Thirty gifts for Thirty - Algebra Bow tie and pocket square

Hi  there guys!

Today I am back sharing one of my favourite makes from the Thirty gifts for Thirty series. I have been having a lot of fun making menswear recently, but one of the items I have found I love making are bow ties! I started making them last year when Mr. F requested one for our wedding, then I cranked things up a notch when I made him eleven for Christmas last year. I had a blast making them, choosing different fabrics, some from my stash, and treating him to some new ones in some snazzy prints!

So naturally when I came to making the birthday gift list I had to include the odd bow tie in there somewhere! The hardest part was choosing the fabrics, there are so many amazing fabrics out there, I was really spoiled for choice. I decided to go for a bit of a Maths theme... it seemed fitting after all.

I have drafted this pattern from scratch and have made a few mods to get it to this point, but I think I can finally say I am happy with the proportions and the finishes.

Here we have it gift number four.... the Algebra Bow Tie and Pocket Square.

I love this fabric so much it is Moda Elementary Equations, and it is so lovely to work with. I bought it from The Village Haberdashery and my pattern for both the pocket square and the bow tie fits perfectly onto one fat quarter. Talk about stash busting!! 

I had a lot of fun with the packaging on these guys too....first up is the pocket square!

I like the wrap around packaging you get on fancy items sometimes and tried to mirror that style...

Next up is the bow tie packaging, I am kind of proud of this one...

These dapper treats went down a treat with Mr. F and I  am pretty happy with the packaging prototypes too. 

Thanks for visiting my blog, It means a lot that you folks stop by to visit :)

That's all for now, I will be back with more birthday related treats soon.

~HJF~

Thirty gifts for Thirty - Mens Keyboard wallet

Hi all,

Today's post is yet another instalment of Thirty gifts for Thirty, where I challenged myself to make twenty handmade gifts for my husband for his thirtieth birthday! 

Today I wanted to show you the handmade wallet I made for him. I wanted to make him a simple fold over wallet but with a bit of personality, so I set about drafting a quick pattern. 

I wanted a simple design with a fold down the centre, a place to hold notes and cards, and that's it. 

I came up with the pattern fairly quickly and set about sewing. I decided I would take step by step photographs of each stage so that I could make a tutorial with the hope of giving my pattern away as a free download. It was the first time I have made an accessory pattern with the intent to make public, it is usually garments patterns I draft for myself, so I tried to be organised about it and made sure I documented each step.

 It all went together fairly quickly, I made a couple of silly mistakes near the end, but I think that was just due to tiredness. I ended up remaking the whole wallet because I had handled it so much by this point it looked a mess! But I got it together and finished it off in time for his birthday.

 I can't say I am overly happy with the finished product, it just doesn't look professional enough for me. So after taking all of the photographs and drafting the pattern, I decided not to post my tutorial after all. I think I am better sticking to the garment making and this has definitely taught me that small accessories are not my thing! But I am ok with that, you know, I am a garment girl at heart, and that's ok. I have loved sewing clothes for as long as I can remember, so maybe this little accessory adventure didn't go quite to plan because my heart wasn't really in it (it was, I wanted to make Mr. F a rad wallet) but who knows, I am ok with not being a whiz at the old wallet making. Pass me the dress patterns any day....:)

So here we have it, gift number three...

As you can see in this photograph the corners are not square, this is due to the amount of bulk, even though I trimmed out all of the excess. I am not sure how I would eliminate this next time?

The two lovely fabric I used were from The Village Haberdashery.

Here is the finished gift with the label attached. Although I am not completely happy with the finished product, it still taught me a lot, and it taught me about what I enjoy sewing too. I really thought I would enjoy sewing this, but I really didn't. I guess there won't be too many more wallets in my future sewing plans. ;) 

Are there things you sew that you don't particularly enjoy sewing? 

Are there any things you sew that you know you find difficult?

 I would love to hear about them in the comments below! 

Thanks for stopping by. 

~HJF~ 

Thirty gifts for Thirty - 80's Striped beach shorts

Hi guys,

My next installment of Thirty gifts for Thirty is a super simple pair of 80's Striped beach shorts, made from a vintage pattern.

I have used this pattern several times to make shorts and pajama bottoms for Mr. F and they have turned out great. The pattern is so simple and quick to sew up that you can have a snazzy pair of shorts in around an hour...



Or you should be able to if you don't encounter any problems. I had a bit of a nightmare with these shorts, well, not the construction but the lead up to it. I bought some fabric from Abakhan from the quilting cotton section, because I wanted something lightweight but with some body to to it. I selection a nice green and white striped pattern that I thought would go well with pretty much everything.

 As most will know at Abakhan the vast majority of its fabrics are sold by the weight, and are displayed in wire baskets for you to rummage through to your hearts content. I love a trip to Abakhan, as I usually come back with something really quirky. but I have shall we say, had the odd mishap when buying fabrics from there. I found my fabric, checked the yardage and I had just enough to fit my shorts pattern on there nicely.

Now I bought this fabric weeks in advance of making these shorts and I didn't think to even look at it again once I got it home, foolish me. A few weeks later when I got the fabric out to cut out the shorts I noticed a stain, then another, then another... but these were not easily visible, and I had obviously missed them under the shop lighting, there were dye marks, streaked all through the fabric.

 Anyway, I didn't have time to return the fabric, or buy new, and I tried all my best stain remover techniques and nothing would shift the dye. I had to alter the shorts pattern to take some of the fullness out and do some serious pattern placement wizardry to get these bad boys to fit on to the dye free remaining fabric. I managed it with only a few specks on the waistband which when gathered, they are completely unnoticeable and one small patch on the leg. I had planned to add some embellishments to the shorts once they were finished anyway so I just covered the dye spot with a original 80's woven patch. My mum kindly donated it to me, it has been in her sewing box since she used to sew for me and my bro and was intended for a pair of my brothers shorts way back when.

So here we have them, gift number two of Thirty gifts for Thirty, nothing super spectacular, but a pretty functional pair of beach shorts....

These shorts are a basic design with just an elasticated waist, fake fly front and side seam pockets.

Here you can see the fabric a little clearer and of course that amazing woven patch! Secretly I am super jealous of the patch and wish there were two then I could have had one for a shirt or something, I think it is pretty rad!

I also did labels for the shorts as well, this time as a swing design.

Sadly no modeled shot as it has been way too cold here to even think about getting the shorts out! 

But Mr. F liked them, so I am hoping that they will be a success this summer.

Thanks for stopping by to see some of my menswear makes! I have really enjoyed sewing for someone other than myself, and I am hoping to sew some more menswear for my Dad soon. It is getting rather close to Fathers Day over here....

 Has anyone been making anything special for their dads?

Would love to hear if you have any special fathers day projects lined up?

~HJF~

Thirty gifts for Thirty

Hi Lovely people,

Today I am back with a bit of a different post, still my usual sewing, but this time it isn't for me!

So, early may Mr. F turned 30, and to mark this pretty special occasion I wanted to make him something really awesome!! The problem was I wasn't really sure what, I know that probably sounds awful, but I just couldn't settle on one gift idea. So, in the end I decided, why have one gift when you can have thirty.... I mean that is the rational jump to make isn't it?! Everyone else was with me on that one right?! hmm thought so.....

So I set to making a list of gifts I wanted to make for Mr. F ( if you haven't guessed already, that's my husband ha ha, thought we should just clear that one up) I decided to try and make a gift for each of his thirty years would be way too ambitious so I whittled it down to a mere 20... the rest were token gifts that I bought throughout the year leading up to his birthday.

I thought it would be fun to share with you some of the gifts that I made for Mr. F. It has been my first real adventure into menswear, so I hope you stick around for the next few posts :)

First up is the Star Wars skinny tie

I have made a few ties this year as it seems to be the year of our guys turning thirty and ties make a great gift! The original skinny tie pattern is from the See Kate Sew Blog , which is a great place to start. I have however made some mods to the pattern and use a more traditional method of assembly to create the point lining you see below.

If you are looking for a few tips on Tie making or, like me you work better with a few visual aids, I found this really helpful video that also has a downloadable pattern. They walk you through the whole tie making process and every step is made very clear.

Tie Making Tutorial Video on Youtube - Not my content!


I bought official Star Wars Quilting cotton a while ago and it was perfect for this project, I lined it with some scraps of quilting cotton in a neon green because it matched the lasers so well!!

The finishing touches I decided to create for my gifts were packaging labels for each gift, now at this point in the game I think I had lost the plot a bit.  I was making hand made gifts, then making labels to make each gift look shop bought..... but I am still glad I did it, it was a lot of fun and I think it finishes off each gift nicely. 

I really enjoyed making this tie, it was so quick to put together! The hand sewing really is the most time consuming part, but I did most of that watching Season 3 of the Killing (I know, I am late to the party on that one!). 

  

That's my first installment of Thirty gifts for Thirty, I hope you have enjoyed seeing something a little different on my blog.  I will get round to posting gift number two shortly.....

When I decided to make my twenty gifts, I set myself a schedule but as ever, things take a little bit longer than expected. I had NO idea this would turn into the crazy challenge it did! This was just gift one and was a breeze... :)

Do you make a lot of handmade gifts or do you mainly sew for yourselves? 

Have you ever set yourselves a crazy challenge or deadline for someones birthday? I would love to hear about it!

As ever thanks for stopping by!

~HJF~