Snack Mat

Does anyone else clean all their worktops and tables and then mess them p by making a brew or eating? Just me? 

This little mat is to prevent that, actually that's a lie This project started because I wanted to try and get my sister on a sewing machine practising with a walking foot and this seemed like a pretty simple sew.

She did the outside edge and I did the middle later when she'd gone hone and added the bias binding.

It works quite well as a little mat to put my breakfast on, [yes I eat waffles I'm very continental like that, but because I'm not a proper gown up yet that's hot chocolate not coffee]

Its actually part of an effort to make my day run smoothly and make sure I get everything done that I want to. For example, I now monitor what I eat, this is an effort to stop me thinking a slice of toast and a bag of crisps is a main meal. I have a cleaning rota, this is so I have enough time each day for sewing but the house looks nice too, its not a weekly one though instead ours is on an eight day rotation like rikkis shifts! [can't hoover when he's on nights!] I have this mat so I eat breakfast in the morning [and check my emails] and then I do yoga after dinner with little man. Well I do yoga he takes the mick and giggles a lot. I feel very grown up having these things In place so my day runs smoothly!

In other news hay fever is hitting me pretty hard, but I'm getting used to my glasses I might even go as far as to say I like them!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

A Sewing Skirt for a Sewing Girl

I'm back! After 10 days without internet I've been getting a lot of stuff done, the plan was to have a load of blog posts ready to go so I could ease myself in...... but naturally I was lazy and forgot to keep up to date! So its going to be the pretty standard writing and posting routine I'm afraid.

This skirt was a pretty simple one evening kind of make, I wanted the fabric to speak for itself so I used the Clemence skirt pattern from love at first stitch. But like a dolt I forgot to take 2cm off the waistband so its a lil big.

The fabric for the main body of the skirt was a birthday present from my sister and her husband and the waistband is from my stash, I think both are a quilting cotton of some sort I had 1m of the main fabric hence the contrast waistband, I say its a Clemence skirt but really its just a 1m of fabric split in to two and then one of those panels split into two again. The main fabric is printed with scissors and mannequins and French haberdashery advertisements, its a pretty bold pattern but I didn't bother pattern matching instead i just made sure that the fabric was all facing the right way up. 

Its pretty standard construction I used French seams on the sides and did a 1cm hem although I might take it up a bit more. It feels a lil long to be honest I feel a bit too mumsy. 

In fact I followed the instructions pretty much to a T apart from putting in a lapped zip instead of a concealed one. Mainly because I wanted to see if I could actually do one. Spoiler alert I can! 

I came out pretty neat actually, and it might just end up being my favourite zip technique.  

Although I finished the hem by machine I finished the inside of the waistband by hand and even added a little handmade label. You know just in case I forget.

I'm not quite sure why I look like I have a wind machine on the go in these pictures, I must be having a bad hair day.

All in all I'd say it was a success , apart from the length which I think I'm going to fix, although I don't want to look too trampy. I've worn it all day and although it creases a lot I think it looks pretty cute.

In other news my internetless self has done lots of knitting and sewing so I'l have plenty to blog about over the next few days ..... If I get around to taking pictures I lost my tripod mount for about a week so that's held me up no end! 

Butterfly canvas

I made these canvas for my sister and her husband for Christmas.

From what I can remember of Alevel art they are called a triptych. The idea is that his butterflies are musical and manly and hers of books and lady like. and then because ya know they love each other and stuff they swarm together. 

Know if we can all say awwwwwwwww on the count of three......... 

I also added their initials to personalise them a bit.

I got the idea after seeing something similar in tkmaxx, I thought they'd like it but it cost over £200 and I don't love them that much. 

I think they turned out pretty well, and seen as they have a new house they will have plenty of rooms to choose where to put them.

In fact they should probably just dedicate a whole room of their house to them!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

Oh what a wonderful morning!

Good morning sunshine! Can we just take a moment to appreciate the glorious weather we are having here in England! I mean seriously I didn't even take a coat out yesterday! 

Although we didn't stay out for long due to me having a very unfortunate headache, luckily after some fresh air in the garden it went away! Oh yeah folks I did gardening! Well actually mainly I just whined about gardening but still! And we even sorted out the shed and got rid of loads of crap, "what's this metal pole for?" 

"I dunno?"

"Shall we keep it?"

"Nah bin it, if we haven't needed it for three years we won't need it now" 

And we put some carpet down for the bunny rabbit! Yep that's right, CARPET! It's mainly so he doesn't wreck the shed floor or get too cold in winter! 

In other news I received these beauties last week! 

