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The Kiss dress

I’m pretty sure I cut this out back in December (oh god, no – my notes say October?!), but to be honest, I was so sick from opportunistic infections in November and December it’s all a bit of a blur. I sewed this up over a few weeks in January, but then it took another few weeks to take some photos (lacklustre as they are) and then I lost all enthusiasm whatsoever to spend my precious “sitting upright” time to write this blog post. Tbh, sewing has lost all appeal right now – I never really leave home, I never see anyone, clothes bring me zero joy, and I hate how this sick body feels and looks so I try to avoid looking into mirrors or looking at photos of myself, which isn’t really helpful for sewing or fitting.

But having this post hanging around was nagging at the back of my brain and I want to document it before I move on. Thankfully I’d written notes in my phone as I went along, otherwise it’d be a very sparse blog post indeed!

Inspiration

Happy 2025! (Year in Review)

I’m not only putting out the Welcome Mat for 2025, I’ve got my little hostess apron on and I’m inviting it inside for a nice cup of tea and a sit down – thats how thankful I am that 2024 IS OVER.

Without a doubt, 2024 has been the worst year of my entire life, and that’s including 2009 (where I was literally days away from death, had chemo, meningitis, spent 8 weeks in hospital, lost my hair, got countless infections, etc) and 2020 (where I spent 9 months shielding in a ~20 sq m cabin and couldn’t leave home for a total of 14 months). Both of these pale in comparison to the endless horror of being trapped in a body that doesn’t work, while watching it distort into some grotesque puddle in slow motion.

I do these Year in Review posts every year to try and celebrate the wins and find some joy and perspective in things that happened over the previous 12 months, and some years it’s harder than others. There were joys here, but every single one of them was hard-won, and only happened because I fought my own body to make it happen. Life is never easy (no matter what it appears on social media), but some years are particularly harder than what seems fair.

So with that in mind, let’s have a look back to see what joys we can uncover, eh?

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Year end knitting and lingerie

Sorry for the radio silence, but I’ve been suffering with an awful ear infection on top of my usual Long Covid for the past two months(!!), despite three trips to hospital and four prescriptions that did absolutely nothing… I’m finally starting to feel like my ear infection is dissipating, putting me back at my standard, awful Long Covid baseline fatigue again (so, err, please don’t offer congratulations, okay?).

So I’ve got a few makes to show you before the end of the year…

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Two pairs of vampire socks

Blood drip socks

As you well know, my love of vampires is year-round, but it did work out nicely that this first pair of blood drip socks were ready just in time for Halloween! 🩸🧦🧶 I had the idea for these blood drip socks a few weeks before and I’m so pleased with how they turned out!

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A bright floral tee and extremely boring trousers

From the most OTT extravagant coat to the most boring (but necessary!) trousers… You never know quite what you’re going to see here, right??

But I really, really needed more trousers, and ones that I could wear with a number of different tops. I only have 2(!!) pairs of trousers that still fit me (the brown linen Bobs and the Belleville Jeans, since the black linen Bobs disintegrated) so this was a necessary sew for my wardrobe. These really are truly boring, but one that I will wear over and over again (or at least until I’m well enough to fit back into the smaller pairs that are in storage).

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The Wolfkiller Cloak – by night

As promised, after sharing our usual daytime photos to document all the different ways it can be worn, the seamlines, and details, etc, I really want to take some photos of my recent Wolfkiller Cloak at nighttime, too. I mean, it’s a coat inspired by a vampire AND it’s nearly Halloween, so what better way to capture the vibes than to do a photoshoot in a local graveyard??

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The Wolfkiller Cloak – by Day

Yes, you read that right – these are just the photos from the daylight shoot – the nighttime shoot photos will be coming coming up shortly! Even so, this is a very photo-heavy post with a lot of detail to cover, so grab a cuppa and settle in…

As you recall from my earlier post, I planned to sew a tribute to the iconic Wolfkiller Cloak from Interview with the Vampire, but adapt it to be a swing coat with a detachable fur-hooded capelet in order to make it warmer and more wearable. Honestly, if you haven’t read the other post yet, you really should!

The construction

One of the first parts of the actual construction (after all the flannel underlining basting I did as prep) was to create the bound buttonhole in the swing coat, so no pressure there! Since it’s been a while since I’ve sewn one, let alone in velvet, I thought I’d make a buttonhole in test fabric first, and it’s good I did because I needed to make it a bit longer to accomodate the thickness of the wolf button. I swear I was only pushing the wolf button through to double-check it fit easily through the bound buttonhole I just made, but then his little fangs went over the edge and I had a little giggle! Yup, this is a Lestat coat already. 😂

In Progress

Planning a tribute Wolfkiller cloak

Yes, this is both a big project AND yet another make inspired by “Interview with the Vampire“! Big enough that you’re going to get at least one In Progress post, in addition to the final reveal. I’m really excited about this one, though, and in a way that I’ve not been fired up for a long time…

The Inspiration

So what is the “Wolfkiller cloak”? In the second novel of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series, the (still human) Lestat heads out into the woods to kill a pack of wolves that were terrorising his village in 18th c rural France. After barely escaping with his life, the villagers thank him by presenting him with a cloak (and boots!) made with the pelts of the slain wolves. This scene is absolutely iconic, and it’s his wearing the cloak later in Paris that partially attracts the notice of the man who attacks him and makes him a vampire.

Now, because, in the show, they’re not adapting The Vampire Lestat book until season 3, no one was expecting to see anything of Lestat’s 18th c past, let alone THE cloak. But we got a surprise taste in episode 3 of season 2, as part of a 15 minute flashback sequence (entirely in French, too!)

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A trio of teeshirts

My final summer sewing this year came in the form of three separate teeshirts, all in the basic colours (pink is a basic, right??). Please forgive me that I’m not modelling these – I’ve had several utterly awful weeks fighting multiple infections on top of the Long Covid I’ve been fighting for the past 11 months, and I didn’t want to hold up posting about these!

None of these teeshirts took more than an hour of sewing time nor cost more than a tenner, but I guarantee you they’ll last years longer than anything bought at those prices!

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Wolf and bat plushies

Before I delve into my BIG sewing plans for Fall, I’ve got to catch you up on some smaller items I sewed over the summer, including two more plushies. No, I still don’t know any children… 🙃

Wolf:

First up is an adorable little wolf I made using this free pattern by CholyKnight. I just found it after some googling, and tbh this site has SO many free patterns available that I might go back to some others later (eyeing up the Ghibli ones…).