Butterick B6318 in Houndstooth!

Hey!!!! 

This make feels about a thousand years old now! Seriously I've worn it loads since I made it. 

The fabric is from the abakhans fill a bag sale and as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to make this dress. Annoyingly their wasn't quite enough for the belt as well so I used some of the Burgundy triple crepe that I used for my other version. Both of the fabrics are of a similar weight so it works nicely. But I'm not 100% about the two colours, mainly because the ties are inserted into the seam so you can see them really clearly. 

I think the hounds tooth is some sort of drapey polyester type thing? It melts under a hot iron but luckily provided I hang it up straight out of the dryer it doesn't need ironing anyway. 

The pattern is butterick B6318 which is a vintage reproduction pattern. You can buy it online and I'm pretty sure it came free in love sewing magazine at one point but I actually got mine in a charity shop for 20p!!!!! 

Alteration wise I took an inch off the length of the bodice [because apparently I have a tiny torso] , took a wedge out of the centre front neckline to stop gaping and make the skirt panels the same size. 

For some bizarre reason the original pattern has the front skirt and the back skirt pieces at different sizes and then it has you line up the bodice side seam with a notch [or a circle something like that] which means the skirt and bodice side seams don't end up matching. 

Which makes me very very twitchy!!! 

I also extended the ties so that the bow would be much bigger and longer and I lined the bow in the same fabric. The original pattern just has you hem the edges but I much refer the ties lined because it makes for a cleaner finish. 

For the zip I just whacked in a standard one. I didn't even bother with doing a lapped one because I thought it was unlikely that the fabric would play nicely doing a lapped zip.

The only real issue I have with the dress is that the drop shoulder/kimono sleeves kick up a little bit where I hemmed them. Its not enough to stop me wearing it, but I will probably use bias binding next time I make the pattern up in the hopes that it doesn't happen again.

I've not got any pictures of the insides but its not lined, instead the neckline is finished with a facing and some top stitching. The waist seam is finished on the inside with bias binding. it makes it a bit bulky around the zip but its stopping the fraying and making things look a bit tidier. 

All in all I really like the dress. I love that its such a loud print on such a simple dress and that its so easy and comfortable to wear. 

It works especially well with my fleece tights and a big coat! Even in this weather!!!!!!!! Although saying that I am taking full advantage of the fact I've made my own jeans and keeping my legs really really toasty during this cold snap! 

I have some fabric to make another of these and I've promised my mum one as well to wear to Goodwood! 

In other news!!! 

Ummmmm I'm not sure I really have any other news? 

I've been enjoying wearing all the winter hats and scarves I knit last year. 

I was gutted that there wasn't more snow. I really wanted to have a snowball fight with little man! 

I'm hoping to get some more sewing done next week and I've got a pile of things ready to photograph for the blog! 

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxxx

A Tale of Two Ties

Lil man went back to school today. Naturally though we added a bit of excitement by my alarm not going off in the morning [I definitely set one not that Rikki believes me!] Anyway that meant I was woken up by lil man at 8 o'clock. Bearing in mind he has to be at school by 8.45 and neither me or Rikki had slept particularly well, that left us with a bit of a rush on our hands to say the least!!! 

But we made it and now I'm sat without a lil man to annoy me / snuggle me. I've been trying to convince Rikki to watch Moana with me but apparently after six weeks of Disney movies he's not watching anything with a singing, dancing or a happy ending! 

Anyways on to the ties. Me and Lil man made these one afternoon of the summer holidays. The weather was rotten and he was reaching fever pitch so I decided to let him have his first ever proper go on my sewing machine.

Cheifly his job was the lower and lift the presser foot, press the reverse button , take the pins out and guide the fabric. He did really well actually and he listened really carefully to make sure he was doing it properly.

I chose the patterns, Rikkis is made from a pattern from the sew everything book , and Lil mans is drafted to his exact size using freesewing.org. I'd been planning on making them matching ties for a while but I was going to scale down Rikkis tie pattern. Luckily the drafting website saved me a lot of time and effort! 

The fabric I used it a bit thick really but I chose it so it would match my dress. [Wearing matching outfits as a family is way way underrated by the way!]

You can see the difference in scale here. As I said the fabric was a bit thick so it makes quite a big knot, but it did mean I didn't need to use interfacing. The cotton on the inside of the tie tail is just a scrap from my quilting drawer. I didn't follow the instructions on freesewing.org, the website has you sew the end so you can't see the tie lining edge but I was sewing with a small child so I just went for a simpler option. 

I used my labels from the dutch label shop as tie keepers which I think is a really cute feature.

