I am generally obsessed with capes. When a cape pattern was delivered to my house (surprise!) a few years ago, I knew I was going to make it. I had no idea it would take me several years to get started on it, and almost 5 months to finish it! To be fair, I was spending at most an hour a week on it, but still. It took forever.
I used Vogue 6032 from 1963. Look at that cover art - so gorgeous! But I had problems and self-doubt from the beginning. I had so many problems finding the right fabric. I wanted it to be wool and I was thinking some sort of pattern, like houndstooth. Or maybe a fun color like pink. I had problems finding any wool I liked though, so when Mood sent me an email with charcoal wool on sale I jumped on it. I loved the charcoal color, and it is a great color, but they had pink wool on sale the next week - boo.
So anyway, I started cutting it out and piecing it together with my trusty helpers and that's when I suddenly decided this was going to look awful on me. I was watching Harry Potter (for the first time) and being introduced to characters like
Umbridge. Thank goodness I didn't get the pink patterned wool. I was also watching Call the Midwife, an amazing show, but I didn't really want to look like the nuns. It didn't help that the boyfriend was incredible excited that I was "making a nurse's outfit from WWII."
It also took quite a bit of time because the pattern from the 60s focused mostly on using a regular sewing machine with lots of hand sewing thrown in. I don't hand sew, and I really wanted to use my serger so there was a lot of plotting and converting to my equipment that took longer.
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| Not perfect, but as close as I'm getting. |
It probably should have been easier, but I decided to take days figuring out how best to insert a lining rather than looking up tutorials. (Although I did use a LOT of tutorials for my serger - it took me quite awhile to get the hang of threading it, but I think it's all good now.)
So yeah! I'm pretty proud of this one because I finished something I've wanted for years and I did it mostly by myself.
I really loved working with wool. It's thicker than the fabrics I'm used to working with, it doesn't slide around, and you can hide your stitches in all the material. I used a lot of white thread for this, and you can't see it at all! Of course, that also means that if you mess something up, you can't unpick the stitches either.
I took my cape out for a stroll yesterday afternoon. I'm pretty pleased with the fact that I've finished just in time for the weather to warm up slightly. It's long and heavy and keeps me plenty warm in the 40-50 degree weather (that's 4-10 degrees for my non-American friends).
It's like wearing a fashionable blanket.
It is a little strange to walk at first because my arms don't hang at the side per normal, but they stick out the front. I found that if I slow down a bit, and especially if I lean on the arm of my handsome boyfriend, it works perfectly.
Of course, I could always open it up.
All in all, my cape is fabulous and perfect and I wish I had more places to wear it out.
