I was Born in Winter '81

I post and reblog anything I find of interest, but I'm largely focused on crafting/sewing, thrifting and goth and extreme metal subcultures. I've been an alternative weirdo since the 90s! She/her, 44, UK, married, childfree, cishet, a-spec, bookworm with a literature degree, vegan and general nerd.

[borninwinter81]

About me

I thought I should make a pinned post which is slightly more in depth than my bio concerning general interests as I seem to have gained a few followers, and in case any of them have a wish to know!  This is not definitive and will likely get added to over time when I have the thought “how could I possibly have forgotten X”.

Music:          Devin Townsend/Strapping Young Lad/Casualties of Cool Ulver Alcest Agalloch Gojira Cattle Decapitation It’s a safe bet that I’ll probably enjoy anything which could be labelled post-punk or goth, particularly if it originates in the 80s or 90s. Ditto for 90s metal (reminds me of my teen years!) Most classic rock from the 70s or 80s (my parents brought me up on this) Industrial and aggrotech. Classical music, including opera 1950s and 60s rock and roll Many genres of extreme metal, like black metal, death metal, funeral doom, goregrind etc.

Recently a friend has been getting into Black Metal having never listened to it before, and it's been causing me to rediscover my love of that genre as well as find a few new artists that I've never heard before 😁

Authors:  Edgar Allan Poe (also fits under poets) Terry Pratchett Neil Gaiman Stephen King Joe Hill JRR Tolkien Robin Hobb Brian Lumley Clive Barker Way too many more to count – I read A LOT

Poets: William Blake (see my Good Omens/Blake posts here and here) Samuel Taylor Coleridge John Milton Christina Rosetti Walt Whitman

Shakespeare plays (having a literature degree, I feel like I should know more Shakespeare, nonetheless the ones I am familiar with I absolutely love): Hamlet (loved it since the Mel Gibson version, and I have seen many since!) Macbeth Richard II (not only because of David Tennant, but also Fiona Shaw, hers was the first version I saw of it). A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Movies:  12 Monkeys Bladerunner Subspecies movie series Nightbreed (Cabal Cut for preference!) Dredd (2012) Only Lovers Left Alive Pan’s Labyrinth (honestly anything by Del Toro really, but this one especially!) Donnie Darko Franklyn The Green Mile Dark City One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Schindler's List Mad Max: Fury Road (the others too, but this is my favourite) Again, loads more than I’m not listing, I love movies

TV Shows: Good Omens The Sandman Star Trek (all versions, but particularly TNG and DS9) Farscape Blake's 7 Classic Dr Who (I do like the new stuff, but pre-Eccleston will always be my favourite, it's probably a nostalgia thing) Spartacus Black Sails Sharpe Robin of Sherwood

General interests:            Charity shops/thrift store shopping Sewing Crochet General DIY/crafting as the mood takes me, particularly customising items that I buy at charity shops Pencil sketching (relearning to do this, I used to be pretty good when in school!) Tattoos/piercings

[borninwinter81]

Edgar Allan Poe crochet doll

I'm still madly crocheting, and within the past week I've finished a crochet doll of Edgar Allan Poe. My desire to make one initially came from seeing an instagram reel someone had made which featured pictures of a crocheted Poe coupled with someone reading Annabel Lee. At first I loved it, then when I read the text I found out it was AI generated.

This irked me so much that I decided I had to make a real one. Unfortunately the patterns I found were not great, so finally I decided to do my own.

I cannot take credit for the doll body, this was created by mashing up the patterns for several different doll bases that I found. The elements which are mine are the cuffs, the necktie, and the coat which was completely freehanded. I had no idea how to crochet doll clothes as I'd never done it before, so I drew on my experience of sewing to draft the pattern, then I just made the coat pieces using that drafted pattern as a guide, periodically holding the pieces against it to make sure they were the right shape.

I'm particularly proud of the hair, which was made by pulling bits of yarn through the stitches of the head, knotting it and then untwisting the strands. The real Poe had hair that was usually combed out flat on top but still curly at the sides, so I tried to mimic this by brushing out the yarn with a pet slicker brush only on the top, but leaving it unbrushed and "curly" at the sides. Taking a tip from a friend I also used a felting needle to make it sit in the position I wanted.

