Altering Me Mades

Sometimes you make something and yo think "yes this is it I am the queen of sewing, all shall bow before me and feel the wrath of my unpicker!" and sometimes you think "okay so this isn't ground breaking but its not awful" and sometimes you think "This is fugly..."

And every now and again you make something, like it but still don't wear it. And being that I don't have a HUGE wardrobe, no seriously my wardrobe is the size if a postage stamp, that means I have to decided if I'm going to alter it or just bin it. 

And unlike ready to wear clothing its really quite hard to let go of things you've actually made yourself with your own hands. so remake it was!

I didn't make any major changes, quite simply this dress did have a pink lace waistband but the lace was too think and I felt like I had a massive expanse of stomach out. Plus pink lace isn't really my jam! anyway you can read the full post about the original dress here. 

So I switched out the pink lace waistband for a plain one that I cute of the extra length of the skirt. Which seams fairly simple until you realise it involves taking out a zip, and taking out two rows of top stitching as well as the seams themselves.

It did mean however that I could do my gathers more evenly and swap out the zip for something that matched a little better. Even if it is a chunky beast of a thing!

And now I love this dress again! One little change and suddenly I can't wait to put it on and wear it!

In other news, I am BUSY! I'm talking Christmas style busy but in August!!!!

So far since August we've had 4 birthdays, 1 meeting with a registrar, 1 child to prepare for school an Anniversary, A shed load of wedding stuff to sort out and my hen party to arrange! and in September we have 2 birthdays, my hen party, my second hen party, rikkis stag, a big birthday party, my wedding hair appointments, final things to liase with the venue................................. I wont bore you to death but lets just say we haven't had time to breathe!!!!

And would you believe I still have people I need to chase up about invitations? I mean really? How rude!!!!! 

So any moment I can find to sew has been a godsend for my mental health and balance!!! 

Esspecially seen as my lil squidge is growing up so fast!!! We actually went out yesterday and brought him three new pairs of shoes for school! one smart pair, one pair of pe trainers [which apparently had to be all white but omg have you tried to find all white trainers recently? for a four year old? who's probably going to wear them a grand total of ten times?] and one pair of new shoes for day to day use because his old ones were super scraggy and horrible!!! 

So yeah I know I'm going to have a huge cry when he goes to school next week and I'm just going to embrace it and sob away!!!!!!!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx 

Owl Print Box Pleat Skirt

First of all the quality of these pictures is just not good, please don't blame me... blame the muggy, awful weather we've been having. 

Anyway recently my sister and her lovely husband sent me some of this awesome owl print fabric because they saw it and thought of me!

Anyway when I first saw it I had to have a good think about what to make. I thought this might be a bit too twee for a skirt and I had almost convinced myself to make a full set of bags for when we go away. I was about one step off cutting out when I thought to myself, jeez Frankie don't be a massive bore! Just make a fricking owl print skirt for the days you want to pretend to be a 1940's housewife! 

So I did! [as it goes I had enough for a makeup bag as well!]

I used the box pleat skirt pattern from the 2nd Great British Sewing Bee book, and to be honest I was pleasantly surprised it's a pretty good fit straight out the bag and with only having three pattern pieces to trace its not overly mind numbing.

Its actually a pretty quick sew, and I think I'll make it again as I love the look!

 However!

I did encounter my biggest pet peeve. Side zips. 

eurgh side zips I just hate them, I really can't explain it more than that they just suck and make me feel wonky! So I'm going to alter the pattern for a back zip instead! 

I've already took an inch off the length, which is pretty standard for my short lil legs!

I''m not sure what type of fabric it is? Its not heavy enough to be upholstery fabric but its got sort of a canvas feel to it? It works nicely for this skirt though and it sewed up really nicely too. 

I always struggle to style lighter skirts but I think this top works pretty well. Actually that's a lie, I struggle to style anything lighter because I'm a messy person and I know Its inevitably going to stain.

I think the two box pleats at the front and back are pretty flattering for my shape. 

Construction wise there's not much to say, it went together pretty quickly. I didn't baste my pleats in I just pinned them. Its a lapped zip with a button tab. Although I think the pattern calls for a hook and bar but I thought it would be a nice opportunity to use one of my single buttons [sounds a bit like a personal ad doesn't it really, single button seeking fabric for fun, fashion and maybe more?] 

I stitched in the ditch the waistband down, its not perfect but its not awful so I won't be getting my seam ripper out. 

I didn't bother pattern matching but I did spend a long time trying to work out which way to use the fabric. I'm pretty sure I've got it the right way but the owls are pretty random so I'm not sure it matters.

And I whacked a lil label in right at the end!

I'm trying to put these in all my me made clothes, every time I iron I seem to be sewing one in!

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! 

Lace and Gingham Dress

This is a new make! Well I say new, I made it ages ago but it took me ages to get round to photographing it. Like my background? Santa's already started putting presents in our spare room so I've had to borrow little Knitwits wall to take these! Thomas the tank engine is super awesome by the way!

It's the princess seam bodice from the second Great British Sewing Bee book. Its used for two of the projects the shift dress and the full skirted dress. Anyway I had already traced the bodice for my shift dresses but I really liked the full skirted look. So I used that as my inspiration. But because I'm lazy I couldn't be bother to trace off the skirt pieces so I drafted a full circle skirt all by myself! LIKE A BOSS!

As I've said I was only using their image as inspiration so I left of the sleeves (well kind of sleeves more like sleeve cap things) and added a lace waistband. The lace waistband came about because I have a ready to wear dress that has a lace waist band and Mr Knitwit commented that he thought it was cute..... And he says I never listen to him! Oddly enough I didn't need to alter the bodice in any way to accommodate the waistband. I think its because the bodice is drafted to be quite high anyway [Much higher than how it looks on the model in the book]

The fabric was sent to me by a lovely lady who reads my blog. And I really love it! I don't really own too many check items but this dress is making want to expand my horizons! Even if it was a beast to try and match! 

Here's my self drafted skirt , well I say drafted I just measured myself and then cut into the fabric! The skirt is bias but the lace band and the chequered band art the bottom are cut on the grain. It was actually really easy to apply and because the bottom band is cut on grain and is straight it made hemming the skirt so easy! Even if there was bloody loads of it!

Lace application wise I just sewed it on and then top stitched the seam allowance towards the chequered fabric so you couldn't see it through the lace.

I feel pretty fabulous in it to be honest, I'm really pleased with how it turned out! I love the skirt and the lace and the kind of texas/wizard of oz feel it has! I'm also please that I didn't just play safe and make another Lilou. However I am wondering if I should alter my pattern pieces to make the neckline a bit lower. Not like full playboy low but maybe a little more cleavage? 

Here's the pattern matching, The side seam is like OMG! LOOK AT THAT ! But the boob seam is not quite as awesome, which makes me kind of sad but not so sad that I wont ever wear it again. Some of the across stripes match but the up ones are all over the place. I'm not sure if its me that's screwed up or if its just because its a princess seam?

All in all I'm calling this a resounding success! And I think I might have fallen in love with circle skirts! Which is huge! because I am such a gathered skirt kind of girl! But boy is the full circle flattering! It just skims! and I'm really please with the fit of the bodice as well.

I wonder if a half circle skirt does the same?

Much Love

Frankie

xxx