African Wax Print Dress

Hey hows things?

I've managed to sneak a quick half hours blogging mainly down to some kind people letting us have access to their disney+ account (you guys know who you are and i bloody love you)

Which is a very welcome break, yesterday little man needed to be constantly occupied and was feeling very frustrated with whats going on. Technically its the Easter holidays which would typically mean lots of fun days out and seeing his cousins. But at the minute its just a lot of playing in the garden and trying to find things to keep him happy.

But onto the dress. I'm going to apologise in advance for the fact my feet are in these pictures. As i have previously mentioned my Dad took my most recent set of pictures and opted to tell me I should have worn shoes AFTER we had done every single outfit. And to be honest he didn't look like he had the strength to re shoot all the outfits again.

The fabric is a BEAUTIFUL african wax print cotton that my pen friend Jeanette sent me after me and my ex split up in an effort to cheer me up. Its a beautiful thick cotton that presses nicely and drapes beautifully. 

I actually think its one of the most beautiful cottons I've ever seen.

Being a wax print cotton meant that cutting out was a logistical nightmare, but this girl loves a challenge. I chose simplicity K1418 as the pattern because its a princess seamed bodice and I feel like that gives me a bit more control of where the pattern ends up on my bust. For example I knew I wanted the fan detail front and centre and that I wanted the keep the pattern central on the front of the skirt as well.

The skirt is just gathered which I find works nicely for border prints because you don't have to worry about curves extra. 

Length wise I left it a bit longer than normal because I've been going without tights in the summer. Which is a pretty big deal for me as a I hate my legs. I did worry it might be a bit too long but I wear it constantly so I think it might be just right!!!!

In fact I've worn it that much that I've had to do repair jobs on both of the straps!!! 

The bodice is lined with a plain yellow cotton so the inside is nice and clean and the zip is one of my better attempts. 

I even did my best to mirror the pattern on the back as well. 

As a quick thing, I don't tend to go for traditional pattern matching where the print is seamless through a seam because well who has the time? [apart from well everyone right now......] 

Instead I tend to go for the more laid back, lets how the pattern is mirrored or a least lines up sort of vibe.

In other news......

- well lock down is still happening so that's a thing......

- lil dude is still doing a combination of school work and fun stuff, today he wrote part of his story for school, wrote a song and identified some gemstones I had ordered online.

- I've been re reading the Harry Potter series and I'm currently on the Order of the Phoenix. Something about reading a book I enjoyed so much as a child is making me feel very relaxed during these different times. I had forgotten how wonderful it can be to fall back into the world of Harry Potter. Its like a warm hug or greeting an old friend. 

- I picked some flowers from our garden and have them on the window sill and they are making me smile every time I see them. Fresh flowers are one of my weaknesses.

- Sewing wise I haven't got much done. But lil dude goes to his dads for the second half of the Easter holidays next week so I'm envisioning a lot of free time on my hands and I'm hoping that sewing will save my sanity. And hopefully stop me pining for little dude too much.

- I have been knitting quite a bit though, mainly the mindless kind that I can just pick up and put down without too much bother.

This last photo is one of my dads best, He had asked me if this dress had pockets and I said no and this was the face I pulled which obviously he had to immortalise! FYI I do wish I had put pockets in!!!!!!

Much Love

Stay safe guys!!!

Frankie 

xxxxxx

Paisley Print Dress - Simplicity K1418

Sometimes I find a fabric that I LOVE but I just have no idea how to use it. 

This fabric was one of those times. I love a good paisley print. In fact back when I was 14 I spent a good portion of my time wearing a men's paisley print shirt with a waistcoat and a pair of skinny jeans so it became all puffed up! Sort of like Adam Ant but with more black accessories! 

This paisley print threw me though, because 1. Its a very small print and 2. It kind of looks like old man pyjama fabric. 

I let it sit in my fabric cupboard for a while but then I bit the bullet and decided it might work for Simplicity K1418 which is a project runway pattern.

I decided to do the strappy view but I knew I wouldn't have enough fabric for the box pleat skirt so I went for a gathered one instead. I did bias bind the seam that joins the gathered skirt to the bodice though just to make it look neat and I'm definitely going to do that again as it gives an added level of security as well as keeping things tidy.

I've already made this pattern twice before here and here. So I knew I needed to take 3cm off the length of the bodice so it would sit on my natural waist. Now the waist sits a lot more naturally however I am going to have to take a bit off the back seam of the pattern and I've got some gaping in the front of the bodice above my boobs so I'm going to try and remove a wedge so it sits flatter to the chest. 