The skull and raven I've pictured him with are from patterns by Complicated Knots on youtube.

[borninwinter81]

Aww, this post of my Poe dolly just came across my feed and I wanted to share him again as I'm super proud of how he turned out.

[borninwinter81]

A reminder: Terry Pratchett's work was dark as hell

Something that I've seen in a large number of criticisms of Good Omens S3 is that Terry Pratchett wouldn't have written it that way because it's "too dark", and that Terry was lighthearted and funny, and clearly all the humour in the novel came from him and all the dark bits came from Gaiman.

This is an old misconception which has been around since the publication of the novel, and I think the people saying that possibly aren't very familiar with Terry Pratchett's work, or at least only surface level familiar. At times it can be easy to miss because of the humour, but Terry did dark better than almost any author I've ever read.

The first time I read this passage in Nation it was like being hit in the face with a brick.

Nation is a book that I've seen negative reviews of because it isn't funny, and they're correct, how could a novel which opens with almost all the inhabitants of an island being killed be funny? But it's also one of his best novels. It feels very much like a novel he wrote to house all the rage he felt after his Alzheimers diagnosis, a rage which is palpable in that quote above.

But to go back to his more humour driven works, read the section in Reaper Man where Death can't muffle the sound of the sand in his Lifetimer running out. Read Night Watch where Vimes is going through the torture chamber at Cable Street (actually the whole of Night Watch is pretty damn dark). The opening of I Shall Wear Midnight (which I won't go into because TW, but some of what happens is so horrific in a very real-world sense that I couldn't quite believe I was reading it, especially in what was intended as a series for children). The part in Thud where The Summoning Dark meets The Guarding Dark, Vimes' inner Watchman, who is there not to keep darkness out, but to keep Vimes own darkness inside. Many other instances.

Make no mistake, I still don't like how Good Omens ended. I think it highly unlikely it would have ended that way if Terry were to have had anything to do with it because he was a far better writer than that (though of course none of us know that for sure, and even if he had written it that exact way it would still be bad and absolutely gut the message of the novel/S1).

But to say Terry Pratchett didn't write dark shit does a huge disservice to one of my favourite authors of some of the darkest shit I've ever read.

[hey-must-be-a-devilbetween-us]

and another thing, the premise of them annihilating themselves from existence and memory and just creating a universe that has 'true free will' makes no sense.

That's....the joke? That's the joke! Of the Book! That's the entire premise!

Everyone already does!

ITS FUNNY because demons and angels NEVER DID have any influence over them AT ALL.

Except them! And they were the best parts! Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Sword Aziraphale gave to humanity that Them used to stop the apocalypse! Because they loved the world! and THAT WAS FREE WILL. Crowley and Aziraphale GAVE THEM FREE WILL!

What was the point of stopping the apocalypse the first time if it doesn't fucking matter???

The mission statement of this narrative was that Crowley and Aziraphale wanted to live, and be free, (and love each other) because that's what they deserved, simply because they exist, from an ethical standpoint how can anyone say they didn't deserve to exist?

How is it not incredibly out of character that the two beings who were TERRIFIED of having to spend eternity away from each other just...sacrifice themselves? For nothing.

That the world in which they existed doesn't matter? Because you can go ahead and throw away the whole 'the world they made after was better' because its literally not! They already had what this facsimile of Crowley is saying they didn't. It retcons the entire premise.

What happened to 'you shouldn't test them to destruction'? What happened to Aziraphale saying he couldn't just leave the humans to fend for themselves? They just gave up! The earth was still destroyed! Everybody still died! It's literally is Jobs children!

Death isn't freedom, its just death.

[iforgiveyouprime]

PLS. LOUDER.

[itsineffhazbinle]

It was supposed to be a lighthearted parody of religious concepts like free will but it ended up "preaching" the same religious moral concepts of self sacrificing your life to god in hopes of a better world.

[iforgiveyouprime]

*sigh* exactly. That's why I'm so fucking disappointed...

[idonthaveany]

And, in the book, Az and Crowley showed that, while demons and angels weren't supposed to have free will ("you can't be a demon and have free will" probably not verbatim, but that's the point of that quote), they still took it! Az chooses to enjoy earthly pleasures (which is a sin), and is enough of a bastard; Crowley chooses to be kind. And Adam, who choses not to be the son of Satan anymore.

