Blog

In Progress

Sewing an 18th c shirt

This post is part three of my “making of” series of posts for my 18th c outfit for a friend’s Halloween wedding. If you missed the others, you can read part one, about sewing the 18th c frock coat, and part two, about sewing the 18th c breeches before reading this.

Unlike the other two garments, I actually didn’t use a pattern for this shirt, instead using the (slightly) modernised drafting and sewing instructions here which took the original historical documents as the base. (Though it’s only now as I’m writing up this post that I see Black Snail Patterns have a very similar shirt pattern on their full site which I did NOT see on their Etsy shop?! Honestly, using their pattern would’ve saved me so much stress!! If you’re reading this planning your own outfit, definitely go for the pattern rather than what I did here!)

These instructions give dimensions for all the various rectangles that make up the shirt, only a few of which actually depend on your own body measurements. I used the various rectangles to work out in Adobe Illustrator exactly how much fabric I’d need for a few common widths. So when I went to Fabrics Galore and bought a viscose/linen/elastase mix that was 135cm wide, I knew confidently I could buy 2m and have very little leftover.

In Progress

Sewing the 18th c breeches

This post is a continuation of the “making of” the three garments in my 18th century costume for a friend’s Halloween wedding, so be sure to read the post on sewing the 18th c frock coat to get all the context!

As I mentioned with the frock coat, the options for men’s patterns of this era are just a sea of awful pirate costumes, so I was thankful to find Black Snail Patterns’ “Late 18th c men’s breeches” pattern as it’s got the right historical details and is drafted to be an actual garment rather than just a “silly halloween costume” (my experiences with Big Four Halloween costume patterns have been they’re extremely poor quality). Since it’s a men’s pattern, I chose size 42 for me based on my hip measurement (I’m 40 in the waist but these breeches have eyelets to cinch in anyway).

There were, however, some interesting drafting choices in this pattern, which, while historically accurate, were not the look I was going for!

In Progress

Sewing an 18th c frock coat

Thanks to your input, I’m posting about this complicated, several-months-long, three garment 18th century outfit a little differently than usual. In the past, I’d take notes as I sewed, but then wait until everything was completed before posting the final outfit photoshoot, then sharing all the “making of” details afterwards. But as this is all for a friend’s wedding in Ireland on Halloween, I wouldn’t be able to even start sharing everything until mid-November, and you told me you didn’t want to wait that long to hear all about the sewing! So I’m posting the details of the muslins and sewing of each garment now, and I’ll share the final photoshoot of the full outfit when we’re back from the wedding.

The impetus for the idea to make a full late 18th c men’s costume for myself came partly because our friend’s are getting married on Halloween and encouraging fancy dress (costumes), but also because I won 7 huge abstract violin brocade panels from the IWTV props auction in Feb/March. And this seemed like the most perfect use for the fabric!

Gallery

A palate-cleansing navy Bang Bang tee

Though you haven’t seen it yet, I’ve just sewn three very complicated garments in a row for my Halloween costume this year which meant that I was absolutely gasping for a “quick knit top” palate cleanser by the time I’d finished! I cannot wait to show you the complicated historical Halloween garments – you’ve voted for me to share my “making of” posts ahead of the big photoshoot, so I’m prepping those now.

I’d bought 1m of navy blue organic cotton elastane jersey from Fabrics Galore in July for £15 for the purpose of making a teeshirt with the cherry glitter HTV I’d vectorised around the same time. It looks like they’ve sold out of the navy colourway, but some other colours are still in stock, including black. It’s a perfect teeshirt weight with great recovery, and I’d definitely buy more in future!

Gallery

A pale blue buttondown shirt

Furthering my quest to find the perfect buttondown shirt to be the base pattern for Lestat’s pink silk shirt (and his rust velvet shirt too), I’ve moved on to another Burda magazine pattern in my stash – 09/2024 no101. This pattern is a pretty basic buttondown shirt with bust darts, back yoke & pleats, collar, and long cuffs. It’s also got added ties at the neck that are just topstitched in place, but I omitted these.

I used a pale blue linen/cotton(? Again, it’s all natural fibres in a burn test but hard to narrow down definitely) from the IWTV props auction. This piece was a full 2m and miraculously without any holes, and the pattern took nearly all of it. I’d bought some pale blue shell buttons at my last trip to MacCulloch & Wallis, which are a perfect match.

