Vampires were usually reported as bloated in appearance, and ruddy, purplish, or dark in colour; these characteristics were often attributed to the recent drinking of blood.Blood was often seen seeping from the mouth and nose when one was seen in its shroud or coffin and its left eye was often open.It's quite interesting."Copying the curved shoulders will be trickier. For me to do that, it's a very clever cut of fiber I use after many years of learning how to do it.

It has been argued that instead, the coin was intended to ward off any evil spirits from entering the body, and this may have influenced later vampire folklore.

If you've got a short fake fur, you can cut into it and paint into it and create a similar look without going into the extent of braiding it and cutting every single piece," she says.

"If you get a fake fur with a dark base and light hair on the end, when you cut in, you actually get the lovely look.

Vampiric entities have been recorded in most cultures; the term vampire, previously an arcane subject, was popularised in the West in the early 19th century, after an influx of vampire superstition into Western Europe from areas where vampire legends were frequent, such as the Balkans and Eastern Europe; local variants were also known by different names, such as shtriga in Albania, vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi in Romania.

This increased level of vampire superstition in Europe led to mass hysteria and in some cases resulted in corpses being staked and people being accused of vampirism.