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!
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).
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??
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!
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. 😂
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…
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!)
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!
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… 🙃
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…).
Multiple apologies for taking so long to post about these (both!). 11 months in and I’m still struggling massively with Long Covid, not just sewing in small bursts, but also less keen to take photos, or have the energy to sit up to write blog posts, etc… Anyway, I startred these jeans back in June, had them mostly finished before we went to Brittany in early July, and then they’ve been just waiting for a photoshoot for like a month. And yeah, I know these photos are weirdly dark and foggy but forgive me for not caring enough to retake them. I hate looking in the mirror or looking at photos while I’m sick, so I really don’t want to make this blog post wait any longer!
I haven’t been able to fit into any of my jeans since I got covid last September, so it was high time I filled that hole in my wardrobe, anticipating the cooler weather around the corner.
While many of my tops from before Covid still fit me, the same cannot be said for trousers or shorts. I haven’t been able to fit into my jeans (which were hardly tight pre-Covid!) since last Fall, and I really only have three pairs of trousers that fit comfortably, all of which I’ve made in the past few months.
None of my previous shorts fit at all, though, so with summer approaching I found myself in desperate need of sewing some more. We had a brief warm spell in May or June (? time has no meaning anymore) so I got my old favourite Closet Core Pietra pattern printed again. I’m sure you’re sick of hearing about this pattern by now, as I believe these are my 5th and 6th pairs of the shorts version alone! And this isn’t even counting the pairs of Pietra trousers I’ve made…
Even though my Long Covid means I’m unable to exercise or develop new patterns (as well as other work), I obviously still have a very keen interest in activewear so I was delighted and intrigued to get the chance to try out the new Cashmerette Wickham Skort pattern that was released this month to their Cashmerette Club members.
It’s a pattern for close-fitting, cycling shorts with an optional side pocket (similar to our Duathlon Shorts pattern), plus a skirt with a wide waistband. You’ve also got the option to sew them separately or together in the form of a skort. Since being stuck in bed ~20hrs a day for the past 9 months has caused my waist to be 20+cm larger than before, I can no longer fit into any of my previously shorts or trousers. We’ve got a short holiday in France coming up and I thought that this skort would be a nice option just for casualwear this summer even if I can’t exercise yet.
