Alucard's Vest

Alucard wears a dark grey vest--more properly a waistcoat--without lapels or pockets. Double-breasted, the vest closes left-over-right (men's style) and extends well below the waist, covering the pelvic area in good-old Victorian fashion.

The vest is not particularly difficult to make and is a good exercise in garment sewing for the novice-to-average costumer, although the modifications required may be intimidating for the novice but really aren't too bad.

My Alucard's Vest

Like most of the rest of the costume, I made Alucard's vest from scratch. The McCall's unisex lined vest pattern I used (8285--purchased for 99 cents!) required heavy modifications: lengthening by 8 1/2 inches, extension of the front to make it double-breasted; relocation of the button holes, etc. I made a lot of measurements from drawings and screenshots and set up a scale (geeky me) to ensure the proper proportions.

The vest took only a day and a half to complete, working evenings. The finished vest was the first garment-quality piece of clothing I'd made and one I'm rather proud of. Sure, my Jedi costume looks really cool, but inside it are fraying, unbound seams: not something I'd want to run through the wash. My Alucard's vest is better constructed than my $50 tuxedo vest I bought from a discount men's store.

Materials List

• McCall's Unisex Lined Vest Pattern 8285 (heavily modified)
• 2 yards dark grey fabric, preferably cotton
• 2 yards dark grey lining
• Fabric coverable buttons (6x)
• Vest belt buckles (2x, optional)
• Fusible interfacing, about 2 yards of 15"

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.

Okay, some synthetics have their place; you can't make a tight, body-hugging costume like those from Gatchaman without lycra, and there's no reason to line a costume with silk when a semi-breathable nylon will work at a fraction of the cost. But on the whole, stick to natural fibers whenever possible.

Alucard's vest is drawn dark grey in the anime, and although this may be simply an artistic consideration as black wouldn't allow for good contrast and visible details, I chose to stick to grey. Make sure you buy enough for both the vest and pants, as they are the exact same color and should blend together well visually. You will also need about two yards of lining of a similar color.

At $1 a yard, the fabric I used was a real steal and a cosplayer's dream bargain. I'd spent a long time searching for the perfect fabric; the local fabric stores didn't carry much in dark grey except too-thick, too-hot, 100% polyester suiting--and I hate synthetics; see Costumer's Rule #1 above. Fortunately, I came across a bolt marked "unknown content / origin" on the Wal-Mart bargain table and bought up all 14 3/8 yards. The feel suggested a cotton / poly blend--acceptable as opposed to 100% polyester--which I later confirmed by burning a small scrap (the cotton fibers char and the poly ones melt and then burn)

The lining is a fake silk (read: nylon) I found on sale at JoAnne's for something like $2.50 a yard. My only reservation on buying bargain fabrics is that they may be tough to buy more of if needed later, but fortunately I didn't need any more than I bought.

The Pattern & Modifications

I started with the McCall's 8285 Unisex Lined Vest pattern, which though waist-length and single-breasted was on sale for less than a dollar at JoAnne's (it's normally around $5). I used the View F vest pattern as a basis and then went crazy with the mods. You'll be using only four pattern pieces total (five if you want the belt in the back)--I told you it was simple.

I doubt the folks at McCall's expected anyone to lengthen the pattern by the whopping 8 1/2 inches that I added to make it the authentic Victorian Alucard length. However, using careful measurements and lots of extra paper, extending the pattern wasn't a problem at all using the pre-marked shortening / lengthening lines--and required changes to the back, front, front lining, and front facing pattern pieces.

Making the pattern double-breasted wasn't difficult, either. I simply extended the bottom front edges in width by five inches each, then squared the corners off rather than using the pattern's round edges (after using a French curve to reproduce the same curve before remembering Alucard's vest is NOT rounded at the bottom!) After careful measurements from drawings of Alucard, I drew in the new front edge vertical lines and slightly adjusted the neck "V" to fit, making sure the slanted edge and the vertical edges on the front met in a sharp corner. This required basically identical changes to the front and front facing pieces.

If you want to use the 8285 pattern, you may need to adjust the length by a different amount that I did. Simply measure from your waist straight down to the bottom of your crotch and add that amount to the pattern length. More than likely extending the bottom front edge by five inches will work for the double-breasting. Make sure you angle rather than round the corners!

Note to prospective female Alucard cosplayers: long Victorian waistcoats aren't made to fit a woman's hips, particularly since Alucard doesn't follow the trendy fashion of today in leaving the bottom button undone. I would suggest modifying the back piece of the pattern, redrawing the vertical sides to slant outward and give a longer bottom edge. You'd still sew them straight to the sides, but you would end up with a wider back that might help fit around the hips. The darts might need to be widened slightly as well to make it hang correctly. You could also add small slits to the sides and/or back to give the vest's bottom more "give."

You can safely ignore the markings for welts, pockets, and buttons; the latter will need to be repositioned anyway.

Assembly & Construction

Basically, I followed the instructions supplied with the pattern and had little problems. I omitted the welts and pockets since Alucard's vest front is plain aside from the buttons, and I think I attached the lining on one side in the back where not originally intended once I figured out that I could and that doing so would strengthen the whole thing.

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 along the front and bottom of the vest; though these tend to blend into Alucard's body in the anime, they'll be fairly visible on your finished costume in real life.

The buttons required complete repositioning. Being the perfectionist geek that I am, I measured from a drawing of Alucard to set up ratios specifying where his buttons fell and then transferred those to my vest. I placed the bottom button 7 inches up from the bottom edge of the vest and the two above it spaced at 3 3/4 inches each. The second row of double-breasted buttons are more for show than anything else and were placed along similar lines about six inches to the left of the first.

A word on the buttons themselves: I couldn't find grey ones that matched the fabric well enough, so I went with do-it-yourself fabric covered buttons. Fabric stores carry these in many sizes. Since they are usually made of shiny metal that can show through thinner fabrics, I applied a circle of fabric cut just larger than the button front underneath the final layer; you could also paint the metal a dark grey before applying the fabric.

Finished Vest