Tag: iwtv

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My windfall of IWTV fabrics

If you’ve been reading here at any point over the past few years, you’ll already know I’m a massive fan of the “Interview with the Vampire” tv show and the books (the latter for over 30 years!). I’ve made myself outfits inspired by Claudia’s NYE outfit, Lestat’s Wolfkiller cloak, his rockstar S3 outfit, and countless HTV teeshirts.

But, being so ill, I’ve not been able to meet any of the cast or creatives, or visit the sets, unlike all my friends, much to my anguish. BUT! There have been a few auctions of the props and costumes used on the show, being sold to regular ol’ fans as well as industry professionals. The first two auctions were in Toronto and limited to people with Ontario credit cards(!) and who could collect in person, but then a third auction popped up in February in the middle of Ireland, of all places!? It seemed to have a random mix of props from the first two seasons (filmed in New Orleans and Prague, respectively), and offcuts of fabrics from the Prague costume shop from Season 2 (who shared duties with a NOLA-based costume dept).

And I managed to win two lots of fabric, for €10 and €20 each!! Though the shipping cost to get these to me was significantly higher than my bids, it could’ve been a lot worse, because Pack and Send Belfast (who were utterly lovely!) drove across the border to collect our lots, packaged everything up, and shipped it out. So at least mine was UK-UK shipping with no customs to deal with.

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A leopard print sling bag

As I’ve started to cycle around London on our friend’s borrowed e-bike, I’ve noticed a problem that I could fix with sewing. Both the borrowed bike and mine (on order) use a Swytch conversion kit, which means the battery can’t be locked to the bike and therefore must be carried with you when you reach your destination. It’s not particularly big or heavy, but it’s bigger than my waist packs, which meant I had to wear a big backpack everywhere, even if there wasn’t really anything in it except the battery!

So I went on the lookout for a bag pattern that was big enough to hold the battery, but is smaller than a backpack, and found the Noodlehead Sandhill Sling bag. I’ve not sewn any Noodlehead patterns before, but I’ve heard good things, and I see why now! It’s a great little pattern and definitely fills a void in pattern offerings.

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A looming head Lara sweatshirt

I’ll be honest – I sewed this sweatshirt mostly as a vessel for a bit of heat transfer vinyl I cut out way too big back in the summer. I wasn’t really thinking of the measurements on a shirt when I cut it out, and was more thinking to just make it as big as the vinyl roll, forgetting that my roll was nearly 24 inches wide instead of A4! So I ended up with a Lestat head (same as on this grey shirt), but absolutely huge – way too big to put on the front of a teeshirt. But I didn’t want to throw it away either, so I figured it’d go nicely on the back instead.

I’ve been meaning to sew the FibreMood Lara sweatshirt for a while now. It’s from the fabulous FibreMood “Essentials” magazine that I’ve sewn so much from already! It’s an oversized sweatshirt with great sleeve seaming, and the option to either sew the fronts and backs as one piece each, or each with princess seaming and a kangaroo pocket. I chose to have the princess seams and kangaroo pocket in the front, but no seaming in the back (so that no seams would interfere with the big vinyl). I selected Size XL based on my bust measurement, but tbh it’s so oversized I could’ve easily gone down a size or two and still been fine.

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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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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.

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The looming face of Lestat on a teeshirt

I keep saying each Interview with the Vampire The Vampire Lestat teeshirt is “going to be my last for a while” but I keep being tempted by new designs! But this time, it really will be the last teeshirt for a while (mumbles something about sewing a replica designer blouse seen in the S3 teaser instead…)

The designs on this shirt are from the set of The Vampire Lestat (IWTV season 3’s new show name) that’s filming right now – extras going to the in-universe gigs were wearing teeshirts with this Lestat head motif on the front, and tour dates on the back – in addition to the shirt with the hands that I’ve already made! So of course I had to complete my set and make this one too!

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A black bamboo Vampire Lestat hands tee

I’ve been planning this shirt for a few weeks, but it was serendipitous that I already had the perfect fabric in my stash – some leftover black bamboo jersey from Fabrics Galore. The 2.5m I bought ended up making my Paris Sucks Versatili-Tank, the Dead Inside tank for my friend AND this tee! So it was excellent value on top of being perfectly soft, and somewhere between a viscose and cotton jersey in terms of weight and drape.

This time around, I printed off a Loose Fitting Top Block from “Sew Your Own Activewear” in size XL (shortened a bit to match the length of the Versatili-Tops, which I prefer). I’d have made a Versatili-Tee again but I knew I wanted wide writing on the back and didn’t want the back seams interfering with the vinyl.

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Two black bamboo vest tops

Ok I didn’t lie when I said in the last post that those were my last vampire shirts for a while… because I already had the vinyl cut and weeded for these by that point, and these were always planned. I just needed to make the shirts for the vinyl to go onto!