Inspired by the show Vikings, some truly bad ass costumes I’ve seen at Texas Renaissance Festival and on Pinterest, and wanting to wear a costume in the freezing winds of the Orkney Islands, I began researching Viking costumes with a smidgen of historical accuracy. I made three viking dresses, embellished two sets of tunics, and assembled/made quite a few accessories for myself, my husband, my friends, and my mother to wear in Orkney and at Texas Renaissance Festival. Since I made so many items and took a ton of pictures, I’ve had to break it up into five separate blog posts. This post focuses on the cape, which believe it or not, was made as a mock-up for Hippolyta from Wonder Woman.
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If you found this post by searching for a Wonder Woman Hippolyta cape pattern, it’s not a mistake, you came to the right place. I bought 5 yards of cheap linen in coffee color to make a mock-up for my friend’s Hippolyta costume, and I loved it so much I figured I could get away with wearing it with my viking costume. It’s too fabulous not to wear, I don’t care that it’s not even close to historically accurate for vikings. So the cape gets its own post just for you Themysciran queens.
Before I cut my fabric, I made a quick paper pattern with relative measurements. My 5 yards would be subdivided into 3 sections (numbered in pink), cut along a diagonal, every other cut panel (numbered in blue) rotated 180 degrees, and stitched together. The two end pieces would be folded inward…and hopefully wouldn’t look like a 5th grader made it. To my surprise, that actually worked just fine. Do you see it? Scroll down for the actual fabric cutting/stitching and each step explained again.
Like the quick paper pattern, I laid the fabric down and tri-folded it into 3 sections, cutting at the fold. I then cut a diagonal with a short side and long side. The short sides stitched together would be the top of the cape and the long sides stitched together would be the bottom of the cape. These measurements don’t really matter, because fabric by the yard have varying widths. Mine was 44″, so my short side was about 14″ and long side about 29″…give or take. You could use a 1/3 to 2/3 rule and be just fine.
Rotating every other piece and laying down together before stitching helped me see how it would all come together, and helped me not get confused as I stitched one piece at a time from the left piece to the right piece. When all the pieces were stitched, I folded it in half and rounded out the bottom, purposely letting the middle be longer than the sides.
I then measured and subdivided each section (still folded in half) into four almost equal horizontal/parallel sections and I marked it with a pencil, which you can’t see in the pictures. If this is truly for a viking cape, this step is unnecessary. But for Hippolyta, these stitches are absolutely visible on her cape. I cut the cape into the four sections and hoped I didn’t just screw everything up.
It felt like I was making a quilt because I was cutting perfectly good fabric and stitching it back up again. But that’s what I did to get those stitches in the cape to match Hippolyta’s. So far so good!
Finishing up the floor work was turning each end panel in and stitching it to the first seam. Hippolyta’s cape edge in the front is folded, not free, so I wanted to stitch that in place. Next, I pleated the middle third of the cape, and cut arm holes in the panel next to the folded panel.
I pleated and folded the front panels in again and put in a basting stitch. The part of the cape that is in front of the shoulders needs to be narrow so fur or armor (or both) can be worn over it with constricting arm movement.
I stitched bias tape to the top to help the back pleats stay in place, and I stitched the front panels to the back exactly how you’d make a sleeveless jacket or a vest.
Surprisingly, the cape sits comfortably in place and will not fall off, and it is held in place by arms…like a sleeveless jacket or vest. Not pictured are the rounded edges at the shoulders. Otherwise it looked like I was wearing shoulder pads the way the shoulders would come out at silly points.
The really fun part was the faux fur stole. I had a cheap faux fur that I used as a pattern which wasn’t even needed…it’s just a really long oval. I cut faux fur (Faux Fake Fur Siberian Husky White Black 58 Inch Wide Fabric By the Yard) several inches out around the pattern, and then I hot glued the edges in with some random folds in place to make it look pseudo-natural.
My friend Tina borrowed the fur for her Hippolyta costume, and I wore it in Scotland with my viking costume. The Themysciran Senator costume on the dress form and in the group photo above is in a prior costume build Costuming Themysciran Senators from Wonder Woman: Accessories.
I made a simpler version of the cape for my mother’s viking costume from a military wool blanket (MediTac Olive Drab Green Warm Wool Fire Retardant Blanket, 66″ x 90″ (80% Wool) – US Military Style). It’s not as long and doesn’t have all the horizontal cuts/stitches in it, but it was made similarly as a sleeveless jacket or vest.
The rest of our costumes pieces, including our dresses and tunics, are below. We wore these ensembles in Orkney during our British Isles cruise in September. Also included is my mother’s under dress and apron dress, worn at Texas Renaissance Festival last month.
Costuming Vikings: The Dresses
Costuming Vikings: The Accessories
Next…Costuming Vikings: The Style
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