Comments and Cloaks - L

First off, APOLOGIES if you have commented and we never replied.  I really do check comments all the time.  Sometimes I see a comment that is a week or two old that wasn't 'there' yesterday!  It's difficult to decipher the mysteries of the interwebs.

I have finished my cloak/cape (what IS the difference?) except for the hem.  I'm purposely waiting in order to allow the bias regions to finishing drooping.  As always, I can't leave anything alone.  And Robin joined me in making this very easy pattern just a little more difficult.  As I mentioned (or not) before, I wanted pockets and a different hood.  Robin wanted a different collar.  Both of us wanted a removable hood.
And now I have pictures:

 In order to pull a ribbon thru the hood to allow me to pull it tight as I run thru a storm, on the moors, chased by unnamed evil, I needed a buttonhole on the inside of the hood (the lining layer).  I reinforced it with some VERY heavy weight cotton.

Next, I wanted some reinforcement thru the hood where I planned to run the ribbon.

Here is a picture of the twill tape I sewed into the hood.  The red circle is where I placed the buttonhole opening for the ribbon.
This shows you the rough shape of the new hood I drafted.
The curve at the bottom is where it attaches at the collar.  It really makes a nice drape around my face.  Also, it is big enough to hang well over my forehead.  Or I can fold it back in the front.

Apologies for the miscellaneous bits of black stuff that also clutters the picture.  It is all part of the band that I sewed around the neck.  The band has 5 buttonholes in it that correspond to buttons under the collar of the cape, meaning I can remove the hood entirely.

Here's the band.  It's bumpy and uneven looking, but one side is hidden where it attaches to the hood.  I brilliantly chose the bumpiest side to hide!

Once I sewed the hood to the band, all I had left to do was hand tack closed any spots that were too think to sew nicely.  All in all, much of the detail doesn't deserve close looks.  But black on black is very forgiving and I don't think anyone will notice.

I also took a quick picture of the body of the cloak and hood hanging up, to show my pocket.  Yeah, it doesn't really show so I added a bright circle.  I also used another favorite technique when I sewed down the collar.  I top stitched the under collar for extra strength but didn't want any contrasting thread to show on the lining.  I used black thread and a burgundy bobbin.  Worked like a charm.

This weekend I will add a hem, and it's done!  Back to sewing hooks and eyes on the tail bodice (yawn!)