They did take a lot of pressing but we were both very pleased with how they turned out!!! Plus it was nice to see him getting excited about sewing and letting him do something very grown up like sew on my machine! 

In other news:

I'm looking forward to getting back on schedule with blogging and sewing again.

My friend turned up yesterday with some wool, curtain fabric and buttons that he'd pulled out of his mums loft. I love it when people think of me when they find hidden crafty gems or stuff they are getting rid off. 

I went to see my mums neighbour and we had a really great chat. You might say she's the one who properly got me started on the whole loving to sew thing! But I'll cover that in another post!

Plus in that post you will see one of the biggest projects I've ever done [and on the tightest deadline] and its not ever for me!!!

Much Love 

Frankie 

x

Dress to Wrap Skirt Refashion

I'm not even sure if this counts as an actual make, its barely a refashion!

This skirt started off life as a 1950's style dress that I got from Ethel Austin back in the day! Well actually my mum brought it and she brought one for herself for when we went to Goodwood. Yeah we used to rock the whole mother daughter matching thing, there were even headbands.

But on a side note, Ethel Austin how class was that shop!

Anyway the fit of the dress was pretty hit and miss to be honest so it ended up in the refashion pile. The fabric is a very light cotton and the dress had a circle skirt. Well I'm guessing its a circle skirt but to be honest I doubt its a proper full circle! the garment industry to tend to cut corners! It also had a fabric belt in the same fabric.

Anyway I separated the skirt from the bodice and then put the zip in my zipper drawer! Never waste a zipper in this house!!!

And then I gathered the skirt onto the fabric belt. To work out how long to keep my skirt section I measured my waist and did that measurement+half of that measurement [for example! - 28+14=42] naturally the belt was longer so that's how you get the tie.

I also added a button hole to make the ties fit easier but I judged that when I tried it on so I don't have a measurement for that.  

I love it it kind of reminds me of the Clemence skirt by Tilly and the Buttons, but with one added bonus.  

As it ties at the back [or the front or the side whatever floats your boat] then you have a nifty little secret! 

If you got out the dinner and say order a cheeky starter, and then eat all of your main because its just so darn good! And then well its not really a proper meal with out pudding is it? And then your feeling all bloated and like you might be sick, but it was worth it because everything tasted good! And you skirts cutting into you and your wishing everyone else would just finish up so you can go home and pop on your onesie? Well usually you'd have to sit there feeling uncomfortable and trying to wind up the conversation but with a wrap skirt you can just pop yourself off to the toilet and well loosen yourself off!!!

Its like magic honestly, nearly as good as your onesie! [I mean not quote as good as your onesie but close enough] 

Outfit Stats:

Choker - Handmade

Top - new look [was my sisters so about 15 years old?]

Skirt - Handmade

Shoes - mother in laws [snaffled]

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

Brown Suede Wrap Skirt

Okay so this stemmed from some of the wrap skirts I've seen on topshop and new looks website. Basically I wanted something smart, comfy and practical. 

Construction wise I used the GBSB pencil skirt pattern but cut two of the front and didn't close one of the side seams. I also added a long waist tie, in hindsight i shouldn't have done this central I should have done it to one side because now when its tied one tie is longer than the other.

After watching an episode of the GBSB I switched out the darts for box pleats. I have no recollection of how I did this now [I'm forgetful I can't help it!] But I think I just worked out how much the darts took out and tuck out the same amount but using a box pleat. So for example it your dart take out two inches of fabric then you box pleat needs to be 1 inch deep on either side, luckily because of the nature of a wrap skirt its pretty forgiving fit wise. 

And it gives a pretty nice tulip shape. In fact if I make it again I might redraft the Skirt pieces to make it wider so I can do bigger box pleats and make a more exaggerated tulip skirt. 

Here's lil man posing with me, he likes helping with blog photos.

Oops nearly forgot, I also curved the edge on one of my front skirt pieces so I finished it with bias binding. 

The tie is a slightly different suede to main skirt because I ran out of the brown suede. In fact to be completely honest I had to make the skirt twice because I badly burnt the back of my first version and had to bin it. Hence running out of fabric!   

I like to wear it tied at the side but you can also have it tied at the back but it does make me feel like I have a tail. To make sure the ties lie flat I added a button hole above the side seam on the waistband to thread the tie through.

Overall I think it looks pretty cool. and its really comfy to wear.

I think it evokes quite a curvy silhouette, which I like very much! And after I finished photographing this lil man decided it was his turn..... apparently this is what mummy does! 

Hand on hip standard pose.

Back view, I'm starting to think he's more photogenic than me!

I have never done this pose!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx