requires. 

As it goes she had a much loved bike that she had ridden to work for 30 years and had been languishing in her garage for the past ten [this gives you a fairly good idea of its age] 

Its a bit rusty but otherwise it gets the job done and now me and lil dude can go on bike rides again!!!!!!

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx

Simplicity 1252 "Jiffy" - Red Tartan Dress

This make is so old I remember wearing it with jumpers underneath it during that really harsh winter spell we had. 

Yeah, what can I say I'm behind on my blogging!!! 

Now this isn't typically something I'd choose to make but I was demoing how to make one at abakhans so I needed to make up a sample.

As it goes I was a Muppet and didn't pattern match my side seams but hey ho we can't be perfect all the time.

The pattern is simplicity 1252.

And surprisingly for simplicity the samples aren't made up in horrible fabrics! I'd actually wear all of the versions on the pattern envelope.

Its a really simple pattern, the back is cut with the fabric doubled [like normal] but the front is cut out on the flat so its a BIG OLE pattern piece. 

Its also a great pattern for practising darts. The centre front has a long dart as well as bust darts and the back has two darts as well to give shape. 

I'm not a huge fan of the centre front dart, especially with a tartan pattern like this as it distorts it. Plus it just feels a bit weird to me having a dart right under my chin. Next time I think I'll rotate the dart out because I'm just not a huge fan of it. 

The arm and neck facing is all in one. Which is my favourite kind of facing, I mean I'd much rather line something but if I do have to do a facing I'd rather it was all in one and not flapping around. 

I took about 1 1/2 inches off the length and I probably could have taken a fraction more.  

The backs got a lapped zip which I can happily report went in first time with no issues. I did pin the absolute heck out of it though to make sure that all the tartan stripes lined up. [unlike those pesky side seams!]

All in all I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. Its a nice blend of smart and comfy and it looks really nice with a black turtleneck or a jumper of some sort under it. 

In other news!!! 

I've done a bit of sewing recently. I've made an outfit for my friends wedding next month and I am buzzing to wear it!

I've not done any knitting but I've been tidying my knitting and sewing stuff so I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things soon. Especially seen as I have a lot of baby booties to knit! I know 3 people who are pregnant right now!!!!! Which also means I have three baby blankets to make!!! Eek!!!!!

Much Love

Frankie 

xxxx

I made JEANS!!!!!!

So I sucked at blogging again huh? What can I say? Between work and sorting lil man and seeing friends I'm left with enough time at the end of the day to shower and crawl into bed and that's about it! 

Anyway I made Jeans!!!! 

I know, I know. I swore I would never make them BUT what can I say? I had the fabric and then BOOM a pattern presented itself and before I knew it, I was saying to myself "ahh go on, give it a try. You need a challenge"

Funnily enough I made these before LIFE became challenging when I actually had time to sew! 

Right so details!!!! The pattern is a mimi g style pattern for simplicity 8516.  

It comes with three fit options, average, curvy and slim. After looking at the pattern pieces I decided to go for the slim fit because my waist is a lot smaller than my bum. 

FYI I got my hands on the pattern during the big pattern swap on Instagram! Which I loved and I'm really hoping it gets run again this year! 

I did do decorative top stitching on my bum pockets but I think I should have used a triple stitch because it hasn't really shown up. 

The fabric came from the abakhans fill a bag sale in Hanley. Which means I got enough denim for jeans in a bag with other fabrics for ten pounds which is just about the bargain of the year!!! 

Fit wise I'm actually really pleased. I was worried about making my own jeans because I find shopping for them an absolute nightmare!!! 

Its got some pretty deep pockets at the front and even one of those lil tiny pockets that's half hidden inside one of the front pockets. I am wondering what that stupidly tiny pocket is actually for because you can't really fit anything in it! 

I decided not to hem them because I knew I'd just end up turning them up anyway. I used to wear my jeans turned up all the time especially in the summer and I really liked the style.

I didn't buy any extra hardware to make the jeans. The zip is recycled from an old hoody and the button is just an old one from my stash!.

I'm really proud of the front fly zip. It wasn't the easiest zip I've ever sewn but I think it turned out really cool!

These jeans actually broke my sewing machine. In fact I still need to book it in with the sewing machine repair man! 

All in all I'm 100% proud of these jeans and I've been wearing them all the time. They came in very handy during the long winter school runs when my legs would have been frozen in skirts!

Anyway if you'd like to watch me actually sewing these I have done a little vlog on it! I warn you its long so I suggest making a brew first! But if you watch it you get to watch me fall into my mums hometown accent when I get stressed!!!!! 

Much Love 

Frankie

xxxx

Red Floral Newlook 6390

After my frankly rubbish first proper version of the Newlook 6390 pattern I did some serious hacking and tweaking of the pattern. 

Mainly taking ease out if the back seam, shortening the straps and taking a wedge out if the front bodice piece.

And now I'm very happy with the fit. Its definitely worth taking the time to make something fit you properly because it makes all the difference in the finished version and how you feel about wearing it. 

This dress has hardly been of my back in this hot weather. Mainly because it's easy to throw on in the morning and the skirt isn't so short that I feel like my fairy is out.

The fabric is the real star if the show. It was sent to me by the craft cotton company and its one of the most beautiful fabrics I have ever seen. Its got a pattern of vivid flowers on it and everything is outlined in gold. 

To say its so fancy it actually makes a great day to day dress and I've had a lot of compliments but it.

The zip was taken from one of Rikki's old hoodies. I love chunky metal zip because they are indestructible. Well at least they are for me I've not had one break yet.

In fact the only real problem with this dress is that its a pain to find a bra to wear with it. As you can see from my nice bra straps in the below picture. 

There are a few pull lines across the back but I'm not sure if that's just wrinkles from wearing the dress all day or if I need to do some more tweaking.

Happily though this seems to be the perfect length for me. Its long enough to make sure I don't flash my bum when I bend over but its not so long that its midi length. 

I hemmed it by machine because I knew it was going to be washed a lot and I didn't want to have to keep fixing the hem.

I actually wore this dress and demonstrated how to make it at abakhans in Hanley. Which was really lovely. I really enjoy doing the demonstrations because I get to talk to lots of different people! 

That said I've done 2 sewing sessions at my sons school, one for year 3 and one for year 5 and they were a whole new level of stressful! Which I know a lot of people would find silly because its not like having a full time job or anything, but it was 32 children each holding a needle and wanting my undivided attention. Which is hugely stressful for someone who doesn't like children and struggles with new things. That said I'm really proud of myself for managing to get them all to do the task and a lot of them really surprised me with how enthusiastic they were. I've got two more sessions to do year 2 and year 4 and lil man has already asked me if I'm going to do it next year!!! 

In other  news: 

Polly went and snuggled with Rikki last night which is a victory! 

And lil mans teacher came out of school yesterday to personally tell me how pleased she is with the improvement in his handwriting ! 

Much love 

Frankie 

Xxx

Top Tips For Sewing with the Big Four Pattern Companies!

There's something about the big four pattern companies that strikes fear in the hearts of many sewers! I'm not incredibly sure why? I think maybe because so much of the old style of learning to sew has been lost now that people find the lack of instructions and sizing to be a huge problem with the patterns. The internet says that the big four are Simplicity, Vogue, Butterrick and McCalls, but I think you can also include Burda and Newlook in there!

Anyway I quite like them, Yes they put stupid amounts of ease in and the instructions are crappy to say the least but! They have pretty much every style known to man , they don't need tracing and they are pretty cheap compared to most indie patterns!

So here's my top tips for having a pain free sewing experience with the BIG FOUR sewing pattern companies! 

1. Measure yourself, Be accurate, be honest! Wear the pants your planning to wear and don't breathe in!!!!

2. Find your pattern size on the chart, check whether that's a finished garment measurement or not. 

3. Now measure the pattern pieces that correspond to your size [before you've cut them out] does that correspond with other patterns you've made that fit you well? 

4. Google it. We live in an era of having information at our finger tips, and there are so many sewing bloggers out there that if you google your pattern name and number there's a huge chance that someone out there has already made it and encountered any issues the pattern might have. Seriously technology is AWESOME!!!!!  

5. Toile the pattern, Yes I know its basically a boring waste of precious sewing time but its worth it!!!!!

6. Apply your own sewing knowledge! Repeat after me "I am a strong independent sewing bad ass!!! I know what I am doing" The blunt truth is indie patterns do a lot of hand holding! But trust me you can do this! Stay stitch your necklines, apply interfacing even if the pattern doesn't ask you to, BASTE!!!! You know this stuff!!!!

7. Read the instructions, read the envelope, read the paper that the instructions come one, read the tissue pattern. You've read it? Read it again, then once more with feeling. Whilst Indie pattern companies hold your hand , the big four assume you don't have hands. The information is their but its all mashed up and all over the place!

8. Ask for help! There is a huge sewing community on Facebook, Instagram and twitter! Ask your question, hashtag to your hearts content and watch the lovely sewing folks come to your rescue!

9. Keep everything together, yes the envelope is the size of a postage stamp and the tissue pattern feels like trying to fit a double duvet into a teabag but do your best, or alternatively stick it all in a bigger envelope! Just make sure you keep the instructions!!!!

