Herod is making a real splash at the Cwm Cynon - The Christmas Story performance!

Today I'll show you how we made his 'wool' cloak! Again, this item of Herod's costume was sponsored by Minerva Crafts in the UK. I can't recommend their customer service enough!

We started with a basic front & back from some black polar fleece. It's lightweight, but gives the look of real wool.

I used a bendy ruler to make a nice arm hole type shape!

I can't link to the product page, it appears to be out of stock? But there's a wide range of dress fabrics at Minerva Crafts.

I cut two of these, then cut them BOTH straight up the middle. For why? For to insert a sort of gore type shape in the middle back seam. (We'll come back to that!)


I looked up how to make a basic block sleeve pattern and drew it out in chalk on the fleece. Once I was happy with the size of it I cut it out and then used that as a template to cut another. I wish I'd traced round it for a pattern in case we ever need to make another cloak like this!

Once I'd got my two front, two back pieces & two sleeves, I folded the remainder of my 3m of black polar fleece in half lengthways then drew an oddly shaped triangle type thing. (Technical, right?)


All of the pieces were interlined with some beautiful purple/black two tone organza, overlocking around the edges to stop them fraying.


This gives his cloak a lovely purple sheen if it falls open, but isn't overly obvious.


I laid out the centre insert, with a back piece either side. Then stitched them all together, right sides facing. I didn't even try to press the seams on this fleece, even with a pressing cloth!


Next the front pieces were attached along the shoulders & side seams. Then the neckline was trimmed with the overlocker. Possibly it would have been better to level the back neckline before stitching it all together!


The sleeves were inserted. The sleeves aren't lined because they've got fancy cuffs going over the top and won't be seen.

After this we stitched in a pair of shoulder pads to give Herod slightly more presence.

The front opening was just turned in over the over-locked edges to give it a more finished look.

Some black & gold plaited braid was stitched along the bottom a few inches from the bottom edge of the cloak, with various appliqués added in between for extra oomph!

Thank you Minerva Crafts for supplying the fleece for Herod's cloak, it's very effective and was very reasonably priced!