So in the book not only people had free will already, but it is also made clear that even angels and demons -- that were not supposed to have it -- had free will!

At the end, everybody has free will in the book. This whole "let's destroy the whole universe so we can create another where people has free will" is utter bullshit

[borninwinter81]

I found a Phaze dress for £5!

I'm not sure how many people outside the UK are aware of Phaze, but they're a goth/alt clothing brand established in 1986 and in the 90s/Y2K era they were pretty big. They are still around today but tend to get overshadowed by other brands.

I guess they're fairly similar to Lip Service in the kind of clothing they put out.

Back in the day (around 2000) I owned several pieces of Phaze clothing, including my first ever corset, a PVC skirt and some PVC jeans.

I saw this dress today in a charity shop. The label tells me not only is it Phaze, but it's authentic Y2K era as they've changed their logo since then and no longer have their own website. Apologies for the awkward photo, I had to take pics of the front and back separately.

And here's the dress itself, both on my body and on a hanger as my bedroom lighting doesn't show all the details very well.

I could not have asked for a better fit.

Given the popularity of 90s and Y2K gothic clothing this kind of dress could easily be sold for £60 on Vinted or Depop. It was unbelievably lucky that the staff didn't realise what they had, and I saw it before anyone else did!

[borninwinter81]

Good Omens S3 - my problem with it

I should state I have not seen it yet but I'm terrible for spoilering myself. This is based on the written plot line I've found online. I'm also not sure how to tag spoilers so I'm putting everything under a cut instead.

My understanding is that the show concludes with the universe being destroyed and recreated "better".

Wasn't that exactly what Adam tried to do in series 1 and in the book? Wasn't that going to be the whole original apocalypse? Isn't that the same kind of thing as killing everyone in a flood because God was unhappy with her creation? Or Job's children dying but him being given different ones? Why was that bad previously but somehow OK in series 3?

Also retconning an entire series in such a way that nothing in the series ever actually happened is something I fucking despise. I hated it in the newer Star Trek movies when they created a time paradox that meant nothing in any previous series or movies had happened and I therefore don't accept those movies as canon.

And the kinda happy ending - yes OK it sounds like they're sort of together in a way, but multiverse, different version of the same character type of stuff is difficult to pull off in a way that's satisfying because those aren't *your* characters anymore. It worked in The Dark Tower books, because it was established very early on that the characters were in a multiverse where infinite different versions of themselves existed, and in certain circumstances those different versions are able to remember what's happened to them in another life. So they still are those same characters in a way, the ones you are invested in.

At the time series 2 was released I enjoyed it, and being back with those characters was a joy, but at the same time I acknowledged that it was extremely badly written and had nowhere near the scope and awesomeness of series 1.

I was holding out hope that one of the "it was badly written on purpose and all this will become clear in series 3" theories would prove true. But it doesn't sound like this was the case.

Maybe I'm being very unfair to it, having not even seen it yet. If I'm misunderstanding something feel free to correct my assumptions.

I probably will still watch it at some point, but I strongly suspect it's going to end up being a "the first Highlander movie is the only one" kind of scenario for me.

[borninwinter81]

Freezing fog photography

I think I've shared these pictures on here before (I still use one as the header on my page) but it was just after I opened my account and I didn't have many followers so I wanted to share again.

These were all taken on 9 January 2021. That morning my town was covered in a thick blanket of freezing fog.

I am not a good photographer by any means, but that morning getting beautiful photos was effortless. The only thing I'd change is removing the rubbish bin from the foreground on the first one, since it's the brightest element it unfortunately draws the eye!

No fancy equipment, these were all taken with my phone and no editing or filters have been used, this is exactly how the world looked that morning.

That round speck in the sky on the third and last pictures? That's the sun if you can believe it. This was the only instance in my life where I can remember being able to look directly at the sun.

[mosswormartstudio]

I was making these little pendant pins over the winter 🧷 🌱 🐟 teeeeeny little block carvings on em

[orpheuslament]

do any of you guys remember that sculpture of theseus & the minotaur that lowkey looks like theseus is riding the minotaur like his life depends on it

[gutsheapofrawiron]

this one?

