Pom Bomb Hat

a pom bomb by the way is what lil man calls a pom pom. I'm not sure why? But he alo calls mittens "Knittens" you know "cos they knittin mummy" Kids got a point.....

Anyway so i made anither hat!

This ones pretty blown out but you can see the details of the hat which is nice, I used the same method as for my last hat. But this time instead of the garter stitch I used stocking stitch. 

I used two strands of wool, one plain black ball and one made up of scraps of blues, greys, beige and white. Together they made a cool looking marl effect and they knitted up pretty quickly.

I sized down the Pom Pom too, and I made it on my Pom Pom maker again, In fact I'd say that the Pom Pom maker might be my new favourite sewing tool! They actually save so much time!!!!

I really love this hat!!!! Iv'e worn it every day to nursery and I feel very stylish and it keeps my ears warm as an added bonus! 

And these colours work better with my wardrobe than my previous hat as well!

And I even managed to get some okay pictures of it on my camera too! Which means that YAY winter is nearly ending! Yay for being able to take better blog pictures!!!! 

Much Love

Frankie

xxx 

High Waisted Circle skirt

I'm not sure whether I like this or whether I hate it yet. From some angles I feel it makes me look really wide..... like a truck.

It's a circle skirt {using my own method} attached to a Clemence skirt waistband that I extended to 8 inches, to make it a high "high" waisted skirt. I didn't have any heavy weight interfacing so I just used some Hessian that I had in my stash. {I think Hessian is the right word, its like potato sack fabric}

The fabric was free from a friend who gave me a roll of this fabric. and the zip is re-purposed from one of lil mans old clothes. I did a lapped zip insertion again but you can't really tell because of how bulky both the zip and the fabric are.   

When it was finished I had to shorten it by about 6 inches but other than that I just did a standard hem. Although it only has one full row of hem stitching, generally I like to do two rows but my bobbin ran out half way and I wasn't in love enough to actually rewind the bobbin for this one project.  Luckily it's not that noticeable. 

There's a box pleat at the front that I put in to use up the excess, I like it though because it means there's less chance of me flashing my pants when I sit down.

Because of how wide I think it makes me look wish the full waistband I've been folding it down by about two inches. At least I learnt something though, If I'm doing something this high waisted I need to curve the waistband to the curves of my body more, so I look less wide. 

In other news I haven't posted for a few days because poor Rikki came down with a migraine on Wednesday morning and was really sick all sodding day! {We had planned to have a romantic breakfast pancake meal but that went out the window after the noises I heard from the bathroom}

So yeah that was awesome, then being the sensible human I decided to sleep in the man room so that if it was a virus at least one of us wouldn't be infected! And then lil man woke up at 3am! YES! 3am with a bad dream and came into bed with me.... In the man room.....on the futon..... the uncomfortable futon......which lil man soon hogged all the his lonesome.

And he made my arm numb........ Life's a blast isn't it?

Luckily everyone's feeling better now and we haven't had a bad dream since. 

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx  

One day I'll be a grownup and all my stationary will match.

I love stationary , in fact the stationary aisle of home and bargains is a bit dangerous for me. It's all just so cheap and shiny! 

I've got loads of notebooks, I've got an ideas book, a sketchbook, a blog notes book, a wedding book, a shopping book! Lots of books and recently I got a lil tin pencil case which I love for keeping my posh pen and felt tips in. 

However my sketching pencils do not fit. 

And I like my sketching pencils, I like them all in one place ready to go. So I perished the stationary aisle trying to justify the purchase when I thought , why don't I just make one? 

So I did! 

This is a scrap of the pansy print I used for my dress. And the zip is from an old pair of jeans which is why it's at the top, this far I have no use for zips that small. 

It's a pretty bodge job but it works so I'm happy, and it only took five minutes to sew. 

And everything fits hurrah! 