10. Finish your make bask in your own glory and get searing for your next pattern! Seriously guys, the big four have covered every single shape, style and silhouette you can imagine! If you want to make it they have a pattern for it!!!

So what are your top tips for sewing with the big for?

Frankie

xxx 

  

OWOP day 6 and 7

I'm a little late for OWOP day 6 ! (What I've been busy!) 

I wore my Robert version with my golf jumper (Dunlop) I promised myself I would only wear the jumper for golf but they looked far to cute together!

And today is very monochrome! 

White dress , black "funeral"  jacket (yes I have a funeral jacket don't judge!)

Black and white brogue style heels and a beige clutch! 

And we are finished! That's OWOP done with! For this year at least! Thank god my washing machine can finally rest! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

OWOP day five and some flower power!

I didn't get a picture of today's OWOP I was too busy getting baby Knitwit ready for nursery and get my hair done! Today I worse my white simplicity and tried desperately to pick a fabric for a third one!! 

In other news I made a cute flowered mobile. 

It shall be making an appearance at the craft fair I'm doing on the 13th of September 10:00am at elworth Methodist church! 

It's so girly it hurts!!! All those cute flowered and the sparkly one as a centre peice!!! 

Right back to the grind!! I've got some more making to do before the fair! And I've got some new toys to play with! But I'll tell you about those another day! 

Much love 

Frankie

Xxx

Searching For An Extra Inch

I should probably start of by warning you that I am absolutely exhausted. This is not an exaggeration, I didn't get to sleep until about 2am and Little Knitwit decided to wake me up at 5.45am, little swine  cherub. Sadly though little knitwit is just like his momma and likes his sleep, I cannot stress enough that if he wakes up any time after 7.30 my son is an angel, polite, well mannered, plays nicely , eats nicely and well if he gets up before 7.30? He just isn't.

But either way I do have some good news I finished my simplicity 4070 dress! Woop, Yay! Zip is in, trims are stitched down. It's lovely! And It fits thank god!

These are the second set of photographs that I have taken of this dress today, it turns out that taking a picture of a white dress against a white wall doesn't exactly work perfectly.

Still love this pattern, so easy to sew, fairly quick and their are so many skirt variations I can try. Here I just opted for a simple gathered skirt. Mainly because I had to sew two pieces of fabric together to get enough so there is a large seam down the middle. The gathers hide this seam quite nicely.

I added lace around the collar and arm holes after I had hemmed them but next time I might just opt for some bias binding.

I had to add the lace down either side of my very first zip because I hadn't left enough room on one side and one of the gathers got rucked up and almost pleated? The zip works fine and looked stunning on one side, so instead of redoing the zip and the skirt I just added the lace to cover it up.

The key hole detail at the back is so flattering!

My next step with this pattern is to work out how little fabric I can get away with using, I mainly draft my own skirts so the pattern packet is of no use to me . I've found an amazing site online called fabric rehab and it has so many beautiful and fun fabric choices, so I just need to work out how much fabric I will actually need and then I might just have to spoil myself!

The only other thing going on is me trying to finish off my knitting, I'm very close to the end I've just got a few inches to go and they keep eluding me! It doesn't matter how long I knit for, whenever I re measure I never seem any closer! Its pretty soul destroying work so I'm hoping it will be finished tonight! Although feeling how I feel I might just down a glass of wine and go straight to bed!

Much Love

A very sleepy

Frankie

xxx

Lazy Day's

As promised I finally got some pictures of me wearing my handmade pyjamas! My lovely daddy was kind enough to offer his photography skills for this occasion! 

 

As usual please prepare yourself for the usual round of awkward posing, although I did have enough sense to crop out my eyes because of the horrific bags underneath them (no seriously you could have packed those bad boys for two weeks holiday, abroad, with children) 

 

 

I still love them, they are very comfy and I love that I made them myself!!!!  However I was not aware of just how short I am!!! I blame my daddy he must have caught me at a weird angle, I'm fairly sure that I'm a six foot amazon women who should be strutting the runway and winning Americas next top model. At least I'm fairly sure.

 

 

Here's the bottom by themselves I should probably add that I'm didn't make the vest top its a Primark original!

 

 

And the robe is back on! So glad I put the pockets in perfect for carrying my phone around. I know there just patch pockets but they are the neatest patch pockets I have ever done!

 

In other news!

•  Simplicity 4070 dress done! Including a zip! my first one EVER! Just need to finish stitching the trim down. And by the way my zip was met with approval from both Momma Knitwit and my Aunty (who is quite the dress maker herself!)
• Starting Lil Knitwits jammies today!
• Knitting always knitting! Never stop knitting.
• And spending far to much time looking at fabric online! And drooling, and then drooling some more. 

Much Love

 

Frankie

 

xxx