Latest Fabricgasms!

I love fabric...... that's really all I need to say! So here's a collection of fabrics I'm lusting after at the moment!

From http://fabricrehab.co.uk/

Mr Bones - silver and black skulls!

quite simply I like skulls!

In Flight - Cobalt 

I think this would make the worlds prettiest shift dress! simple shape, belt it up and a pair of boots and your good to go!

From http://www.plushaddict.co.uk/

Scandi Love Birds - Festive Red

This would make an awesome Christmas dress!

Michael Miller - Halloween - Bone Head charcoal!

These are the cutest skulls in the entire world!

From https://www.minervacrafts.com

Herringbone weave suiting

I love my wool suit that I made and I think this would make an excellent second version!

Gothic Skulls Nylon Lace Dress Fabric

I love the idea of making a very simple tunic from this fabric and then layering it up with vest tops and jeans!

And that's all for today folks!

What fabrics are you lusting after?

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

what's behind curtain number three? its another knitted minion!

There's not really too much to say about these minions now, I've used the same pattern (my own) and needles for every single one. so its basically the same size and shape. after the first one I tweaked the pattern a bit but its finally perfect now!

As usual I did a custom initial on the pocket! And added little tiny hands and feet! Boy are they fiddly to sew!

I think the one eyed versions are far cuter! I don't know what it is about things with one eye but they are just adorable!

In other news, things have been pretty hectic at the moment with it being the summer holidays, I gave my sadly neglected garden a tidy up yesterday (weeds grow so fast!) only to discover that the bloody slugs had been at my marigolds! The sweet peas however are stronger than ever before , trust me i had to pull the little swine's apart to tie them up!

We've got some baking planned for next week, and lots more visits from friends and family, and we've got two weddings and a hen do coming up! its literally all go at the moment.

Projects wise, I've got one baby project on the go (which will come with a tutorial), one hand patchwork project, one machine patchwork project and I've started looking at knitting the dinosaur I got free with my lets knit magazine! And then ill be posting another tutorial on how to make baby bibs complete with pattern (can you tell I'm using my friends pregnancy as an excuse to make tutorials!)  

And that's it really!

Apart from the cleaning, which I had forgotten is some more ore fun with a small child! (insert copious amounts of sarcasm here)

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

Little Lamb Wool - Part 3 , Little bear.

Its finished! after a little bit of cursing and learning how to knit into the front and back of a stitch! (yes I am still learning new stitches! and I'm proud!)

I have finished my final project using my wool from littlelambwool, and its an adorable little bear!

I used WYS Signature British wool 4ply Bird Prints in bullfinch Which is made by west yorkshire spinners, and boy is it nice to knit with, for starters the colour change combination is lush! That's really the way to describe it! There is two different shade of grey teamed with a creamy white and a bright pop of red, and the joy of this colour change wool is that it adds interest to a simple pattern without having to weave in lots of loose ends, plus I think it looks a bit like fair isle knitting! The wool is a 4ply so I knitted it up on size 3mm needles, which is what's recommended on the wool band. As its 4ply is quite a thin wool but its also very soft and springy! And it feels much nicer to some of the acrylic wools that are out there!

The bear is a free pattern from raverly that I found it on pinterest. It's an actual Debbie bliss pattern and is knitted in garter stitch.

Pattern wise its fairly easy to follow although I would recommend reading the comments with regards to the body section as the instructions are not quite as clear as they could be. And also read the comments if you an accomplished knitter because some people have worked out how to knit the body in the round which save time on making up! I think this pattern would suit an adventurous beginner, there's some slipped stitch parts which are easy to follow and knitting into the front and back of a stitch but I think that covers all of the slightly difficult bits. And as a bonus I'm sure he'd look lovely knitted up in stockinette stitch as well!  

My only quibble with the pattern is that it doesn't have a tail, and I'm from the school of thought that bears should have tails! But I'm sure the little baby who this is going to live with won't find the lack of tail to offensive!

All in all I'd say this has been a very successful project! I love how the wool looks with the pattern and I'm so pleased I managed to make a bear that doesn't look evil. The whole thing knitted up quickly and the bear is lovely and soft and squishy!

If you'd like to make this bear for your very own you'd need this wool , and as an added bonus it come in 6 different colours! I'm currently lusting after woodpigeon !

Thank you again to LittleLambWool for sending me such lovely wools to try!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

Disclaimer: Although these items were sent to me free, all opinions are my own. I would never provide good reviews for items I myself would not use, as a teacher once told me I'm honest almost to a fault!

Unselfish sewing

Momma knitwit liked my Mimi blouses, in fact she liked them so much that she asked me to make one for her to wear to a vintage festival (the goodwood revival) they go to every year. 

Anyway we started by looking at fabric and she finally settled on a red gingham check in cotton. When I went to abakhans to buy it, it looked a bit more sheer than I was expecting, so I took the executive decision to buy a similar check in the same colour but this is a polycotton blend! 

It doesn't look quite right on my mannequin (because of the size) I'm hoping the fit on my mum will be good though. It does need a good press ,But my iron is currently soaking following an incident with the interfacing! 