[justfriendsbestthings]

Is the lowkey in the room with us?

[glitched-eyes]

Saw this when I was in London this summer, I stopped my friend to point at it and said "holy shit it's the statue of Theseus fucking the Minotaur" in the middle of the very busy museum.

[vblaqk]

Antonio Canova, Theseum and the Minotaur, 1782.

The original marble is currently on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

[borninwinter81]

Winter Coat Project

Every year I seem to go on a quest to find the perfect winter coat, and every year I kinda fail. The ones that I feel look good, that are my personal aesthetic are usually not warm enough, whilst the ones that are practical, cosy and warm generally look very utilitarian.

The natural solution for a creative person like me is to make my own, so I found a pattern I liked which I thought had potential on etsy:

And here's the link

I'm sure many of you will have seen these kind of patterns before, but it comes as a downloadable pdf which includes instructions for printing and sewing, plus the pattern itself which you can print either on A4 paper at home, or you can take to a print shop if you want to print it on larger paper which is slightly less work.

The pattern includes all sizes from XS to 4XL meaning you can print out as many as you like in as many different sizes as you want, so you can make them for family and friends, or to sell, as you wish. There are detailed instructions for how to take your measurements and a sizing chart so you can compare the size you usually wear and make sure its OK.

You also get a page with a square like this which you can print on its own first to check scaling. Some printer settings will scale down a pdf which would mean all your pattern pieces would come out the wrong size. If this square measures 5 x 5 cm then you're good

Here is how it looked when it was taped together. This isn't difficult to do, just somewhat laborious, but this pattern had coloured and numbered dots in the corners of each page so you know you're putting the right bits together. That missing corner didn't include any pattern so I didn't bother sticking it on!

You can't really see anything on this large shot so here are some close ups of the hood and sleeve pieces

For the most part I got the lines to match up really well. With a pattern like this you might get some bits that aren't perfect but if you're careful you'll only be off by millimetres. This kind of thing was the worst I had to contend with, and you can fix that when you cut.

Plus you have a seam allowance (the inner line is the "sew" line) so that gives some wiggle room for slight mismatching.

The only other thing you need to watch out for is making sure everything is taped together well enough that it won't fall apart. You don't have to totally plaster it with tape, you just need to make sure the pieces will remain where they're supposed to be when you cut them out. You'll also need quite a lot of tape, probably more than you think, especially if you want to turn it over and tape the wrong side together too. Not strictly necessary, but it stops the paper edges sticking out awkwardly on the back and getting caught on things.

Now it's all cut out it looks like this (there's one piece missing from this shot, I accidentally put the pocket facing in my rubbish pile but I saved it in time!)

The front and the hood have separate pieces for the lining and the outer because they have facings (those thin strips), but for the back and arms you use the same pattern pieces.

Comparing this to clothing I've made from patterns before it looks like the construction will be pretty simple. Inserting the pockets will probably be the biggest challenge, but even that shouldn't be hard.

I will check in again when I've decided on fabric. For the outer I'm thinking heavy cotton velvet or similar. For the lining I'm going to use fleece or faux fur, or maybe even both for a double-lined super warm coat! I'll just have to be careful that my sewing machine can handle whatever fabric I decide to throw at it!

[borninwinter81]

I've bought some liner fabric. This is pre-quilted so it's perfect for a coat like this - nice and warm, but not too thick so should be ok to go through the sewing machine. It's also velvet effect so will be soft and comfortable to wear.

It's reading quite pink on camera but is much redder in person.

Its 140cm wide so folded across the width there is more than enough. This is 2 metres.

As it's for the lining the direction of the grain doesn't really matter so I can turn some pieces upside down to make them fit better. I'll need to reposition these slightly as I'll need 4 pocket pieces not 2, but you can see there's plenty of room to do that.

I will update again when I've picked an outer fabric!

[borninwinter81]

Tote bag back patch

I saw Blackbraid live recently (Manchester UK) and following the show I decided I wanted to start a new battle vest with a large Blackbraid back patch. I've had a rough couple of months and that incredible night helped me forget about everything for a while. Seriously, after the show I was like Max in Stranger Things, constantly listening to his music to remind me how great that night was so Vecna wouldn't get me.

