How to make a cape

Once I start something, I get a bit obsessive about finishing it. I've somehow managed to finish my cape today. It turned out so much better than expected. I can't believe how well it's turned out, actually.

So as I said in my last post. I made up a pattern piece myself and cut out the body of the cape in the blue fabric and the pink lining. Then I sewed them together. Here is the cape with the lining sewn in:

Getting started on making a cape

So I've finally got round to starting my new project! I got all the fabric and things I need a few weeks ago, I've just been waiting till I feel in the sewing mood. Today I decided to get started.

Firstly I used a 'how to make a little red riding hood costume' tutorial as a guide. Just to make sure I didn't make a silly mistake really, because I've never made a cape before. I've never done a hood before either so that's going to be fun when I get started on that. I cut out my fabric, using a bit of guesswork on the size. It's 15 inches all the way around so on a newborn it would probably fall towards the middle of the lower leg at the front and down to the ankes or heels at the back.

Here's a picture of the main fabric all cut out:

It's a bit of a darker and fuller blue that it looks in the picture but you can see the shape very well. The neck took a bit of figuring to get it the right size and angle to sit on the neck. I think it might be a tiny bit low but the hood will compensate for that. The good thing about making a cape is that sizing and fitting isn't terribly important. I'm just going to make everything a little bit bigger than it needs to be because I think it'll look cute oversized. Next I cut out the lining fabric which is a bright baby pink. I think the two colours go together really well. 

You can see the blue colour a lot better here but the pink is a little less orange in real life. As you can see I cut out the fabric on a fold to best save the fabric as it'll only just be enough for the project, depending on how much fabric I need for the hood which I haven't cut out yet. So we'll see how that goes later.

I've finished sewing the pink lining to the main blue fabric and have just turned in inside out. I'm really pleased with how it's going so far. The fabric colours are quite close to the costume I'm working from. Take a look at my last blog post to see the picture. I bought them online so it's always a bit risky when you're looking for very specific colouring. I've found out I don't have enough ric-rac (which is a zig-zag cord that looks really good on towards the hem of a dress or something) to go around the bottom hem so I'm going to put it down the sides instead, which I think will look a bit more quirky anyway. After I've done that I just need to sew on the ribbon to fasten up the front of the cape and begin making the hood! Hope that goes okay as I don't have enough fabric to restart it if I make a mistake.

Just thought I'd add in here that I don't actually have a baby, neither am I pregnant, I just love little baby clothes and I love making things so I thought it would be a nice thing to do rather than making my own clothes, which I probably wouldn't wear and uses up so much more fabric and money. Thought I'd better add that in, just in case someone I know is reading this and gets a bit suspicious. 

So that's how much I've done of the cape so far. I'll keep you updated of my progress and try to remember to take lots of pictures of all the different stages. Please follow my blog if you'd like to stay up to date with my sewing projects. 

Bye for now! 

Next Project!

After watching 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' I was just blown away by Colleen Atwood's costumes. Atwood indecently designs costumes for most of Tim Burton's films and is by far my favourite costume designer.

The piece that tugged at my heartstrings the most was an absolutely divine little cape which the little toddler character Sunny wears for the middle portion of the film. It's the cutest little thing I have ever seen. It has a satin lining and lovely embroidery, and this wonderful edging, which reminds me of brogues (as in the shoes). I completely fell in love with it and really want to make my own. I'll be using cotton for both the lining and the main fabric in similar colours to the original. I think the brogue edging is beyond my skill but I'll probably do some of my own embroidery on it. I really hope it turns out well because the original is just so beautiful.

Here is a screen shot from the film so you can see how lovely it is:

How cute is this child?

I'm sewing again!

I haven't done any sewing for about three years, after I flopped my AS Level Textiles because I absolutely hated my teacher. But I think this is one of those things that was probably best left as a hobby. 

Last week I made my first piece since my 'D' for dreadful result. But I found the joy I had for it again. I'd been thinking of sewing for a while. I bought fabric from christmas market and my boyfriend bought me a sewing kit for my birthday, so I finally decided to get back to sewing.

I made a little baby's dress, which fits a 1 month old baby or a bigger than average newborn. I worked with a difficult fraying fabric, but the end result was much better than I expected after 3 years of no sewing. The entire dress was hand stitched in about four days. I really hate using sewing machines and actually haven't got one anymore, but I really enjoyed hand-sewing while watching tv or listening to music. Th most relaxing thing ever (until you do something wrong and have to miserably unpick everything!). It was made with a homemade pattern, which included a lot of guesswork and ended up being slightly bigger than the newborn size I was aiming for. It is designed as a pinafore style dress and a nice little, short-sleeved, white onesie underneath would look lovely.

So here is the finished result!

The Front

The Back

I used every kind of fastener I had! Buttons, poppers and a hook and eye.