My New Winter Coat

Well bloody hell, that escalated quickly didn't it? If your anything like me then you went from theirs a virus called corona [not to be mistaken for the beer, although oddly that does seem to be the only thing in stock in the super markets at the minute] to well bogger me they've closed the schools.

So yeah, corona virus........ Well me and lil dude are at home, aside from the days he spends with his dad [and that was a googling nightmare let me tell you, but turns out children from separated homes are okay to stay at both parents homes. My boyfriend is still going to work because his company provides stuff for the railways. 

But more on that later [I'm assuming that most of you have come for some sewing goodness] so heres my winter coat. 

Let me put it on the record now that I don't normally sew my own winter coat, usually i just buy one. But this year I HATED every single coat in the shops. When did puffa coats become a thing again? 

Anyway i had a dig through my sewing patterns and i had this vintage duffel coat pattern that i picked up on ebay a while ago. 

Its simplicity 7235 now as you can see the duffel coat patterns features both a mens and women's duffel coat on the cover art however I was assured that the copy I was buying was the women's pattern. 

The ebay seller lied!!!!!

However being the lazy cow i am I opted not to complain and just made a mens duffel coat in a 40ich chest. *hangs head in shame* I know it was one hell of a gamble BUT!!!!! 

1. I like my coats big! I'm sorry but if I can't fit a hoody underneath it then I'm not interested.

2. I figured I could size down if necessary

3. I'm a 36inch bust [on a perky day] so I guessed it wouldn't be too huge!

As it turns out the sheer size of it is one of my favourite things. Especially when i'm walking home from work. 

This is a bit depressing but I walk through a busy town to get to my car and somehow having my female form shielded by a large coat makes me feel a bit better. [For those worrying I haven't had any trouble yet and I always keep my car keys intertwined with my fingers so if I do have to punch someone in the face it will really hurt. *a little trick my sister taught me*] 

Its lined with my mums old taffeta curtains.... Yeah I know thank god she buys quality curtains that I savage when shes finished with them. I love the burgundy and the slipperiness of the fabric means the coat slides on nice and easy. 

The outer fabric is a fur backed wool from abakhan so that gives an extra layer of cosy as well. 

As far as wool goes it was very well behaved, it presses nicely and it didn't fray too badly either. 

The huge hood is one of my favourite parts of the coat. I did toy with the idea of lining it with the wool but I was worried it would be far to thick to ram under my sewing machine.

The huge patch pockets are another part of the coat I really love. Mainly because I can fit EVERYTHING in them. keys, phone, purse, hand sanitise gel.............

The toggles were an amazon purchase ready made and they were a f*****g nightmare. They are by far the messiest part of the coat despite me masking taping them in place to minimise making holes in them. I did really try and take my time with them but they were just a pain in the butt and nearly made me cry. 

The coat looks pretty rough now to be honest, which isn't surprising considering its become my go to winter coat and its clocked a lot of miles already. In fact my one quibble is that the wool has started to bobble quite a lot. 

My dad took these photos for me [pre lockdown] and he had great fun telling me how daft I looked doing all of the poses. 

In other news:

- We can't go out? Yeah sucks doesn't it. I have no idea how this happened but its quite frankly bizarre. I'd like to say I'm coping well but to be quite honest I'm terrified. I worried Marcus is going to pick it up because hes travelling between two houses and that increases his exposure to people. And I'm feeling low because I miss seeing my mum and dad and my friends. I never appreciated how nice it is to have people round for a brew. 

- Funnily enough having little dude at home all the time has been lovely, we've listened to harry potter audio books, I made us magic wands, we've been doing painting and sewing and had lots of giggles. The schoolwork is getting done but I'm not putting a huge focus on it because things are so strange at the moment and I don't want to overwhelm him. 

- we did the joe wicks P.E I nearly passed out, enough said. 

- Surprisingly I haven't got a lot of sewing done, mainly because I'm slowly sorting out my sewing space. 

- However I have been doing more crochet so far I've added a turtle and a cat to our soft animal collection. 

So yeah weird times guys. 

I'm going to add a list of things at the bottom which might be useful for people who are isolating and really feeling it. 

much love

Frankie 

1. listen to an audio book. easier than reading and you get a 30 day free trial with audible.

2. clear out a room, tidy the living daylights out of it [we did the garage]

3. wear comfy clothes when you need to and get dressed up on the days you fancy it. 

4. Bubble baths, enough said really take the opportunity to have a long relaxing soak.

5. try and set times of the day to go social media free. I find not constantly reading updates are helping.

