Put together this Vampire Look in 6 weeks for a drag festival - cape, breeches, vest & jabot
Really proud of how this came out and that I was able to all this on a relatively short notice. I wanted to create a look of an aristocratic vampire. Originally, my big concept was to make it themed to 18th century colonial Spanish fashion (for social commentary purposes) but it hit me that I was going to run out of time conceptualizing and just needed to get down and dirty with the patterns and go for general "18th century European-inspired." Because vampires are fantasy, it was hard to source "historically accurate" patterns while crafting a believable vampire aesthetic, but I strived to only use natural fabrics of that era like silk and wool. If any fashion history nerds have input, I'd love to hear it!
I made partial muslins for the cape, breeches, and vest in interest of time just to make sure they mostly fit okay and the patterns weren't buggy or anything. See sections for each piece.
Cape
Boiled 65% viscose & 35% wool coating, silk dupioni lining
Adaptation from the "Wizardly Hooded Layered Coat" Pattern by Magical Weave. No hood or capelet. Added embroidery I got from Etsy, with embellished rhinestones, and brass closures I found online.
My goodness, the fabric alone for this project cost like $300 due to requiring 6.5 yards, which I regretted for a moment. I'm not sure if I also picked the best fabric types for this, being new to sewing wool, and the silk dupioni was honestly heavier weight than it should have been. I was stressing out about this a bit, and worried the wool coating I chose wasn't luxurious enough. I like to go 100% natural whenever possible but I had to draw the line with the price tag 😭 In the end, I do really like the finished product and how it looks, though there are some errors and things that can be smoothed out (ie: it's not really even on both ends though you can't really tell while its worn.)
Another thing I will say is when I perform in the cape, it moves with even the slightest wind which is INCREDIBLE and it's so badass to shrug the wool coat around you. Not sure if this is unique to wool or whatever but I'm pretty happy with it in the end.
18th Century Breeches
Worsted wool & silk lining.
Pattern: 1770s Men's Breeches by Fig Patterns
This was the first item I made and the most work intensive one, but wow, was this fulfilling. The Fig Patterns booklet was amazing. I once got a historical pattern that gave literally a page of detail for an entire look with one direction that just said "now put it together" 💀 but Fig patterns is the opposite, with a Sewing 101 section, historical info for us nerds, and lots of detail with pictures. This also took longer because true to its era, it would normally be made by hand-sewing, so there were a lot of hand-sewing portions in the directions that would be quite hard to do with a machine. However Fig patterns is amazing in that they often provide both handsewing and machine sewing options. Love how comprehensive this was, though it would still be tough for beginners. I love how it also had a historical section where they broke down the original garment from the 1770s that it was based on.
I think these breeches are truly one of the most beautiful pieces I've made and I love the way it looks on my body. It does get lost a little in the whole look, so after the event I added an additional burgundy trim to it to make it pop.
Waistcoat
Polyester Brocade from Yayan Han from Mood Fabric & Silk Charmeuse lining.
Pattern: Peter Men's Waistcoast Pattern by Boo Le from Etsy
Originally supposed to be made 100% out of silk, but Village Silks ghosted me on my order, requiring me to order whatever I could find last minute. This was literally the last piece I made, like 4 days before the festival while I was battling illness. It was also the easiest piece by far. I did not want to add the eyelets and washers and buy a hole punching tool, I used a sliding buckle instead which I'm sure is anachronistic but I was over spending $$$ lol.
Jabot
Leftover Silk from a project.
Pattern: Mostly eye-balled, but I watched some YouTube tutorials. Probably spent more time on this because I kept fussing over the look, to realize it didn't matter that much and you can barely even see it in the finished look.
Other items not covered in the look are of course the wig I commissioned, shoes, rhinestoned nail gloves which I collaborated on with a friend, silk stockings from American Duchess, and silk shirt I wore which is just something from my closet.
I took a lot of video documentation but less photos of finished pieces but I can also show more close up pics in the comments if folks want. Let me know if y'all have questions, advice, feedback etc :)