And I've got a good amount of sketching done too. I promised myself I'd try and sketch more this year to keep my eye in so to speak, and boy am I rusty ! 

Sorry about the lighting on these and the flare, I was in the kitchen - 1950s lady

lil man

Rikkis nan and grandad - I gave up on this because I wasn't happy With it

Tony soprano

Salvador Dali

Marilyn Monroe

I think if I work hard I might get better but so far I'm just not happy with any of them 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

The obnoxious hat,

I made a hat, it's an obnoxious shade of blue with an obnoxious large Pom Pom. 

Can't get better than that! 

I didn't use a pattern instead I cast in 60 stitches into size 6mm needles with chunky wool. Knit a few rows rib. Knit a few rows garter stitch then when I was happy with the length I decreased. I did knit two , knit two together for a row and then knit a row. Simples! 

Thinking about it , it could be a lil longer! Sorry for the crappy picture quality , I should get my proper camera out but I can't be bothered! 

Plus my brownies are baking and o don't want to miss the beeps! Yeah I'm making brownies part of my New Years resolution to bake once a week. 

I think it's pretty cute, I might make one in black!!! 

Much love

Frankie 

Xxx

The Shirt Dress That Wasn't

Okay so the idea of this project was to make a shirt dress, no your not mistaken that's not a shirt dress, that's just a sleeveless shirt. Here's what happened, I accidentally forgot to extend my pattern pieces and didn't realise until I'd cut the pieces out.

The pattern incidentally is the same Burda one I used for my I shot bambi shirt. I didn't add seam allowances again, but this time is was an actual decision and not just because I forgot. I was pleased with the fit last time so I just added a seam allowance to the collar and stand so I'd have a bit more room to work with.

I also added waist ties to make more of a drawn in shape. The ties are just tubes of fabric top stitched and inserted into the side seam. [which I did twice because I put them too low the first time]

To be honest I think its a good job I didn't extend the pattern pieces because I wouldn't have had enough fabric, as it is the button placket and the underside of the collar and collar stand are in a contrast fabric. The main fabric is a ditsy print cotton and was given to me by my lovely pen friend.

Here's the back, I love the high low hem detail, I like wearing it with leggings as I don't feel like my bum is on display [oddly enough I never worry about the front just my bum?] and I think it might look cute with shorts in the summer.

The sleeves and hem are finished with bias binding which I also made from the contrast fabric. And the front button placket is pieced due to me not transferring my original alterations to the pattern piece for the placket [yes I have written it on now so I won't be caught out again!] 

I like that the ties give it a more ladylike feel however when I first tied them, the shoulder and bust area looked very square, so I added a small tuck at the bust on each side, and that cleared up the problem. I think if I had sleeves I wouldn't have needed it but because of the width of the shoulder it looked square.  

I will say though, that this is some of my best top stitching. I came up with an ingenious was of making sure I take my time with stitching, quite simply I turned down the speed on my sewing machine. I know right, how has it taken me this long to realise that slowing down my machine would give me a neater top stitch. I also interfaced the collar properly this time and made sure to give everything a good press at each stage. I think it all helps to create a clean finish.

The buttons don't all match, they are all the same size but some have a matt finish and some have a glossier finish, you can't tell when its done up though. In fact I didn't even realise they were different until after I'd sewn them all on. 

All in all I think it looks pretty cool, it's not my usual style but I think it looks pretty cute and I'm looking forward to wearing it more when it warms up. I wasn't sure also the colour of the fabric at first seen as I have an aversion to all things pale but I think it looks okay and it looks even better now Iv'e accidentally dyed in in my washer. Note to self always check the white wash for stray socks! Its  now a slightly pink colour which is nice.

In fact now I'm completely convinced by the pattern I think I might give a shirt dress a go!!!

Much Love 

Frankie

xxx

Fuzzy Blue Booties and Helmet Hat

It's miserable weather, its not even snow it's just slush. It's raining slush. I got soaked on the way to nursery today because of the stupid slush and my child's penchant for stamping his feet as he walks. And of course the two very inconsiderate drivers who splashed us with water as they drove as close to the pavement as possible. I'm not saying they did it on purpose but I do hope they burn in hell.

I also have a cold which doesn't help [it occurs to me, after re reading old blog posts that I must seem poorly quite a lot. Just too explain I have a low white blood cell count so I pick things up quite easily!]

Anyway onto the good stuff, I made these last week, I'm trying to do more knitting and expand my knitting skills. Mainly because I've been stuck in a rut knitting wise. Luckily for me there's lots of babies on the way and they will definitely be needing knit wear at some point.

These booties are pretty simple although I think the fuzzy tops look super cute, you can have them folded up or down but i think down is cuter.

I made the smallest size because I always knit the smallest size its just my way!

I also made a matching hat, well technically its a helmet, although I'm not sure if people use these for babies any more. I personally like them and I had one for lil man when he was born I found it kept his ears lovely and snug and fit nicely under his bear suit hoods. Because naturally if your gonna put your kid in a bear suit you have to have the hood up because that's wear the ears are.

I was pleased with my knitting skills on this, I particularly like the seam part that's not actually a seam its just where the increases and decreases are. I do wish I had done the chin strap in stocking stitch though, the pattern calls for garter stitch but I think stocking would look better.

The buttons just from my stash. Although I am wondering if I'm ever going to use all of my buttons, I mean ever!!!!

In other news I got some pretty cool sewing done last night! Which will be revealed soon.

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

Swirls and Leather Dress

This dress is one of those hit and miss type items. On one hand there's thing I like and on the other there's things I know for a fact are an issue.

Lets start with the fabric, the green is an upholstery weight fabric that was given to me by a friend, in fact she was kind enough to give me a roll of it. Whilst I like the pattern of the fabric I wasn't entirely sold on the colour as I don't wear much green. The leather that I used for the waistband and the side panels was from a leather jacket that my sister gave me. I had intended to refashion the leather jacket however it was absolutely plastered with seams so my ideas just didn't work.

I didn't really pattern match on this, the pattern is so large that its impossible so I just tried to make things as symmetrical as possible, you can't really tell on the pictures but the fabric has swirls and pillars and elephants on it. Its sort of an Indian vibe.

Here you can see the leather sections more easily, I definitely think they update the dress quite a lot.

Here's my big issue though, because I made the darts in the front of the skirt too deep [stupid drawing them in error] I had to unpick the back darts and just add a small pleat on either side. Yes I could have redone the darts but at this point I was already out of love with the idea of the dress so it seemed pointless. Luckily you can't really tell from the back but it still bothers me that I messed up.

I am pleased with my hack of the pattern at the back though. I altered the back piece to have a lowered V back. WHICH I LOVE! I think it looks kind of sexy in a subtle way, I do have to be super careful which bra I wear with it though! In fact between you and me.... here the tatas are......free ......GOSH!!!!

The bodice is fully lined usually I just face the neck and armholes of my dresses but because of the leather a fully lined bodice seemed like a better option. [especially seen as you have you go bra less because of the back. No one wants chafing in that region]  

Its such a weird dress for me sometimes I look and I'm like yeah its cool, and sometimes I'm like eurgh what is this filth that I created? My mum loves it funnily enough. I think mainly the green is putting me off, I don't wear green because it washes me out. But on the other hand maybe this looks okay? If I actually bother to put lippy on that is.

I think the influence came from reading the pink suit I had this idea in my head that I was going to become some sort of quirky Jackie Kennedy. In fact I've got a matching jacket cut out that's languishing at the bottom of my sewing pile, I should really start that huh?

In fact I might do, I have another skirt project ready to roll in this fabric and having a jacket too might make a mini capsule wardrobe of sorts.

hmmmmmm?

Much Love

Frankie

xxx