March 6, 2012

Lined Wool Cloak


Finished this on the Wheeler & Wilson the other night. Outer layer is wool (melton perhaps?), lining is sand colored medium weight rayon, both pulled out of my fabric stash. Satin ribbon trim and strap, wool felt applique, stainless snap closure.

This is a second copy of a super simple cloak the girls and I made up as a birthday present for one of their friends in the fall. We only had about two hours to make it before the party, so we couldn't get too fancy. I took some quick measurements on Violet, layed out the pattern directly on the cloth, and cut pieces to make two copies. The lower is just a half donut shape, the hood is more or less a square with some shaped edges.


Lining and outer were cut together and sewn at the edges, then turned and pressed. I didn't even understitch, which caused the lining to poof out around the edges of the outer as you might expect. To fix this and stiffen up the hood and front lines, we topstiched on a single piece of ribbon up the front, around the hood, and back down the front. To hold the lining in on the hem, we just topstiched around, something like 1cm from the edge. I wouldn't enter it in any tailoring competitions, but it was a cute gift.

On the original, I zigzagged on the strap with the Kenmore. Didn't have time on the first copy to put on the applique pieces, which was a shame. I have no idea if it was ever worn, probably not!

For the second copy, I had pieced the lining and the outer together individually with the Kenmore in the fall, then put the whole thing on the shelf. When I took it back out again recently, I stitched the lining and outer together and put on the ribbon with the Wheeler & Wilson, then hand tacked on the strap with silk thread. Violet helped me put on the applique before topstiching around the hem and closing it up. We'll see if it survives.







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