Past Project: Lestat de Lioncourt's waistcoat

My original title for this post was 'silly vampires and lots of embroidery' but then I decided to go for something more... Obvious...

This will be a whole series of posts about the costumes that me (with a bit of help from my friend and sister) created from Anne Rice's books 'The Vampire Chronicles'. I don't know why I haven't posted about these costumes before now, I worked on them for months. Many, many, incredibly stressful months and Louis is (I say 'is' because I am so not done with that idiot, more costumes to come!) actually a dream cosplay of mine.

I have wanted to cosplay Louis de Pointe du Lac ever since I saw the movie 'Interview with the Vampire' when I was thirteen. I mostly forgot about it for around five years, giving up on ever feeling skilled enough to make what I wanted to make but then when I finally started reading the books at the beginning of 2014 I discovered that I still very much wanted to cosplay him and that I actually felt confident enough to make the costume. My decision to finally get him done was helped along by one of my friends saying that he'd always wanted to cosplay Lestat. I roped my little sister in so that we had a Claudia and then began sewing.

These costumes are a collaboration between three people, I made a large chunk of them but Arthur also made his own shirt, neck cloth and breeches with my help and Erin made her reticule and altered her underdress (I hesitate to call it a chemise because it really isn't). Erin's dress (and the underdress) for Claudia were made for me by my Grandma years ago, I've always thought they'd be perfect for Claudia and they were.

I made Arthur's Lestat waistcoat for his birthday. I started in July and had it finished by late August, working on the embroidery everyday, almost all day. Even whilst ill on a camping holiday in France. It was the first piece that I finished.

Here it can be seen with my shirt and neck cloth

It is entirely hand sewn, hand embroidered and hand beaded (my shirt is entirely had sewn too, the neck cloth though, was not. I did not fancy roll hemming 111" inches of fabric by hand).

I did hand worked button holes, covered the buttons myself and also created the pattern. The pockets are unfortunately fake. I only remembered that it needed pockets after I'd completed a lot of the embroidery and so it was a bit too late to put them in, fake pocket flaps then occurred. The back and lining are of royal blue polycotton (should have used linen but didn't, oops) and the back laces, for some extra adjustment, through hand worked eyelets.

We decided to cosplay from a point in the first book ('Interview with the Vampire') shortly after Claudia has been made, which would set us sometime in the mid to late 1790's. I took some artistic (and sometimes accidental) license when working on these costumes but they are thoroughly researched and designed according to that time period. I could certainly make them better if I tried again now, a few months later, but I'm still incredibly happy with how they all came out.

Next up, Claudia's bonnet!

Picnicking in royal style

For my birthday this year I wanted to do something different, I've never been super great at the whole house party thing (and anyway our house isn't really big enough for the amount of people I'd want to invite) but I do know how to have a good picnic. So inspired by a conversation I had with my friend James I decided to have a themed picnic. The theme is, 'come as your favourite historical figure'.

Now, with my ardent and unrelenting love for Marie Antoinette I already knew who I would be going as and since I've had this idea for about three weeks already I also know what I'll be wearing and have made most of it, I guess I'm just a little bit excited?

This is the portrait that I'm copying, it's an incredibly important part of fashion history and I've always wanted a robe en chemise, it's also a relatively inexpensive dress to make so I went with it enthusiastically.

 

Another bonus of this ensemble is that I'm not so sure dear Antoinette is wearing any stays, see how rounded her bust is? That's not a shape you get with stays. Of course I could be wrong and it could be the fabric of her gown making her look so soft around the edges but if I don't manage to get stays done in time I'm confident that my robe en chemise will look fine without them.
Over the next few weeks I'll share my progress on here. So far I've completed the dress and am gathering the things I'll need for her fabulous hat.

Loras Tyrell's embroidered shirt of doom

Seriously. This shirt killed me.

At the beginning of last year I decided that I loved Loras from 'Game of Thrones'/'A Song of Ice and Fire' enough to want to cosplay him and so plunged headlong into making this outfit.

Far as I can remember I left myself about two months to make it, along with finishing off my Ariel cosplay. Ambitious, yes? Overly so, I was to find out.
I never managed to get the shirt done, I didn't even finish one sleeve. Instead I opted for making a plain cream shirt and telling people I was cosplaying from this deleted scene.
It went okay, only three people recongised me which was a bit eh, but oh well!

Lots of a sad Loras mourning Renly were taken.
Photo by YukinePhotography

Then, for London Super Comic-con this year I decided that instead of recosplaying Arwen I should try and finish the embroidered shirt. It was the only part of the cosplay I needed after all (I did have his brooch for May EXPO but took it off for photos since he doesn't wear it in the scene I was supposedly cosplaying from) and I fancied a new embroidery project. I was in for lots of crazy evenings madly sewing in front of the tv, embroidery on the train, in my lunch breaks, in the morning before university. Embroidery everywhere. It was ridiculous, but I managed it!

Making all the photos in this post super large so you can see the details
Photo also by YukinePhotography

I am insanely proud of this shirt and I had an amazing time at LSCC hanging out with all the super wonderful Game of Thrones cosplayers that convinced me to join their already massive group for photos (and then later officially on facebook, I feel very special, like I'm part of an exclusive club!), many of which there were. I also got to meet some really amazing Norwegian cosplayers who I've admired for aaaages. Including the stunning Santatory who looks as much like Natalie Dormer in person as she does in photos.

Photo by Starbit Cosplay

Some progress/close up photos of the shirt...

 

It took me a month of intense sewing to finish the shirt and I was still working on it the night before but I think I learned a lot. Smocking which had been a complete mystery to me before is now just a bit pesky and my patience is generally improved. My love for embroidery hasn't waned either, I thought it would but instead I seem to have become addicted to it. I've spent the last few weeks trying to train myself out of feeling guilty if I'm not making something while I watch tv.

The Great Motivation Drout of 2015

Or rather, just my stupendously inconvenient and sudden lack of drive.
Honestly, it's ridiculous.
I wonder what other people do when they feel this way...
I have so, so, so many things I desperately want to make and do and yet I've not the inclination to do a single one of them.
Do I just need to reset? I wonder because right now I think the only way I'm going to feel better is if I get something done but whenever I try to get something done it messes up.


Hopefully normal services should resume soon(-ish). They had better.