Now it's obviously perfectly fine and valid to make your own band patches, however because this show was so special to me I wanted to support the artist. Plus he's still fully independent, not on a label, so to my mind supporting the artist is even more important.

Though the official site did not have a back patch in a design I liked, it did have a tote bag. I thought one of those should be about the right size and very easy to cut up and turn into a back patch.

Yes to both

I cut out the printed graphic, hemmed the edges by folding them down and ironing them, and stiffened it slightly with some iron-on interfacing (not strictly necessary but the fabric was quite thin so I thought it was a good idea to strengthen it somewhat). Then I just pinned it on and sewed using my sewing machine (another advantage to having thinner fabric, and not a thick woven patch).

The take away: anything that is on fabric can be turned into a patch, be it a bag, a tea towel, some patterned fabric, or the print from a t-shirt that's damaged, doesn't fit or just doesn't look good on you.

Bonus: my entire Blackbraid vinyl collection, plus my tour shirt and a small patch that I also got:

[gracieellenhazel]

Some recent animal bone finds. The large bone in the second picture is a cow jaw bone. A few people have said it's a horse bone but I'm pretty sure cow. :) the other ones are all deer

[borninwinter81]

Autumn / Fall / Halloween jacket

I think I may I have shared this ages ago when it was in its very early days but as I've added a lot more to it I thought it worth sharing again.

I got super into crochet again at the end of last year so quite a few of these are granny squares and applique. I'll share the tutorials I used if i can find them again.

There are a few of my alphabet sticker and spray paint ones for when I wanted lettering, and there are a few which I found from image searching and then printing them onto printer transfer paper. I know that's kind of uncool when it's someone else's art, but if it's for personal use and I'm not making any money from them I think that's more acceptable. Plus they were all public domain that came straight up on Google image searches and weren't watermarked in any way.

I'm happy to credit the artists and make a kofi donation or similar if anyone knows who they are.

Close ups of the front:

A snail granny square and a leaf charm that I glued onto the pocket button. Snail tutorial here

On the other pocket a spider granny square and a flower charm on the button. Because of the colour scheme I didn't want the spider to be black, so this is a brown/orange garden spider.

Unfortunately I can't find the tutorial for this one, but there are hundreds of spider granny squares on youtube and other sites.

A basic sunflower which I don't feel I need to post the tutorial for as this is a very standard pattern, and some leaves. These were so quick and fun to make that I did a small pile of them.

I did save the link for the tutorial for these, but it looks like it has been removed from YouTube.

However, I also I wrote it down so if anyone wants it please say so and I'll put it in the comments. Again there are hundreds of leaf tutorials out there but this is my absolute favourite as it gives such a perfect shape and is so quick and fun to do. All credit to the original designer.

A snowflake which is more winter than autumn but I still think it fits. Again I can't find this specific tutorial again but there are lots of snowflake granny square tutorials around.

More leaves, a little mushroom man that I used the iron-on transfer paper for, and a pumpkin granny square (which could also be mistaken for an apple or a tomato!). The tutorial for this one is here and the same video also includes the mushroom/toadstool below.

Also the octopus pin is merch from Devin Townsend one of my favourite musicians and the animal button badges are from a shop I visited in York called Rookscroft. The lady who runs the shop writes Beatrix Potter/Wind in the Willows type stories about animals and she illustrates the stories herself. The button here has a flat bead from a necklace glued to it.

These are on the shoulders, the toad is from Rookscroft as well (here's their online store) and the pigeon is from Katie Whittle (her store here)

This is another printer transfer paper patch with some crochet applique lavender. Tutorial for this one is here but I did modify it slightly.

Ulver is another of my favourite bands and this is artwork for the album Shadows of the Sun. The beads are all broken jewellery pieces, the same toad from Rookscroft but in badge form because I love frogs and toads, and the wooden badge is Baba Yaga's hut. I got it from a craft fair and I was so pleased and surprised to find it as I love Baba Yaga but I feel like the stories aren't super popular or well known.