6. watch your favourite movie series in one go. You in isolation watch every harry potter in order. and pretend your a kid again [bonus points for making a wand and saying the spells with them........ not that I do that.........]

7. do some yoga, it makes me feel very zen. or its your braver than I am do some joe wicks! 

8. write letters to loved ones. When did letter writing go out of fashion? I'm on a one woman mission to bring it back!!!!

9. facetime, What a glorious invention, its saving me every single day! 

10. Cook, made soup from all the leftover stuff in the fridge and pretend your Jamie Oliver.

Stay safe and wash your hands 

Vintage Style Planes Shirt for Dad - McCalls M7206

Every now and again I make things for other people. 

Yes I really am that kind. You do have to meet a special criteria though. 

1. You have to provide the fabric [and I get to keep the leftovers]

2. I have to REALLY love you!

My dad wanted a vintage style shirt for the goodwod revival. He's seen someone wearing one at goodwood and looked online for something similar and found that they retail for about 50$ and would have to be shipped over from america! 

Naturally that seemed a bit excessive for a cotton shirt so he went to abakhans and picked up a sewing pattern and this cool vintage planes fabric and asked me to whip him one up.

The pattern was McCalls m7206 which is a mens bowling style shirt. 

 The front of the shirt is panelled which wasn't going to work with the fabric because you'd end up with most of the planes cut in half. So I hacked at the pattern with my scissors and taped the three panels together to make one shirt front. Luckily mens shirts don't have to have room for boobs so it went together pretty easily with minimal swearing. 

In fact the swearing only started when it came to cutting out. My Dad had been very specific that he wanted as many whole plans on the shirt as possible. Which meant I cut everything out in one layer and did a lot of moving things around trying to get as many planes as possible. There is a whole plane on each shirt sleeve, lots on the back and a few on the front. I even cut the collar in such a way that no matter if its up or down the planes are facing the right way!

 [top tip - if your going to cut things in a single layer to make sure you make the most of your print be sure to flip your pattern pieces so you don't end up with two left sleeves etc.]

I'm particularly pleased with the view from the back and the large plane that is basically central. 

Construction wise I wish I'd ditched off the instructions because they were AWFUL! Either its the pattern or its me but anyway I ended up having to do some creative thinking to keep everything neat and tidy. For example the back collar neckline is bias bound which does actually leave a nice finish. 

Also its really hard to see but I love that some of the writing is on the edge of the collar [each of the planes has its name underneath] 

Dad even chose the buttons himself and I'm pleased to report that every single buttonhole went in perfectly first time! 

So all in all I think it turned out pretty banging and my dad was dead pleased! I love his goofy grin in the last photo! And I think he may be on the hunt for more vintage inspired prints so I can make him a few more!!! 

Unluckily there wasn't enough fabric left over for me to make anything substantial for myself! [all that dammed fussy cutting!!!!]

So instead I'm going to use the scraps to make me and mum some hair accessories. 

In other news!!!! 

I've sewn up a few bits for myself and been working on baby quilts!

I've been climbing again!!! And I'm happy to report that my climbing shoes were incredibly comfortable!!! 

And my brother snapped this photo of me which I LOVE. Okay so I'm not far off the floor [this is the bouldering room so you don't go up that high] But 

1. I made my chalk bag it has penguins on it

 2. LOOK HOW STRONG I LOOK!!!! 

Anyway I absolutely loved climbing again and had big plans to go again this week but I was far too sore!!!! So hopefully I'm going to go next week! 

Much Love Frankie 

xxx

Vintage Knitting Patterns

My Nans come to stay with my mum this week and she came armed with this! 

OH whats that? Well its a big leather wallet filled to the brim with........

KNITTING PATTERNS! 

Some newer ones and lots and lots of vintage ones! I can't show you all of them because LOLZ don't have all the time in the world but here are some of my favourites!

It doesn't have a date on it but judging by the bee hive I'd say 60's maybe? I am so on board with this jumper it hurts! I'm thinking of making it in grey or red???? 

I had no idea jeager did knitting patterns ?

This pattern is designed for teenagers and I think you can tell that its old based on how wholesome the teenagers look! I also like this jumper too and its has POCKETS!!!! 

I don't have a knitting machine which is what these patterns require but this is the only pattern I could find that was dated. 1959! That's pretty old!

How cute are these baby knitting patterns, I really like the booties and I'm always trying to find new baby bootee patterns.

I also like this cardigan a lot. That collar looks perfect for keeping the cold out. I love how we are starting the warm season and I'm talking about how to stay warm.

Okay so I'm not that keen on this pattern but I'm tempted to make them up so me and Rikki can pose like the couple in the picture. I'd have to buy two dogs but I don't see that as being a hardship do you?

