Sunday, January 13, 2013

DIY Cape with Hood & Pockets


I got a chance to be behind the camera for this one, 
since E&M came to visit us for the weekend, yay!
Photos were taken at the beaches near Monterey :)





So this tutorial might be confusing, but if you're used to sewing you hopefully know what I mean. If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer, just leave a comment :)

I wrote a tutorial on a no-sew cape earlier, 
you can check that out here.

How to:

You need 70 inches (or if you want a longer cape, get a longer piece) x 45 inches (or less if you want the cape to be narrower) of fabric. 

I used this flanel-like fabric that feels soft&warm.

NOTE: "Right side" = pretty side of fabric that you want to face out
"Wrong side" = the side you want to face in&have all the seams, the inside of cape

What you need to cut out:

NOTE: You can use any hood you have at home as a model for the hood pieces, basically the nether edge is a bit tilted (longer in the front than the back, pink), and then there's the arch (greenish). Leave 1/2 inch seam-space on the green and pink edge, and 2 inches on the front edge (yellow).

Cut the hood pieces first, and after thatcut out the pockets of the remaining piece of fabric in between them (so I did not cut out more into the fabric than necessary to lose length from the cape).

Cut an opening for the cape from the middle upwards 2 inches over the center point:
Cut a 2 inch wide opening. Make the last 2 inches at the center point into a triangle tip, like this:
Sew around all the edges of all the pieces with zig-zag to keep them from unraveling. 

Or finish all the edges as desired, but for this fabric only zig-zag looks fun. If you fold the edges in any way in your finish, you'll have to do the hood's attachment differently than here since the seams won't look the same as here. The instruction for that hood down at the bottom ***


Sew the hood pieces together along the arch (green edge):
Check that the seam ends up on the inside.

Finish the front facing edge (yellow):
Since you cut 2 inches extra for this edge, fold the whole 2 inches inwards (to the wrong side, where the green seam also is), and then fold just a tiny bit of that edge in between there, so the edge looks nice on the inside of the hood, too:


Cut away the piece that has come as "extra" when you folded that edge:


Attach the hood to the cape:




Pin the hood's pink edge along the cape, with the middle seam of the hood at the tip of the opening you cut in the cape. Make sure the right side of the hood is attached against the right side of the cape, this way the seams from both the attachment and the hood will go on the inside of the cape. Sew it. Should look like this:





Fold the seam downwards and sew on one more row of stitches along the very edge (so it attaches to the cape too). This way the seam will look more polished (it will show occasionally when worn):

(the "upper seam" in the photo you already did, then do one along the very edge)


Sew on the pockets: Anywhere you want them.

Done!

*** So, if you wanted to finish your edges in another way than just zigzaging them, you probably folded them somehow. In that case, make the hood like this:

Have your cape with the right side facing outwards:

Then, pin the hood on like this and sew:
Pin the hood onto the cape: Have the cape's right side facing outwards as well as the right side of the hood, the hood a bit inside the cape. So the inside of hood is facing the same way as the inside of the cape.

 The middle seam of the hood should be at the tip of the cape opening.

 Then you just sew along the edge of the cape to attach the hood: Sew first one round a 1/2 inch from the edge and then sew another round 1-2mm from the edge, otherwise the seam will gape on the outside.

Let me know if I can describe something better?
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8 comments:

  1. seriously love this. going to make it as soon as I get my hands on a sewing machine

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    Replies

    1. Thank you, that's so sweet! Hope you get one soon :)

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