Close ups of the back:

The quote patches are made with my spray paint and alphabet sticker method - basically you buy a packet of really cheap alphabet stickers (pound shops, dollar stores etc. often have them) stick them to a piece of fabric and then spray paint or fabric paint with a sponge over the top, wait to dry then peel off. These are both quotes from The Goblin Market by Christina Rosetti, so it felt appropriate to have the witchy dancing ladies between them. This is another transfer paper one.

All on transfer paper. Top left is a photo I took myself. There hasn't been any editing or filters added to it, this was a day when we had freezing fog in my town and everything looked weird and spooky. Another of these photos is the header on my page.

Then we've got a mushroom, (again my own photo) a bat that looks like a jammy donut, and a picture of a lamppost with ivy or something growing over it, which makes it look like some sort of tree spirit. Neither of those pics are mine, I've seen them both shared a ton online and I thought they'd fit really well.

The large back patch is of the Horned God (Herne or Cernunnos). I'm not a pagan but Herne was a character in the TV show Robin of Sherwood which made a huge impact on me as a child, so I added a quote from the show to this one.

Lastly this is just a big piece of Halloween fabric. It will probably get more patches added over the top in time but at the moment I've just got this one which is a William Blake quote from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

[borninwinter81]

Winter Coat Project

Every year I seem to go on a quest to find the perfect winter coat, and every year I kinda fail. The ones that I feel look good, that are my personal aesthetic are usually not warm enough, whilst the ones that are practical, cosy and warm generally look very utilitarian.

The natural solution for a creative person like me is to make my own, so I found a pattern I liked which I thought had potential on etsy:

And here's the link

I'm sure many of you will have seen these kind of patterns before, but it comes as a downloadable pdf which includes instructions for printing and sewing, plus the pattern itself which you can print either on A4 paper at home, or you can take to a print shop if you want to print it on larger paper which is slightly less work.

The pattern includes all sizes from XS to 4XL meaning you can print out as many as you like in as many different sizes as you want, so you can make them for family and friends, or to sell, as you wish. There are detailed instructions for how to take your measurements and a sizing chart so you can compare the size you usually wear and make sure its OK.

You also get a page with a square like this which you can print on its own first to check scaling. Some printer settings will scale down a pdf which would mean all your pattern pieces would come out the wrong size. If this square measures 5 x 5 cm then you're good

Here is how it looked when it was taped together. This isn't difficult to do, just somewhat laborious, but this pattern had coloured and numbered dots in the corners of each page so you know you're putting the right bits together. That missing corner didn't include any pattern so I didn't bother sticking it on!

You can't really see anything on this large shot so here are some close ups of the hood and sleeve pieces

For the most part I got the lines to match up really well. With a pattern like this you might get some bits that aren't perfect but if you're careful you'll only be off by millimetres. This kind of thing was the worst I had to contend with, and you can fix that when you cut.

Plus you have a seam allowance (the inner line is the "sew" line) so that gives some wiggle room for slight mismatching.

The only other thing you need to watch out for is making sure everything is taped together well enough that it won't fall apart. You don't have to totally plaster it with tape, you just need to make sure the pieces will remain where they're supposed to be when you cut them out. You'll also need quite a lot of tape, probably more than you think, especially if you want to turn it over and tape the wrong side together too. Not strictly necessary, but it stops the paper edges sticking out awkwardly on the back and getting caught on things.

Now it's all cut out it looks like this (there's one piece missing from this shot, I accidentally put the pocket facing in my rubbish pile but I saved it in time!)

The front and the hood have separate pieces for the lining and the outer because they have facings (those thin strips), but for the back and arms you use the same pattern pieces.

Comparing this to clothing I've made from patterns before it looks like the construction will be pretty simple. Inserting the pockets will probably be the biggest challenge, but even that shouldn't be hard.

I will check in again when I've decided on fabric. For the outer I'm thinking heavy cotton velvet or similar. For the lining I'm going to use fleece or faux fur, or maybe even both for a double-lined super warm coat! I'll just have to be careful that my sewing machine can handle whatever fabric I decide to throw at it!

[borninwinter81]

One of my proudest creations

Many years old at this point however I've never shared it on here because I haven't kept any good photos. However today I was having a rare scroll through Facebook memories and this came up

At the time of making this I'd had a desire for many years to make an 18th century style "Lestat" coat from Interview with the Vampire (1994 movie inspired, as my username says, I was born in the winter of '81 and that movie was one of those pivotal ones from my teenage years like The Crow or Bram Stoker's Dracula). And of course I love the books (though she's kinda problematic in many ways I still have a huge soft spot for Anne Rice).