Also can we talk about how miffed this poor woman is that she doesn't get to hold the pug? She really wanted the pug its written all over her face and the guy knows it!!! 

I've really be enjoying looking through the patterns and I can't wait to make one up! 

Whats the oldest knitting pattern you have?

Much Love Frankie 

xxx

Cami Top from a Pillow Case

Sometimes the sewing works and sometimes it doesn't. Yes this is a nice enough cami top but for some bizarre reason it turned out HUGE! compared to the other times I've used this pattern.

The pattern is the cami top from the 3rd GBSB book, but without the ruffle because well putting a ruffle on my boobs would just be overkill.  

Its the back that seams big? maybe I should put a little box pleat in or something? In this picture I have the back of my bra pulled right the way down so you don't see it. So maybe that means the strapos are whats too long? [do you like my tan lines? I took these pictures the day after I got sunburnt which was ages ago! safe to say I'm now back to my milky white colouring]

That said if I don't alter it I'm sure I'll still use it for layering under tops and if all else fails I'll just wear it to bed.

Construction wise it took no time at all to cut out or sew. It was however sat on my chair for about a week after cut out waiting to be sewn because new shiny projects kept distracting me! 

The fabric is an old pillowcase and came from my Aunty Shelia and Uncle Gordon's house. There was only one otherwise I might have tried to make a little pj set. I love the delicate flowers and the lightweight fabric. I'm gonna guess that its vintage? 

It looks 100% better tucked in!

Their wasn't quite enough fabric to cut the facings as well so they have been done from a plain white fabric. 

All in all its a really nice make and its always nice to make some more practical items that will get lots of wear. Especially when the weather turns colder and I'm looking for an extra layer to keep me toasty. The only issue is its a little bit on the sheer side so I have to be careful how I wear it.

In other news, 

The summer holidays are going okay I'm not ready to kill lil man just yet......

We are still playing lots of games and trying to get outside whenever the weather lets us. We have high hopes for a big bike ride but I'm not sure how realistic that is!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

Vintage Linen Slouch Top

The weather is awful today, I've got some lovely fabrics set aside to make some summer dresses but this rain is sapping all of the joy out of me. On the plus side I'm sat in my double trouble jumper watching project runway and I've got a whole packet of chocolate digestives at my disposal....so I guess its not all bad. 

I made this a few weeks ago whilst we were having that hot spell and I was sick of wearing clothes that clung and stuck to me, all I really wanted to do was wonder around naked but sadly that's not appropriate for the school run!

It all started with this embroidered linen pillowcase that came from my Aunty Shelias house. It had a small bit of embroidery on each side [It looks like it may have been done by hand?] but sadly the rest of it was badly damaged so I decided to use the embroidery as a feature on a garment and use a different fabric for the rest of it.

So the embroidery was used for the sleeves and the main body of the top was just made of a light cotton. The weights of the embroidered fabric and the main fabric are slightly different but you can't notice it when I have it on. I also added a piece of lace in a band around the top because the front felt too plain. The lace came from a craft market and is fairly thick. I just attached it using a straight stitch on the top edge, the bottom edge hangs free.  

The pattern for the top is by prima magazine, its just a very basic boxy top with a boxy sleeve. In fact the sleeve is so boxy the sleeve head is practically flat! I've never had an easier time of setting in a sleeve. It does mean that it sits rather low though, you can't really see on the pictures because the white on white photography isn't exactly brilliant for showing details. But the shoulder head reaches the top part of my arm and then the sleeve starts. This kind of goes against all of my fitting knowledge but it looks okay right? So maybe its meant to be like that! 

The prima pattern is really simple, no darts no tucks no pleats just two sleeves a front and a back! I cut a size 14 but I think I may size down next time? 

To add a bit more colour I did the hems using a coloured thread, it just ties the colour of the embroidery to the rest of the top, 

All in all I like it. When I finished it I absolutely hated it, it was just lying on the table all big and shapeless but then I tried it on with my jeans and with a few skirts and I decided that maybe its actually sort of cute in a kind of french way. I'm looking forward to the weather warming up so I can wear it again. And I love that it uses some of my Aunty Shelias stuff and that I managed to cute around the damaged fabric [although there is still a small stain on the top of one of the sleeves, but I live with a small boy so stains are part of my life at the moment!!] 

Much Love 

Frankie 

x

Gingham Circle Skirt

I feel like to be a proper British person I need to start this post off by mentioning the weather.... I mean haven't we just had it all?! The blazing sun followed by pouring rain! High humidity and then this morning it was actually chilly!

