Tag: cape

Blog

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!)

Gallery

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.

Gallery

A Claudia tribute outfit – inspiration & finished set

It’s been years since I’ve had a reason to sew something for Halloween. I’m pretty sure the last time was when I made the badger and fox suits for J and myself, and that was 6 years ago. So when I found out we’d be in Cornwall over Halloween AND there was a local outdoor fancy dress party, I started plotting. And when a friend said she’d be hosting a vampire party on Halloween weekend, I really got down to some serious planning.

You’ll already be aware from my tribute teeshirts how much I adore the recent “Interview with the Vampire” tv show (Brits, it’s on iPlayer now!), so my immediate thought was to try and recreate one of the vintage costumes from it. The first season takes place from 1910-1940 but the main female character, Claudia, is introduced in the 4th episode and spans 1920-1940. Unfortunately, for a good portion of that she’s dressed pretty juvenile, so those early outfits really didn’t appeal.