My wish was finally realised when I saw this blue fabric in my local fabric store. It was a roll-end so it was being sold by weight. It was something like £30 and for that I got nearly 7 metres. It's a very heavy velvet curtain fabric so it hung and draped beautifully. (Protip: curtain and upholstery fabrics are great for this kind of project, much better than cotton or lightweight stretch velvet).

I did need almost all of that - it's not immediately apparent from the photo but this is a full-skirted frock coat so when spread out the bottom half is almost a complete circle.

This was the pattern I used. It's clearly intended for a Jack Sparrow cosplay but that meant it was a lot cheaper than any "historically accurate" patterns I found, and the pattern included the coat, waistcoat/vest, shirt, and trousers. I did make all of them eventually.

Pirates of the Caribbean is set a few decades earlier than Interview with the Vampire so strictly speaking the coat isn't quite right (full skirted frock coats had gone out of fashion in the late 1700s and the ones worn in France or New Orleans at that time tended to be a lot more closely fitted to the body), but I just preferred this style, and I thought Lestat probably would too 😁

The gold trim around the edges had foil thread running through it and was too delicate to be machine sewn so I stitched it on by hand (also using foil thread which is an absolute arsehole to work with).

Another challenge was that the pattern didn't include lining. I really wanted it lined because it was uncomfortable without it, plus it looked unfinished with all the inner seams visible. So, I rigged a lining together from the same pattern pieces used for the outer part of the coat and figured out a way to insert it so it looked vaguely neat. You can't see much of it in the photo, but it was a bright yellow-gold colour.

The most expensive part was the buttons which was kind of irritating as they're totally decorative (again the style of the time, frock coats were always open to show the waistcoat underneath). In addition to the 6 on the front there were 2 at the back on the waistline and then 3 miniature versions on each cuff and faux pocket. I don't remember the exact cost, but they were more expensive than the blue fabric.

I don't have this coat any longer (I think I only wore it 3 times in total), and it has now been sold to a young friend who loves the movie but is *obsessed* with the TV show. However this is still the sewing creation I am most proud of.

Bonus: here's a photo of me cosplaying as Lestat. A rare period when my hair was naturally coloured rather than dyed black, and I'd put it in rag curls and I'm wearing blue contact lenses. I'd also attempted to do masculine contouring with my makeup, though I'm not sure how visible that is.

I'm not wearing the frock coat here obviously, but I do have on the waistcoat and shirt I also made.

[ufansius]

The Skull of St. Valentine - Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome.

[borninwinter81]

Fixing some coat cuffs

I've been looking for a full length faux leather coat for quite a long time, and by chance I found one yesterday in a charity shop for £12.99. A little expensive for a charity shop, but I was told it was brand new.

It fit perfectly and I liked everything about it except for the sleeves, which were too short and gathered at the cuffs which made them look foofy and stupid.

However I was fairly sure I could fix them, so I bought it anyway.

First of all I unpicked all the stitching around the existing cuff, took that off, and undid the gathering stitches.

The arms were then far too wide so I narrowed them a little along the underside seam (not photographed).

I had a faux leather skirt in my wardrobe which I never wear and had decided to cannibalise in order to make new cuffs. I cut two long wide strips from the hem so I could use the existing stitching along the hem for the bottom of the cuffs and save myself some work. I made this bit long enough that the ends would overlap, then I sewed each one to the sleeves:

As you can see that sorted out the problem with the length.

Then all I needed to do was make fastenings, and of course I used my favourite kind that I've mentioned lots of times on here - heavy duty press studs that you attach by making a hole in your fabric and using a hammer, kinda similar to how you put on rivets. I overlapped the ends enough to tighten the cuff around my hand and wrist a little, but not so much I couldn't get them on and off easily.

Not my neatest ever job, but I Mad Max'ed this together (to quote Madame Absinthe) in 2 hours as I really wanted to wear it to go out yesterday evening. I'll probably give it a look over today and neaten up anything that needs it, but I'm really really happy with the result!