Copies of both of hybrid.9 albums! Which I did the cover art for! On both of them (insert proud face) 

This is the first album

But this is the best bit! 

IM ON THE THANKYOUS! 

And here's album number two! 

I love the lil tiny devil on the inside! 

I'm thinking about putting them up on the wall at some point, especially as there should be two more from other artists to add soon! 

Lil knitwit wanted in on the action! 

The band hybrid.9 can be found here https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hybrid9/134324729920507

They really are excellent, I know I'm biased but it's true! 

Right I'm off the recover from yesterday's run because we might be going for a bike ride later.... Oh you saw me slip that in there did you? I ran, LET THE WORLD KNOW I RAN! I do sometimes feel like if I don't let everyone know then it might not have happened, sort of like the tree falling in the woods thing? 

Anyway, my big sister, who is older than me and basically a medical marvel ran 10k which made me realise that if the zombie apocalypse comes  she'll be able to run faster, further and for longer than me. 

And I'd much rather they ate her first.

Anyway it's given me the boot up my arse to actually take care of my self and not to just consider my body to be a chocolate hole. Or pizza hole, or doughnut hole........

Anyway if you haven't gathered, I'm stupidly proud of her especially since she was super poorly about three weeks before as well. She's such a star! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

English paper pieced needle books!

You may remember me saying yesterday that the issue of love patchwork and quilting magazine my sister gave me came with a free project! 

And how excited I was that the kit included everything I needed baring scissors? 

Well here it is completed! 

Isn't it adorable! I can't believe it all came out of a tiny packet! 

Or how quick it was to do!!! In fact it was so quick to do that this happened today! 

Yerp I raided my stash and made ANOTHER one! And it was purely a coincidence that I picked the same colour felts! 

I love them! And two needle books in two days isn't bad at all! 

I'm going to keep the original one, and I was going to give the second on to my sister but durr she has the kit herself! So I think I'm going to give it to my mummy, she's been doing some patchwork of her own recently and It will be nice for her to have somewhere to keep pins and needles! 

I do have a major problem though! Whilst sewing those tiny hexies I couldn't help but think about how quick and adorable they are..... And how nice a whole quilt might look! 

Someone save me! 

Much love 

Frankie

Xxx

If big sisters were flowers, you'd be the one I'd pick!

OH BOY OH BOY! Do I have some goodies to show you! For some reason I've been very very spoilt recently! But I am going to try and split my goodies into bitesize chunks! 

So part 1 comes from my big sister! Do you have a sister? Mine actually a pretty good egg as far as sisters go, she's taken me to concerts and fabric shopping and is a personal cheerleader for all things craft! And she's given me this! 

She accidentally ended up with two! Now I love love LOVE magazines! In fact if I'm feeling a bit droopy I cheer myself up with a magazine and a bar of chocolate, but other than that I don't really buy them becuase I just can't justify the cost! So this is a MAJOR treat! 

And even better it comes with a lil kits! 

With EVERYTHING included! (Even a needle!) I'll be giving this a whirl in a bit! 

And it includes some other quirky ideas! 

Patchwork clothes? Yay or nay? 

I can see my larger scraps being put to good use! 

My dad would love this fussy cut patch! 

Ladies and gentlemen (are their any gentlemen reading? Helloooooo?) I HAVE FOUND MY NEXT QUILT! 

Once I've finished the one I'm working on  of course. 

Or maybe a lil bit before! 

Now I've never ever ready this magazine before "patchwork and quilting" but I think I might consider buying it! It's a great layout, the projects are fun (something magazines can go too cutesy or old lady) and as far as I can tell most of the templates are actual size! ACTUAL SIZE! And as someone who has spent time tring to convince a library that they need something blowing up 133%, not 140% or 130%, quite simply 133% then it's quite refreshing! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

Hammies!

Okay so I actually made the tailors hams! They are not exactly what I wanted but I'm please with how they turned out! 

First I consulted the pattern I found on Google!

Next I gathered some scrap fabric and started cutting! (Freehand! Ain't nobody got time for actual pattern peices!) 

Until I ended up with two sets of these ! 

Next I stitched and stuffed and stitched again and Voila! 

Two tailors hams (that look a bit more like tailors sausages!) for me and my big sister! Now we should be set for starting to make our coats! After we've both cut the pattern that is! 

A few things about this project:

• if I did them again I'd do them fatter!

• I stuffed them with a mixture of stuffing and scrap fabric, they look a lil lumpy but I'm hoping it will smooth out! 

• I was very carefull to choose fabrics that would be okay when ironed! 

