Alucard's Victorian Frockcoat

Along with his orange-tinted glasses and massive .454 Casull pistol, the most distinctive piece of Alucard's costume is his blood-red Victorian frockcoat. The coat is ankle-length like a greatcoat but styled more like the aforementioned frockcoat or even a duster. The back divides like a riding coat, while the shoulders feature small capes for stylistic effect.

Alucard's coat however was also one of the more difficult pieces of his wardrobe to fashion, beginning with finding a suitable pattern. Overall, the coat required fairly simple sewing skills but a fair amount of thought into modifications, so I'd rate it at a moderate level of difficulty overall.

My Alucard's Coat

I based my Alucard's coat on a Victorian frockcoat pattern--heavily modified for accuracy to the anime--but then chose a darker red than what Alucard wears on TV to go for a more realistic and less cartoony look.

Overall, the coat was perhaps the most difficult piece of Alucard's costume to complete, requiring a few hours worth of pattern modifications and redesign plus many hours of work on assembly and construction. The finished coat however is very nice and aside from being such a bold color would be wearable for everyday use.

Materials List

• Wingeo #324 Men's Victorian Frockcoat Pattern (heavily modified)
• 7 yards blood-red fabric, preferably cotton
• 7 yards lining to match outer coat fabric
• Many, many fabric covered buttons
• Fusible interfacing, about 3 yards of 15"
• Shoulder pads

Fabric Selection

Costumer's Rule #1: Cotton Is Your Friend (Avoid Synthetics Whenever Possible!)

Repeat after me: cotton is your friend. Broadcloth and muslin are fairly inexpensive, can be dyed if necessary, and both hang and sew well. You may find a cheap polyester on the discount rack, but it won't breathe well (i.e. you will roast wearing it), it may drape funny, and it can be hard to work with.

Alucard's coat is drawn varying shades of intense, deep red in the anime--rather appropriate for a vampire, I believe.

Originally, I tracked down a bright red cotton broadcloth from JoAnne's (Lipstick Red I believe) that I color matched to screen captures from the anime, but later I decided it too red and selected a slightly darker and more subdued "Claret" red, figuring that "real life" considerations had to override those of the anime. I think the fabric cost around $3 a yard so wasn't too terribly expensive, either.

The lining is a 100% polyester of a similar red that I purchased from a local, non-chain fabric store since neither JoAnne's nor Wal-Mart had red linings quite the right color. I would have prefered something more breathable, but at less than $2 a yard, the lining was a good buy.

The Pattern & Modifications

Finding a suitable pattern was a bit of a problem at first, as the closest I could find was a cowboy's duster--but then I discovered that Alucard's coat is a "frockcoat," and with that and the magic of Google I had a pattern in hand, compliments of Wingeo of Woodbridge, VA.

The Wingeo #324 pattern makes three different styles of frockcoats: one from the 1830's, 1840's, and 1850's. I mostly went with the 1850's pattern due to the narrower sleeves, although the 1840's has a more full skirt--but you'll see in a moment why I rejected that style.

Modifications: where to begin? First, the coat needed to be lengthened significantly as it is designed to make a knee-length coat. Fortunately, the pattern includes lengthening / shortening marks, although I doubt the designer intended the 21 inches I added as a modification. The tricky part is that I needed to do two separate lengthenings: first, the upper pieces (front, side back, etc.) needed to be lengthened by 6 inches to bring the waist of the coat to my waistline; the front skirt needed a 15-inch lengthening (15 + 6 = 21, of course); and the back required 15 inches in one place and 6 in another to properly fit together.

Also, the collar should be modified as Alucard's opens lower on his chest, and don't forget the shoulder capes--which I had to do my own design for entirely.

I had originally intended to use the 1840's skirt styling due to its fullness, but when lengthened 21 inches, the pattern simply didn't work, so I compromised and drew in new lines of my own from the waist to the bottom along the front edge.

The shoulder capes on Alucard's coat were a total improvisation on my part. Basically, I cut the edge to be sewn into the shoulder at the length of the entire sleeve opening (or about 22 inches), intending to bunch it up to half that size when sewn in to achieve the rippled effect, then cut the other edges into a semicircle to match.

The pattern is supplied on normal white paper with the recommendation of transferring it to something more suitable for cutting out; I chose tracing paper in as large of sheets as I could find. Still, most pattern pieces required more than one sheet of my 28 x 36" tracing paper, so I used lots of tape, too.

One last note: when modifying a pattern to any significant degree, it's a good idea to sew a test garment first. I used some $1-a-yard Wal-Mart fabric and found a number of changes I needed to make--and saved myself something like $20 in potential fabric mistakes by doing so.

Assembly & Construction

I fortunately chose to sew a test garment from $1-a-yard Wal-Mart fabric before launching into full-fledged construction. I say "fortunately" because the test garment uncovered faults in my pattern modifications that would have been difficult to correct in a half-sewn coat (like big gaps in the lower back) and additional modifications I would need to make, such as lowering the waist line. The test also allowed me to try out the sleeve capes on scrap material.

I basically followed the instructions on the pattern pieces in putting the whole thing together; many seams required easing and thus seemed somewhat counterintuitive during sewing, but overall it wasn't a terrible process.

Make sure that you clip the sleeve openings close to the seams--the notches will help reduce bulk around the sleeve's curved opening. You will also need to clip closely along the corners and grade the seams so that when turned inside out the corners are nice and crisp.

You will want to press the seams very crisply to maintain the nice, straight lines of the coat to maintain that "drawn" look.

Finished Coat