delays

Due to personal reasons the next couple of cloaks will be delayed. I'll resume the festival of cloaks as soon as I can.

The festival of cloaks (part three)

Tailored shoulders, version one.

Sometimes you just don't have enough material to make a semi or full circle cloak.You can keep the same length by forming only a partial circle but then the front opening will hang open rather than falling closed naturally. But there's a solution! We shape the pieces so there's a seam running along the shoulder area leaving you with a cloak that closes naturally in front. You don't get as much billowy goodness but you save on fabric.

Here's how to make it.

The festival of cloaks (part two).

A little re... um green riding hood. Useful to protect you from the elements when bringing a basket of goodies to your grandmother, or for wearing while riding as it is short enough that you won't sit on it while in the saddle. A more modern type of cloak used more in the 18'th and early 19'th centuries than in ye olde days, the details of construction aren't too different.

So here's how to make it.

The festival of cloaks (part one).

Welcome to my month long festival of cloaks. I'm going to try to use as many cloak patterns as I can with easy to find, low cost materials. Feel free in your own work to line the unlined, replace hooks with clasps, and use more expensive materials than I myself do.

Today we're going to start simple and make changes to the pattern with each successive cloak. So, for our first entry in the series, I offer the basic semicircular cloak that most of the costume making community have at least one of in their closets.

an update

I'm thinking of making August the festival of cloaks.

I've picked up a large round tablecloth, 58 inches radius, two round tablecloths 36 inch diameter and a 90"x72" blanket. That should be enough to get me started.

Cloak experiment

Just tried out the fellowship cloak pattern found at http://www.alleycatscratch.com/lotr/Things/FCloak/FCloak_pattern.htm It works perfectly fitting well on the shoulders and stays on if I walk slowly even without a clasp sewn on yet. Used a $2 bit of sweater weight knit fabric I found at a thrift store. But since cloaks should be woven not knit and finding enough fabric at the right size while spending next to nothing is a crap shoot I won't be posting a HOWTO till I can find something more common to make the cloak from. At that time I'll post a modified (if necessary) pattern and instructions on how to put it together.

Vinyl Bracers

This time around I'm going to teach you how to make a pair of costume bracers/vambraces out of some thin vinyl salvaged from a torn pair of pleather pants for that leather look without that leather price. I've got a small pile of the stuff on hand so there will probably be a few more posts showing things you can make out of it.

This simple piece of armor protects the lower arm from bowstrings. It holds billowy shirt sleeves out of the way and gives the appearence of protection from slashing weapons but of course as a costume piece I wouldn't expect it to be of much use against real knives and swords.

Note these bracers are not SCA legal. To make legal bracers first confirm with the local marshal that the changes are acceptable and then add 0.25 of foam padding on the inside. An extra 0.25 inches of seam allowance on the vinly will be needed to account for the thinkness of the padding.