Tag: drafting

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for this shirt, instead using the (slightly) modernised drafting and sewing instructions here which took the original historical documents as the base.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

Gallery

Rockstar Lestat pleather trousers

Following on from my Lestat lawyer blouse, you may have noticed the pleather trousers I wore with it… well these are another homage to Lestat in his rockstar phase in season 3 of Interview with the Vampire (now titled “The Vampire Lestat”, out next year).

I needed something to wear with the lawyer blouse for Halloween, but he’s sitting at a table in the footage so you can’t see what trousers he’s wearing. So I took artistic liberty and decided to sew some tight red trousers similar to ones seen on set and in the press photos.

Gallery

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??

Gallery

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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A Claudia tribute outfit – the cape

After yesterday’s post detailing the inspiration and fabric sourcing for this outfit, today I’d like to talk about the standout piece – the cape!

As I mentioned in the earlier post, I sourced the exterior cape fabric from MacCulloch and Wallis’s Soho shop after finding a few that I liked online. But before I cycled up there, though, I noted that all of my candidate fabrics were a) expensive! and b) 140 or 135cm wide. Because of both of these, I didn’t want to buy too much or too little fabric, so I drafted my pattern pieces first to ensure I only bought exactly what I needed.

I drafted this cape myself, using the same principles of a standard circle skirt, except the “waist” would be my neck, and the length would be my neck to wrist measurement. The fabric width meant I couldn’t get a complete circle, so I kept changing the angle until I could fit it into the 140cm.

Inspiration

Developing the Tenacity Leggings

Thank you all so much for your enthusiasm for our Tenacity Leggings and eBook launch last week! I’ve got so much more to say about both because omg, they were both so much work! but today I wanted to talk a little bit about the development of the Tenacity Leggings pattern.

Throughout 2020 and my 14 months of shielding, I had zero creativity. But then I suddenly got hit with an explosion of it in spring and threw myself into a crazy complicated, advanced pattern. I went through about 4 test muslins but it still wasn’t quite right, and I felt like it wasn’t the right time to focus on it when so many people felt like they couldn’t even get started sewing activewear. So I parked that pattern (hopefully I’ll release it next year!) and started work on a leggings pattern that would be beginner-friendly, but with enough options to keep myself and other intermediate- or advanced-activewear sewists interested, too.