•I hand sewed the bottoms shut

• the floral print is my sisters (I so should have done this as an Xmas present!) and the striped one is mine (I didn't catch the edge properly so this one already needs some TLC

Anybody else made any sewing time savers? 

Much love

Frankie 

Xxx

Ham

Now I don't mean ham, ham I mean a tailors ham! 

Like this! Apparently they are super useful for ironing out seams and shoulder heads!

I don't actually have one (sad face) but I've been wondering for a while if I should get one? Well at least I was until I saw this pattern online! 

So I backed away from my amazon account (and my purse let out a sigh of relief) and tried to work out if it would be do able!? 

I should probobly mention my main reason for wanting a tailors ham is becuase me and my sister are making coats and I have a feeling that anything that makes the process easier is worth having ! 

It would also mean I could make us one each (after all what are baby sisters for?) 

Actually I think I might try and accomplish this tommorrow! And who knows after this I might find myself with a need for a tailors sausage! Oh not that kind you filthy animals! Stop laughing! 

Although saying that..... Patrick Grant? 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

Everybody vogue!

I got an email a few weeks ago from my lovely sister and it went something like this "I really wish I could sew I love this coat!" 

And well one thing led to another and now we are both making this coat, together. There is a vogue sew along happening for this coat but there is no way in hell we are going to be able to keep up with that so we doing our own sister sew along! (Cute right?) 

Here's my sister 

I've grown a little since then.....

Anyhow after much discussion we actually went and purchased fabric on Sunday! We decided to go to abakhan fabrics in Stoke on Trent. Although we were slightly worried becuase they didn't seem to have a huge selection on the website, I am so glad we weren't put off going they had a Brillant selection and as always the staff were Brillant! Sometimes fabrics shops can be quite iffy but the people at abakhans are always knowledgeable and just generally lovely and helpful! 

Sadly I don't have a picture if what my sister brought, but it was a nice teal velvet for the outer coat, a silver silk for lining and some blue organza and blue velvet just because "their pretty" that's a direct quote! I think I might of created a monster! 

I got! 

Some red cotton to complete orders.

A beautiful boiled grey wool for my coat

And some nice slippy pinkish , reddish, purplish material for my lining. 

And 

Some striped  polyester drapey type material just becuase "it's pretty"! 

I also got some buttons for my coat 

I had a wonderful time shopping and thank you to momma Knitwit who also came with us and offered advice. And also thank you to handmade jane who gave some recommendations via email when I was panicking about where to find fabric! 

Now we just have to make a start 

(Sobs in corner) 

Much love 

Frankie

Xxx

Its like that Dolly Parton song, only i don't work nine til five, and i do it all from the comfort of my home and i hate coffee....

I've been working really hard... (pauses for sympathy) I'd been putting it off for so long but I finally had to add some new items to me Etsy shop! (link can be found on the right hand side of the page or you can click here. So would you like to see my new items (the correct answer is yes!) Well here they are!

Westie Dog Pin Cushion

-

£4.00

Bead Owl Embroidery Hoop Art

-

£5.00

 

 

Small Owl Embroidery Hoop Art with Beads

-

£4.00 

 

 

Rose Embroidery Hoop Art

-

£4.00

 

 

Blue Hand Knitted Owl

-

£15.00

 

 

 Small Needle Books (one of each style available)

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£2.00

Large Needle Books (One of each style avalible!)

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£2.30



 

Albert Einstein Sketch

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£16.00 

Standing Nude original Sketch

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£16.00

Audrey Hepburn Sketch

-

£16.00

Mark Webber sketch , In pen and watercolour

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£16.00

Hand Embroidered Owl Cushion

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£20.00

Bird on Branch Hand Embroidered Cushion

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£20.00

UP! Inspired cushion Hand Embroidered with Buttons

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£20.00



 

So that me (pretty much) up to date (she says, with a pile of scarves and aprons lurking in the corner!)

In other news! I've had to rip back my knitting once again! (I told you this pattern was my nemesis) this time I was watching magic mike and I dropped a stitch, note to self: don't knit whilst Channing Tatum's on the telly, you just cant handle it.

In other news I have two very lovely announcements to make!

1. My lovely big sister has started her own blog about renovating her and her husbands dream home, its lovely to see her in a house she really loves they both work very hard and deserve it! You can find her here :  http://ourforeverhomerenovation.blogspot.co.uk/

2. and Big Sister also finished fixing her bag strap!

I think you can see by the picture that her stitches are very neat!
and she going to be trying to accomplish the vogue 1419 pattern and I will be assisting, and maybe making a cheeky version of my own!

Now I just need to see if I can fill her home with handmade presents just like I did my Mum and Dads! Next stop WORLD DOMNATION!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx