Tape Measure Print Skirt

I'm so behind with posting my makes! I actually made this skirt about two weeks ago after a bout of feeling fed up and miserable about my sewing. This project was a quick fix to try and get me out of my funk.

The fabric was what was left over from my Tape measure Lilou dress and came from abakhans.

As far as quick fixes go I think it turned out pretty cute [its a bit long in these pictures but I have since re hemmed it to make it a bit shorter] I didn't use a pattern I just cut a waistband and then gathered my piece of fabric. Its not as full as my usual skirts but it doesn't bother me too much. 

It was a nice and easy project because its cotton so all of the pressing and stitching went in perfectly first time! Even the invisible zip went in okay. I mean its not perfectly lined up at the waistband I think its about 3mm off but I've been wearing it with a waspie belt anyway so you cant even see the waistband! Plus as I said I wasn't about to get my seam ripper out for a quick fix.

That said I did take the time to hand stitch the inside of my waistband but that's only because stitching in the ditch brings me out in a cold sweat. 

The skirt was sort of inspired by the novelty print skirts that were so popular in the 1950's and because I am really trying to incorporate more separates into my wardrobe.

In other news, I have been furiously knitting whilst wearing my double trouble jumper! OMG its so warm! Although Rikki has made a few jokes about me looking as though I've been tangoed.

And this morning I manged to survive another one of Lil mans school assemblies [BTW his school have open assemblies, its not like he was in the assemblies you can just go and watch either the head teacher or the vicar speak] Anyway I survived and I actually spoke to one of the other mums afterwards. So if someone wants to give me some grownup social skill points that would be awesome!

In general I'm feeling a bit more perky!

Much Love

Frankie

x

Tape Measure Lilou Dress

I'm currently sat in my dressing gown after being evicted from my bed. To cut a long story short I took a sleeping pill last night because I haven't been sleeping well so you can imagine my delight when lil man woke up at 6.00am this morning. Naturally he has since fallen asleep in our bed so I've been regulated to the settee.

Anyway I was going to write this last night but the lap top threw a dizzy fit and I spent the night nodding intelligently whilst Rikki muttered about IPs and Wps and Connectivity........ Literally didn't understand a word............. And the swines just popped down stairs to disturb me and left a guinea pig on the floor!

But anyway here's what I'm actually here to post about! 

So its a basic lilou dress from tilly and the button "love at first stitch"! But on the plus side I found all of the details of the alterations I've made hidden in a notebook down the side of the sofa! So I only work using the bodice block and tend to wing the skirt portion depending on how much fabric I have. But on the bodice block I originally traced a size 3, but since then have take about 2cm out of the top of each strap [front and back bodice piece] and widened the darts on the front bodice by 0.5cm and widened them at the back by 1cm and that's it! The fit is pretty banging if I do say so myself! 

The fabric is a cotton? that I got from abakhans [Sorry I cant find it on their website guys!] It came in this sort of greys and red colour way and a more muted beige colour way. I decided I like this one better but I know for a fact it also comes in a pink and orangey colour way and I've got my eye on that one next!

It behaves as you expect from any cotton really. Which did sort of remind me how much I love working with cotton! after sewing with knits and floaty fabrics so much recently the idea of using a fabric that actually behaved itself was quite novel! 

The zip is also from abakhans and came out of one of those £1 assorted bags of zips. Its an open ended zip so I stitched about an inch about the bottom so it can't come undone. This zip is also one of the neatest I have ever done in my entire life! seriously for an exposed metal zip its just so pretty!

I brought two metres of this and did some pretty crafty cutting to eek out this dress, I also went for a slightly less full skirt mainly for practicality reasons! I learnt in Vegas that the fuller the skirt the more likely a gust of wind is the flash your knickers! So the skirt is 20inches deep and I'm not sure how much across? But lets put it this way I have enough left from my 2m to make a skirt aswell! #winning 

The bodice is lined, and I sewed the hem by machine, which is pretty unusual for me as I usually like the hand sew my hems! This change of heart was because I wanted to finish the dress before I had to pick up little man from school!

Anyways I actually made this dress a little while ago when I was fed up of the miserable drizzle we were having and I thought a summer dress might encourage the sun to come out! The next day it snowed.............So yeah I guess you can blame me if your car got stuck!

Much Love

Frankie

xx

Exploring Pattern Drafting Part 2

I've been continuing my research into pattern drafting, and boy does it employ a lot of maths! i mean sweet baby Jesus!

But i think I'm getting somewhere, I've ordered a set of french curves from amazon using my birthday money and I'm sincerely hoping they are the right type. Although i don't know if there is a wrong type to be honest. Although if you want to have a go at pattern making but don't fancy buying the equipment, or your a poor student, or your a poor teacher who's sick of having their classroom equipment stolen then i found this link for a printable french curve. which i think was created by thesewingnotebook.blogspot.com

Next i started googling, i found a wealth of fitting knowledge on the little Tailoresses blog and will definitely be using that for when i have a basic block.

Next i ended up on another website that hinted at some sort of wonderful spreadsheet on the burda website, where you just input your measurements and then it spews out your pattern measurements and you just transfer them onto a grid.

At which point i got very excited! I mean how much easier could it be! However, luckily the link was broken and I'm not sure if the spreadsheet exists anymore. which means i cant cheat and have to learn this properly. Which was my original intention before i saw how much maths was involved! Basically I'm now thinking of it as using a cake mix from a box, yes you've made a cake, but have you actually make a cake?

So i carried on searching, and found this list of 7 beginner tips for flat pattern making from a lovely blog called sky turtle [which is possibly the best blog name ever]

Now a while ago she ran a series of lessons on how the draft flat patterns including the clearest picture of what measurements ill have to take and how to draft a front bodice! 

and theres another set of instructions for creating a back bodice! 

Ive also been recommended some books on pattern drafting so I'm going to pop those on my Christmas list.

This one was recommended by zoe from http://sozowhatdoyouknow.blogspot.co.uk

I know a pattern from this was used on the great British sewing bee last year.

I think these are written in Japanese although Ive heard their are a lot of pictures to explain the processes.

Looking on amazon they are all pretty pricey (i tend to buy books from Charity shops so anything over £3 is pricey to me!) Plus a lot of the amazon reviews say that they were brought as textbooks for uni courses which does tend to bump up the price of books. so my plan is to put them on mr knitwits ebay watch list in the hopes he can find them cheaper. I know a lot of students sell their books on afterwards so i might strike lucky. Other than that I'll just have to keep perusing the local charity shops [Ive already checked our local library] and hope for the best!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

Tools of the trade

A wise man once told me that a workman is only as good as his tools , so I thought I'd let you have a little look at the items which "live" on my sewing table! 

Starting from the top we have:

My tape measure - my grandmothers, one side has inches and cms the other has the calorie content of most foods, I'm assuming that she liked to sew and diet at the same time. I on the other hand like to have a plate of biscuits close by! 

A bobbin and spool of white thread - thread wise I'm fairly boring to be honest I usually use white or black so have two separate bobbins, I only used matching thread if the project really calls for it! 

Metal rular - mr Knitwit picked this little beauty up for me , it's lovely and heavy so it doesn't shift about! 

Rotary cutter - genuinely don't how how I've survived for this long without one! It makes cutting so much quicker! 

Automatic button hole foot - when it not on my sewing table it lives with my buttons! Another item I'm not sure I could live without! 

My whiskey bin! - what can I say I'm a classy bird! Most of my stray thread end up in here , the others transport their way round the house via people's socks. 

My needle tin - also my grandmothers, all my needles live in here machine, darning and handwork varieties as well as a half penny to stop me hurting my fingers! 

Hand seeing thread - I stupidly brought some very cheap thread, it doesn't go through my machine but it works very nicely for handwork! 

My little tub of tailors chalk - I hate the stuff, generally I don't use chalk but every now and again I find that I have to. 

Floral scissors - brought for me by an old friend, scissors are a sewers best friend and I love these bad boys! 

Plastic ruler - for quick bits and pieces

Voodoo pin cushion - for the days when it's either torture an inanimate object or throw my machine out of the window.

Mini sketch book - for those beautiful moments when inspiration strikes, I also keep all my measurements in here! 

And underneath everything is my lovely cutting matt! I love how tidy everything looks on this! 

In other news my kimono got to have an outing with my best friend! 

I had a great night of letting my hair down and putting the world to rights! And I felt surprisingly dressy to say I was wearing an old sarong! 

Much love

Frankie 

Xxx