Tag: costume

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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for this shirt, instead using the (slightly) modernised drafting and sewing instructions here which took the original historical documents as the base.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!

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A modern Hamilton Spencer jacket

Settle in, because this is an epic post! Which partially explains why it’s taken me so long to post about this jacket, considering I finished sewing it in mid-December (also partially explained by the grim winter weather making it really difficult to take photos. I eventually gave up and just took some indoor shots instead!)

Our story starts back in 2020 when the Costume Industry Coalition launched a fundraiser for their members who were out of work with the theatres closed in lockdown- the Hamilton Spencer Jacket sewing pattern. I’d link to the pattern but their website domain is 404ing and their Etsy Shop is “taking a break” so I think they might’ve disbanded…? I think I paid around £20 for the pattern, which I viewed more as a donation than anything.

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My Lestat tribute outfit – By Night

Even though I’ve shown you daylight details of the blouse, the pleather trousers, and the bondage necklace I made in tribute to the Lestatc looks seen in the teasers for the upcoming The Vampire Lestat show, I really wanted to do some fun, styled nighttime photos too!

A friend and I did a night shoot when I sewed a full Wolfkiller cloak last fall, and it was so much fun! Plus I ended up loving the night photos even more than the day ones, and it made me wish I’d done a night shoot for the Claudia tribute outfit I sewed in 2023 (maybe I will when I can fit back into it again!)

So my friend Ann and I did my hair and makeup (complete with blue contact lenses and gold hair spray you can barely see!) and traipsed around the neighbourhood one evening…

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Happy Halloween! Fox meets Badger…

We’re not overly enthusiastic when it comes to Halloween, but give us an occasion and my god, we’ll rise to it! So when we found out that our favourite cocktail bars, Merchant House and its sister bar Merchant House of Fleet Street, were going to hold Halloween parties this year with a prize for best costume, we started scheming… After a few weeks deliberation, we decided to go as a fox and a badger, the two mascots of the bars which represent the two owners (who kinda look like a fox and a badger each!).

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A totally 1980s jazzercise costume

Many of you may be frantically planning and plotting what costume to make for Halloween next weekend, but for me, the biggest costumed event of the year was last Friday, at my friend Gez’s 1980s-themed 40th birthday party. Gez has thrown fancy dress parties for years, so I already knew that people would make an effort, but by keeping a small and pared-down wardrobe for myself, I didn’t really have any suitable 80s vintage clothing already. So I knew I”d have to make something from scratch.

I didn’t want to go the full-on Dynasty “hair & shoulder pads” look, so I was a bit stuck until I realised that I could totally do the 1980s Jane Fonda jazzercise look instead! I sometimes have shiny 80s lycra on hand for making early test versions of patterns, but I’d run through all of that in developing the Lightspeed Leggings pattern (poor James!).

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Sew like a sailor, Run like a sailor!

I did indeed finish my peplum top in time to wear it to Karen’s V&A Ballgowns meetup on Friday, even though it meant sewing the hem over breakfast on Friday morning! You can see a sneak peek of it in the top photo on her site, though the peplum itself is hidden by my knees! Fingers crossed I can get a photoshoot done one evening this week, because my weekend was full of other activities…

As I shared with you last week, part of my preparation/reward for my marathon training was to run the Bacchus half marathon this weekend. It’s a half-trail, half-road, fancy dress (costumed) race through a vineyard in Surrey with wine tasting every 2 miles, plus a free glass of wine and hog roast at the end. See why I signed up??


Isn’t it funny that the sailor outfit is the first photoshoot in ages not to occur on a boat??

You’ve probably spotted it already, but the skirt is another Jalie running skirt – this is my third, and this is definitely my go-to for warm weather running bottoms (for cooler weather, you can’t beat the Ooh La Leggings!)

The top/vest/singlet is self drafted from my tweaked knit sloper, plus an added kerchief that I drafted from the sloper’s neckline. The kerchief is double layered, and attached to the neckline by overlocker, with the seam showing on the “right” side, which in this case is hidden under the kerchief. I tacked it down at the shoulders and that was enough to keep the seam hidden. Rather than physically tie a knot on the front ties, I instead made a loop to make it look a bit neater, and the “grabbiness” of the supplex was enough that it didn’t slip at all.

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Sookie Stackhouse Halloween costume

James and I are big fans of the fantastic and fantastically trashy HBO show “True Blood” so this Halloween we decided to dress up as Bon Temps’s psychic waitress Sookie Stackhouse and her 250 year old vampire boyfriend Bill Compton. James’s costume was considerably easier than mine (wear black, put on plastic fangs and fake blood, speak with Southern drawl), but thankfully mine didn’t involve too much effort this year either.

I wanted to recreate Sookie’s most recognisable outfit, the Merlotte’s bar uniform, which consists of black shorts, a tight white teeshirt with the green Merlotte’s logo, and a back bar apron.

As I’ve made clear before, I do not wear shorts. I own one pair that I bought when I was 18, and they don’t get worn outside the moorings. Whatever shorts I made here would be a one-time only garment, so I wanted to make them as simple and easy as possible. Since the October edition of Burda magazine was handy, I traced off #111 and then modified them to make them as simple as possible:

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Grey pyjamas

In continuation of my quest for comfortable pyjamas and tops that can work as pyjamas or casualwear, I’ve made BWOF 12/08 #113 pleated neck tee and KnipMode 03/2007 #11 leggings, which I made once before as pyjama bottoms in the pink retro guitars waffle knit.

The heathered and super soft grey jersey is from my first trip to Goldhawk Road, which I bought for £4 a metre, and it was enough to make both the top and leggings, with enough spare for another top someday, I reckon.