Its a looser fit than my nautical version but its a more casual dress so I'm not sure that's a problem. 

Although if it does start to bother me I'll just adjust the back seam. The zip is recycled from either an old coat or an old hoody. Lucky I love the look of a metal zip and they are so hard wearing you can recycle them quite a few times. 

The bodice has facings which I don't love I wish I had gone to the extra effort and just done a full lining. I also wish I had put the straps where I wanted them rather than following the pattern instructions as they don't sit quite right.

The fabric itself is a lovely cotton that I was given by the lady at the car-boot. There was only a metre and a half so I had to play some serious pattern tetris. Luckily it isn't a directional print so I got away with it. 

All in all I love it I just need to keep tweaking the fit until I've got it perfect, by which point I'll have decided I'm bored with it and move on to another pattern. 

I think my favourite part of the dress is how versatile it is. Its great for summer but it doesn't look out of place with thick tights and a big cardigan. 

In other news!! 

We are plugging away with Christmas shopping. Ideally I want it all done before December because I CANNOT cope with Christmas shoppers!!! 

I went to a life celebration yesterday which is sort of like a funeral. It was for a lovely, funny man who I'd known for a few years. It sounds weird but it was the nicest "funeral" I've ever been too. There was a lot of singing and people talking about his life and his achievements and reading his poetry. There were even a few jokes cracked! It was really really nice to see it as a celebration and to hear people talk about how much they loved him. 

I got highly commended in the dressmaker category of the the simplicity sewing challenge! I know it says Frankie Knits but if you click on the link its definitely a picture of lil ole me! 

I've finished some more books! I FINALLY finished "eat love pray"! Which I can safely say I don't think I will ever read again!!! Then I read "the couple next door" which I would highly recommend for anyone who enjoyed "girl on the train" or "gone girl". Then I read "me before you" I'd watched the film on the way to Las Vegas [well most of it I couldn't make it too the end because I don't want to ugly cry on the plane], The films okay but the book is much better and I really enjoyed it!

And now I'm starting "the fault in our stars" which I've read before. I am annoyed though, I brought the book from a charity shop ages ago and the bloody idiot who owned it before has only gone and written in every available free space!!!  And I mean every space! The front pages, the back pages, the margins, the gaps above the chapters!!! Its infuriating! and do you want to know whats shes written? 

HER NAME! 

HER ACTUAL NAME OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN! 

Nothing else just her name!

I mean seriously? Because what? You might forget it?

Much Love

Frankie 

x

Days By the Sea Dress - Simplicity K1418

Today is Rikki's birthday and like an absolute trooper he's still gone into work. Apparently he didn't have enough holidays to take my birthday and his off and he decided mine was more important...... AWWWWWWW! But seriously though he's not that bothered about his birthday really? In fact seen as he gets up at half four in the morning we actually did his presents last night so today he just has his cake to look forward too. He's weird but he'd rather no fuss than lots of fuss. [Me? I like a fuss! which is why I'll be starting my birthday countdown in September!!] 

But you didn't come here to listen to me talk about birthdays did ya? This is another of those dresses that has been made for quite a while . In fact this dress has already been "out" for the day when we went to Barmouth. And yes I wore my "days by the sea" dress by the sea! The irony was not lost! The fabric itself is by the Craft Cotton Company [this is the same collection I used for my days by the sea quilt] Its a really lovely quality cotton so if your searching for some fun nautical prints check them out! 

I really really took my time pattern matching those stripes!! They match along the back and side seams but for some reason they go a bit funny around the box pleats? I'm not sure why but its not the sort of thing that's going to bother me! They don't look too bad in these photos but its definitely something I'd notice. 

The pattern was simplicity K1418 which I used for my gingham dress, only this time I went for the strappy version not the off the shoulder version!

The fit of the bodice is pretty bang on. I did have to take 2cm out of the center back seam and shorten the straps but other than that its pretty good. I think it could do with being shortened at the waist by about an inch though because when I wore it all day at the beach I noticed it was tucking itself up and not sitting right. 

I do love this neckline though its so lovely and flattering. BUT it hates all of my bras! It's such a pain in the bum! Why do all the pretty necklines require certain bras? Why can't I just wear it with any old bra? and why oh why does it have to be a strapless one?

The skirts a good compromise between being an a line [which I don't like] and being a fully gathered poofy skirt [which I love!!!] Its enough to feel girly but it doesn't get in the way. 