Anyways I made this skirt a lil while ago but I've gotten out of the habit of posting regularly, what can I say after a day of trying not to melt I'm pretty beat!

The fabric came from my Aunty Shelia and Uncle Gordons house, my mum and some other family members went to clear it out recently and they were kind enough to set aside a lot of their vintage linens for me. This was a table cloth, my mum said they must have found at least 15 whilst clearing out so as you can imagine they were all in pretty good condition, This had one small stain that came out during pre washing. The fabric appears to be some sort of cotton/linen type stuff?

Its a pretty cool gingham design and their was just enough to make a simple circle skirt. For  the waistband I used fabric from my stash and I decided to have a button front rather than a zip in the back. Mainly because I'm running out of skirt zips and couldn't be bother to go out. 

I reinforced the front placket with hemming tape, this just meant I had something a bit more stable to put the buttons onto! The waistband however was too thick to put a buttonhole into so that closes with a press stud instead. 

I am wondering if its bit short? Like I feel like I'm young enough to still be wearing short skirts but I;m also a mum so I bend down a lot???? 

But yeah all in all I love it! It does make me a bit sad to look at it though because it came from their house and its one of their things? I did feel a bit bad about cutting up one of her table cloths especially considering what good care she took of her things but I actually think she would have been quite tickled at the thought of me making a skirt from it.

In other news! 

This week ended up completely jacked up! We had a lovely visit from Rikkis Nan and Grandad on the Tuesday and then on the Wednesday lo and behold Rikki wakes up feeling rotten [we suspect tonsillitis] which put paid to our weekend plans! The idea was providing we had nice weather we would go camping and if we didn't I'd take the train to the new Abakhan store that was opening and have a day to myself and hopefully spend enough money to snag myself a goody bag! oh and try and get myself a signed copy of Jenny Taylors new book!! As it goes Rikki being ill meant we couldn't do either!!! Not a happy bunny! Actually that's an understatement, the combination of missing out on fun things, a ill husband and a miserable child left me in what I can only describe as a foul mood. I did apologise after all its not Rikkis fault he's ill [it is his fault hes a baby about it....].  

And the freezer broke! Rikki left it open one night and then It didn't work properly for 4 days so now we've had to throw away a metric tonne of food and restock! All whilst crossing our fingers that it doesn't break again! 

BUT all is currently well, I've just had a bath and a KFC and now I'm watching Clint Eastwood in escape from Alcatraz so all is well!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

  

Gingham Dress with Faux Button Placket

Okay So this project started out because I found this dress on pinterest and was like "ME WANT!"

I think what appealed to me was the fact its just a very lovely day dress which I'm discovering is my style! So I took a few notes on what I liked:

the use of a larger check

the gathered skirt

button front 

I knew the Lilou dress would be a perfect base to make this dress around. I did debate whether or not be make a working button front or a faux one but I opted for a faux one in the end, mainly because its easier! 

I did pattern match to the best of my ability, the checks run through the side seam.......

and across the back! I'm feeling like a bit of a pattern matching champion to be honest!!! [sorry for the wrinkles in the back, I'd been wearing the dress all day when I took the pictures!] 

Here's a close up of the front button placket. I basically cut two strips on the bias sewed them together turned them through and then top stitched them to the centre front! The buttons are from my stash. I only had four of these and I think they look pretty vintage! I used blue thread to stitch them on to add a bit of contrast.

The skirt is a simple gathered one, which I just cut across the width of the fabric. I matched across the side seams of the skirt too, and did French seams!!!!

The bodice is fully lined, which is a bit unusual for a summer dress but I'd rather be a touch warm than have to dealing with seeing facings and seams all over the place!!!

The fabric came from abakhan in Hanley and is a one inch poly cotton  I used the navy colourway but I'm thinking I now also need versions in red, royal blue and maybe the pink? or would that make me look like a giant Barbie? its only £3.85 per metre and I think I brought 2 metres so really £8 for a dress isn't too bad is it? and I've got some left so I probably could have squeezed it from a metre and a half?

So here's the two ways I plan on styling it!

So here I'm channelling my inner country girl! this ones great for wandering around and feeling comfortable!

dress - handmade

denim jacket- new look

Plimsolls - I think Primark? but similar here [I've had mine for years, these had just been through the wash!]

This one is something that I'd wear to the cinema or on a date night. 

Dress - Handmade

shoes - not a clue but they are like a red peep toe wedge!

bag - refashioned! you can read about it here 

So yeah all in all this project was a GRAND success! I love the look of the dress and I can't wait to make more versions! Ooooh I wonder how it would look in a smaller check?

Much Love 

Frankie

xxx