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!)

Halloween interruption - part 2 - L & R

We had a long postponed sewing day yesterday.  It had been AGES (OK, months)...

We had recently found beautiful lightweight wool on sale and bought enough to make cloaks. We both had the McCalls costume pattern and we both really wanted a cloak.  And really, who doesn't?

Robin chose ballet pink as lining under black crepe wool.  I chose a dark burgundy under a woven black wool.  We each chose to make modifications.
Robin loved the full hood that gathers around the face, but she didn't like the simple rolled collar.  She made an large upright collar trimmed with a ruffle.  I had initial qualms, but it turned out fantastic!
I kept the rolled collar, but wanted fewer ruffles around my face so I redrafted a more traditional hood.  I haven't finished it yet so I'm not sure how it will come out.

Both of us wanted the hood to be removable.  We are attaching the hood under the collar with buttons.  Oddly, Robin suspects she will rarely use it, and I suspect I will keep mine buttoned on.  But options are awesome.  We had the, admittedly, silly idea that we could complete these in a day.  We did not.  One thing that slowed us down was my needing to help my daughter on her polonaise.  She's nearly done now.  And she used some of our precious sewing machine time. In addition, I was slowed dramatically by a major sewing error, when I put the wrong pieces together on the outside of my cape.  I didn't discover it until I was nearly ready to sew on the collar.  I had to take practically the entire thing apart to fix it, but it HAD to be done.  It was hanging very oddly.  We didn't take pictures.  We were busy cutting and pressing and pinning and sewing.


Robin has also been busy with Halloween stuff:  She and her beau went to a Zombie Pub crawl.

Eating innocent bystanders

Needed an quick, dirty and cheap Zombie costume for a Zombie Beer Crawl so off to the Goodwill.  I found a lovely blue and white checked number, so innocent and sweet.  I thought that it, plus my little bowed flats would contrast nicely with the Zombie makeup.  I ordered a wig (Jailbait is its name) from an online costume house, pulled my own hair through the front and stuck leaves in it. Then I did my zombie makeup.  I think I died in 1982, so should be well-rotted by now. I had a slit in the abdomen of the dress through which peaked a “festering sore” bit of stick-one makeup.  All in all, I terrorized many a child and a few adults, too! - R

Arwen/Eowyn - Elf or Human, what to be, what to be....- Rob

I wanted to be an elf, but Lisa convinced me that everyone would be elves and that the ears would bug me while dancing, so I ended up choosing Simplicity 4940 because it seems more of what Eowyn of the Rohirrim would have worn in Lord of the Rings.  I plan on creating something similar to Eowyn's green dress and order my fabric from Fashionfabricsclub.com - some olive green velour for the overdress and and olive green floral crepe for the under dress and sleeve lining. I'll have to create and underskirt and have the skirt be able to tie to the side to reveal the different material underneath.

I saw a tutorial for puf paint lace, so I'm going to give that a try for the yoke. Wonder what kind of undergarments would make this look good? Not only that, but this is for a dance, so I'll have to make some way to string up the hem for dancing.

Here's the material I found for the dress. The velour is a strange color.  It said it was olive green, but then, so did the painted material for the underskirt.  The velour changes color from brown to olive. I wanted a brighter olive, but, oh, well....