Gallery

A misty trees day dress

I bought the Itch to Stitch Sentosa Tank pattern a year or two ago and got it printed in A0 while I was sick. I even managed to cut out a size 20 but then I missed the warm weather and never sewed it. It’s got a wonderful asymmetric, pleated neckline that really appealed to me, though!

But we’ve had an incredibly hot summer here in London, and I was looking for a quick knit project to sew in between a boring muslin and a paid commission, so I pulled it out. The cut size was way too large, so I found my current size (10!) and recut it in size 10, though I had to reprint the facings to get the bits that were cut off.

Earlier this year, I bought a “Misty Trees” 1.5yd panel print from Sew Dynamic on their great and super soft Dri Release T-Shirt base (USD$39.00 total). But I wanted to take advantage of the full gradient of the print so I thought I’d extend the tank into a short summer dress so I lengthened the side seams straight down by 40cm (15 3/4in).

Gallery

A grey shirt with big shoulder energy

When I was looking for potential candidate patterns for Lestat’s pink silk satin blouse (worn with the corset in ep1), I came across Burda 06/22 no113, which looked like it had potential. On top of being a pretty standard button-down shirt pattern, it also had deep pleats across the shoulders which I thought might give me the look of broader shoulders that the actor has. The only thing the pattern didn’t have that I needed was an invisible button placket. Strangely, the ONLY pattern in my stash to have one was from Burda 12/23 no106 so I grafted that onto the other pattern.

Then I needed a fabric to create a wearable muslin from. I didn’t have a plan for a ~1.8m cut of dove grey cotton(? a burn test indicated it’s entirely natural fibres) shirting from the IWTV props auction so it seemed like a good use for it here. The colour is pretty drab, and I thought about adding some fluorescent stitching details to liven it up a bit but ultimately decided against it. I traced both patterns in size 44 and it was easy to frankenpattern the invisible placket on by just aligning the Centre Fronts.

Gallery

Striped Lestat linen trousers

Yes, it’s another garment inspired by the vampire show! Get used to it though, because I have a lot more of these planned over the next few months – I can’t help it that Lestat’s modern wardrobe was incredible this season as well as being SO wearable!

There’s a particular pair of striped trousers that Lestat wears in episode 3 while he’s being interviewed for Daniel’s documentary that I absolutely loved. It’s paired with a burnt orange velvet shirt (and the necklace I made last year!) which I’ve also got plans to sew later this year. A post by the lead costumemaker showed that the trousers were actually part of a full striped suit, but the jacket wasn’t actually seen in the show so I’m glad I don’t feel compelled to make that too.

Gallery

A grey & neon Lestat Rest Vest

Apologies for the lack of updates over here recently – I’ve actually been doing lots of sewing and living, but not much blogging! Part of that is because I’ve sewn a few things that are incompatible with the super hot & dry summer we’ve been having in London and I don’t really fancy doing photoshoots of trousers and long sleeved shirts!

But I thought I’d share a quick little project I made a few weeks ago… We had tickets with some friends to see an outdoor Super Furry Animals & Beta Band concert up at Ally Pally in north London, and I wanted to wear something sleeveless for the heat. The concert itself was fabulous – The Beta Band literally played my dream setlist (only songs from The Three EPs plus “Squares”) and SFA played all their greatest hits, and there was tons of shade and space to sit and a truly extravagent array of food trucks!

But back to the top I sewed for it…

Gallery

A slate blue Revel Topper

Now that I’ve got all my fabrics from the Interview with the Vampire props auction prewashed and catalogued, I’m doing my best to try and sew through them, especially the ones more suited to summer garments, like the cargo trousers I made recently (also worn here). But it’s also been brutally hot here in London, which limited my sewing time and energy, so once it finally cooled down I ended up sewing this in an afternoon!

The fabric here is a steel blue textured viscose from the props auction. It was unusual in that it actually had a fabric store label on it detailing the fibre content, so I can confidently say it is 100% viscose instead of just guessing from a burn test. This piece was like most of them, in that it had about 1.5m with a portion cut out but included. This was a more usual yardage amount to work with, unlike the odd shape of the cargo trouser linen, and it was enough to cut this pattern without too much Tetrising. It takes a press nicely and is a great weight for tops with lovely drape, but it does fray a lot so I’m glad that the pattern instructions includeed finishes for all raw edges (a mix of overlocking, french seams, and facings).