It's a tilly and the buttons, Mimi blouse,  and I cut a straight size 8, I could have graded down at the waist, but it's going to be worn with high waisted trousers so I didn't see the point. Plus because momma has some fairly hefty bosoms I want to make sure there was some wiggle room.... So to speak! 

Construction wise it's the same as the others I made, but I did add a couple of inches to the bottom of the blouse pattern pieces because both me and my mum are both quite long waisted. I also ignored the buttonholes on the pattern and placed my own closer together. As I said before momma is rather bosomy so I wanted to minimise gaping as much as I could. These buttons are roughly one short side of a credit card apart. Yes I used a credit card to measure button holes! It worked didn't it? And actually it wasn't a credit card, it was a build a bear factory card! STOP JUDGING ME! I like teddies okay! The buttons are from my stash, I have no idea if they are vintage but I think they are pretty cute! 

Sleeve wise I decided to omit the pleated sleeve and just gather the bottom. I love the pleated sleeve on the original blouse, but it's a pain in the bum bum to iron and me and my mum are both pretty low maintenance ironers! I also left the sleeve facing down and top stitched it in place. The instructions call for you to turn it under so everything's neat but I like it down!

My pattern matching is a bit hit and miss, but I think I get away with it because it's such a busy print! I was really tempted to cut the yoke on the bias, but I thought it might be a bit risky! Next time eh? 

I used French seams in the yoke and bodice seams, and regular seams with a finishing stitch on the sleeves. 

All in all I'm very pleased with this make! I love the fabric and now I just hope it fits! Prepare yourself for pictures of momma modelling it herself! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

P.s would it be really sad if I made one of my own? 

X

Summer holiday reality....

My blog posts have been fairly sporadic recently. And I'm blaming the summer holidays! Although lil knitwit only goes to nursery 3 mornings and one full day a week, it's still quite a lot of free time! And as an added bonus nursery wears him out so he has a nice nap after. 

But now? No nursery = no nap! Which means everything is having to be done whilst he's awake. Cleaning with a child is not fun! 

Anyway I have been getting some crafty bits done! For starters I've made lots of stuff for mine and Mr knitwits wedding! Yes we are finally going to tie the knot next year! It's still a way off so I won't be posting any pictures of what I've made till  afterwards so I don't spoil the surprise. 

I did go and pick up some fabric last week to make my mum a mimi blouse! That's on the cards for next week! (How fabulous is that check? I might have to make one for myself! ) 

And I've started knitting my second project using the wool from littlelambwool, so far it's lovely to knit with and I have a front and part of a back of a bear! 

I'm liking the pattern the wool is making although it reminds me a bit of Christmas! 

I've also finished knitting another minion so all I have to do with that is stitch it up and send him on his way! (Fun fact: did you know that all minions are boys? Apparently the creator couldn't imagine women doing the stupid things the minions do!) 

Me wise, I don't really have anything to make at the moment? I'm feeling a little bit uninspired by what fabrics I do have! So I'm hoping she. My birthday rolls around in September I might be spoiled with some abakhan vouchers! (Well a girl can dream!) 

Much love 

Frankie 

Xxx

Casual quilting

I was struck down by stomach cramps last night. So after a hot water bottle , a couple of paracetomal and a tot of brandy, I settled on the sofa with some trashy telly and some hand quilting.

I've had this panel for a long long time! I have no idea why I brought it? Probably the magpie in me going oooooh pretty! 

You can't really see the quilting , but it's pretty basic stitching , and it's turning out nice and poofy! 

I've done the usual three layers that I do , cotton , wadding, cotton! 

My only bug bare is that it's a touch too small for my embroidery hoop so it's being done without! And I'm constantly worrying about it rucking up! 

Here's the very attractive back! Not much more to say really apart from I think I know what I'm going to do with it when the hand quilting a finished and my tummy stops hurting! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

There's only so many pieces of fruit a person can sew.....

I have two magazines delivered a month, Disney sweets and treats and love quilting and patchwork! Which my sister and brother in law kindly got me as a present! 

I stopped buying seeing magazines a while ago, it seemed to be a lot of the same old same old , lots of kitsch things to fill a house, and lots of upcycling projects I would never do! Plus every issue seemed to feature how to make a pin cushion, and nobody needs that many pin cushions! 

However I am seriously enjoying love quilting and patchwork, maybe it's because it's focused on one skill, or that it features a great mixture of projects for different skill levels! 

But it also has excellent free items, like things you'll actually use, not just things to clog up the place! 

In fact I enjoy it that much I re read it pretty much everyday, there's nothing I like more than my morning brew and a quick retread whilst lil knitwit eats his breakfast. 

But a few days ago I got another magazine surprise! Mr knitwit brought me a copy of let's knit on the way back from the barbers! 

He doesn't really get the craft thing so it always surprises me when he does something like this! Anyway I was pleasantly surprised by the projects in this as well! In fact there a couple of things I'm going to try and make and one project that might encourage me to ask Mr knitwits nan how to use double pointed needles! 

And as an added bonus it came with a kit to make this. 

Which little knitwit has his eye on! It's patiently waiting in the knitting queue. I've got an order for a minion to do and then part three of my little lamb review and then I'm going to make this bad boy! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx