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Leather upholstery level up

In the Saloon of our barge, we have two gorgeous ring stools. They’re perfect for sitting, putting your feet up, and moving around to other rooms and we use them ALL the time! But we’ve had them for almost ten years at this point, and the fake pleather covers on the tops started flaking off and looked awful. So J prised them apart (the tops were only just glued to the base!), removed the staples, and kept the fabric as a template.

With the template as a handy measurement guide, I found a leather Nappa hide big enough for both at New Craft House for £40. This was a piece of deadstock leather leftover from the fashion industry, with a big seam running down the center. It might’ve been a problem for some uses but it was perfect for this because I needed to cut it into two pieces anyway!

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Wild cat Duathlon Shorts

Now that the LDN medication is actually giving me some energy (see this post if you missed my recent health update), I can finally start rebuilding my body, regaining my fitness, and losing the huge amount of weight I’d put on while being stuck in bed.

But I have zero activewear shorts or leggings that still fit me. Zero. Since the medication started making me feel a little better in June-July-ish, I started off doing a strict “10min only” of stretching every day, which I’ve gradually now increased to about 30min daily, plus the odd walk and e-biking (and some rest days too, because this is not my first rodeo).

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An olive green Saraste shirt

This is actually a Very Wearable Muslin for another shirt I’ll go into later, but for now, just know that this is yet another Named Saraste Shirt, from their first book, “Breaking the Pattern” (which has mysteriously disappeared from their website for some reason?).

The Saraste might tie with Closet Core’s Pietra in my “Most Made Patterns That Aren’t FehrTrade” stakes! I’ve made the dress variation twice (1st & 2nd), the top version twice (1st and 2nd), and the shirt once before. But this time I needed a bigger size (size 9, the largest!!) so I had a fresh version printed in A0.

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The looming face of Lestat on a teeshirt

I keep saying each Interview with the Vampire The Vampire Lestat teeshirt is “going to be my last for a while” but I keep being tempted by new designs! But this time, it really will be the last teeshirt for a while (mumbles something about sewing a replica designer blouse seen in the S3 teaser instead…)

The designs on this shirt are from the set of The Vampire Lestat (IWTV season 3’s new show name) that’s filming right now – extras going to the in-universe gigs were wearing teeshirts with this Lestat head motif on the front, and tour dates on the back – in addition to the shirt with the hands that I’ve already made! So of course I had to complete my set and make this one too!

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A minty fresh Thorndike Tank

Sometimes I plan my sewing in advance. Other times, I see a pattern or a fabric and I just instantly want to make it. I can’t even say exactly what it was about the Thorndike Tank (the Cashmerette Club pattern for July) – it’s just a basic woven shell top, really – but when it dropped it just felt right to sew it.

It didn’t hurt that I had the perfect fabric already in my stash – 1.5m of Mind the Maker “Splash” viscose in Mint, bought from the Village Haberdashery (RIP) in June 2020 for £30.

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A black bamboo Vampire Lestat hands tee

I’ve been planning this shirt for a few weeks, but it was serendipitous that I already had the perfect fabric in my stash – some leftover black bamboo jersey from Fabrics Galore. The 2.5m I bought ended up making my Paris Sucks Versatili-Tank, the Dead Inside tank for my friend AND this tee! So it was excellent value on top of being perfectly soft, and somewhere between a viscose and cotton jersey in terms of weight and drape.

This time around, I printed off a Loose Fitting Top Block from “Sew Your Own Activewear” in size XL (shortened a bit to match the length of the Versatili-Tops, which I prefer). I’d have made a Versatili-Tee again but I knew I wanted wide writing on the back and didn’t want the back seams interfering with the vinyl.

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The Mexican dress

This might possibly be the world’s longest UFO!

I bought this fabric at a fabric shop in San Cristobel de las Casas when we toured around Mexico in 2013! To my credit, I tried to turn it into a skirt at least twice, with the latest iteration using a Burda magazine pattern with a scooped hem and loads of shirring at the waist. I did the shirring at the Sewing Weekender in 2018, back when it was in person! But no matter what I did, it just looked deeply unflattering.

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A naked ladies tee and red ramie Bob trousers

I’m posting a little out of order here since I sewed these before the broderie anglaise tee! I’ll start off with the Bob trousers since I actually made these first – at the start of June, but then it was far too hot to actually wear them for a photoshoot…

Red ramie Bob trousers

If you recall, I’ve sewn the StyleArc Bob trousers twice before – first in brown linen, and then again in black linen. The black linen was far too thin and those wore out way too fast, but the brown Raystitch linen lasted much longer (such great quality!) but even they have been declared dead after multiple patches on the inner thighs and hips.

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A quick broderie anglaise tee

I’ve got a few garments to share over the next few days/week, but I wanted to start this off with a shorter post about a top I made with leftover fabric, but also a health/Long Covid update (scroll down to the photos if you don’t care!).

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Two black bamboo vest tops

Ok I didn’t lie when I said in the last post that those were my last vampire shirts for a while… because I already had the vinyl cut and weeded for these by that point, and these were always planned. I just needed to make the shirts for the vinyl to go onto!