Length wise its on the longer side. Typically I like my dresses short but with having to put lil man in and out of the car and bend down and well just all the other crap I do day to day the short dresses were not practical and I was spending a good amount of time flashing my knickers!

Here you can see the print a bit more clearly. That row row with the blue anchors was what made pattern matching so hard! I couldn't just match the background colour I had to match the anchors too.

The facing's work really nicely on this dress. I always like using facings for cotton dresses because they press so nicely.

All in all I love the dress. I always forget how much I love a novelty print dress until I'm actually wearing one! The pattern needs a few more tweaks before its perfect and I think the back zip could do with a big press but other than that I think this has turned out really well!

In other news!

I had a great Charity shop haul today! Basically our local charity shop is having its yearly sale where they try and clear as much stock as possible. Anyway that had brand new in the box shoes for £2.00 each! I went along with the intention of buying two pairs but when I got to the till they lady offered me a 3rd pair and said she'd do it for half price. Now I only had four quid on me which I told her and she said "No I'll do the lot for half price... So three quid, the boxes are taking up loads of room we want them gone..." I dammed near bit her entire arm off! Three brand new pairs of shoes for £3!!!!!! I can see why they were struggling to sell them though, they are 7/8inch platform wedge shoe boots, which I'm not sure appeals to most people!!! 

They are pretty comfy though!

Much Love

Frankie 

x 

disclaimer - whilst the craft cotton company sent me this fabric for free all thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Simplicity K1418 - A Project Runway Pattern in Gingham!

There's a tent drying in my kitchen. Its currently strung across a clothes horse the ironing board and some is on the floor. We didn't think we'd put it away wet but after reading a few camping blogs it became apparent that it needed to go away bone dry! And I'm not sure I trust putting it on the washing line. My kitchen floor is now also covered in mud!

Anyway this make started with this pattern Simplicity K1418 which is a pattern that's inspired by project runway. Now I'll start by saying I am a HUGE project runway fan! And I ain't never seen them make anything this simple in all of the times I've watched it. 

This particular pattern was brought form our local carboot for £1 and although I'm pretty sure it was originally a freebie in a magazine that's still pretty reasonable for a sewing pattern. 

It comes with a few different views including some sort of lace up back thing. But I decided to go for the off the shoulder version which is view b. I measured as a size 14 but knowing that simplicity patterns come with a metric tonne of ease I decided to cut a size 12.

The fabric I used is a rose and hubble cotton gingham from Minerva fabrics. You can see their wide selection of ginghams here! I am a sucker for a gingham dress I think this one is number four maybe?  And I definitely want to make others! 

One change I did make was to sway the side zip for a center back zip. I hate side zips and it was a pretty easy change! I even think it looks a bit better? Or I could just think that because I like things to be symmetrical? Although the first zip I put in this was far too short and I got a bit *ahem* stuck, and this was being made when lil man was still at school and we were running dangerously close to school pickup time so things got a bit dicey to say the least. In the end I escaped by ripping out the back seam.

Construction wise the skirt is box pleated with a slight a-line so you get the flare but the whole thing doesn't blow up at every opportunity. 

The bodice is a princess seamed, with long waist darts in the back bodice. The little cap sleeves are set inbetween the bodice and the facing and have come concealed elastic to keep them up. [Although I think I may still need to reduce the length of mine by 1.5cm or so.

Here you can see the elastic in its casing, I had to slip stitch mine to the sleeves to get a clean finish [the pattern doesn't call for the slip stitching but I'm not sure how'd you'd make the sleeves look tidy without it?]. I really liked the facing method for keeping everything tidy on the inside.

Instruction wise things are a bit unclear. There's so many variations in one pattern that I got quite muddled at some points and wasn't sure what I should be doing! None of this was helped by my reluctance to read instructions anyway. 

I was pretty proud of this make so naturally I added a label! 

For the zip I did a lapped zip because that's my favourite method. The pattern calls for an invisible zip because its going into a side seam. 

Here you can see the check properly, its a really small gingham in sort of an apple green colourway? I don't normally do green but I don't think this looks too bad. And one of the mums at football said I looked really nice so that was cool.

There's a few changes I need to make to the pattern to make it perfect! 

-reduce the width of the cap sleeve

- take an inch out of the length of the bodice

- try and remove some excess from the front bodice where there is some gaping. I'm not sure if this is down to the straps though? it sits perfectly flat when I stand put if I lean forward it gapes?

Al in all I think its a really lovely summer dress, although it does need a strapless bra underneath which sort of limits its wearability [is that a word? I'm sure its a word?]

Much Love

Frankie 

x