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.
Materials: Newspaper, pencil, needle, thread, a 58" radius round tablecloth, a hook and eye closure, tape measure, pins, scissors.
Optional: Ribbon, embroidery floss, cloak clasp.
Sources for materials:
Fabric: salvation army or other thrift store, I found a large nylon tablecloth that was perfect.
Hook and eye: fabric store or big box store with a sewing or craft department.
Ribbon: same as hook and eye.
Embroidery floss: this is basically colorful string, fabric store, craft store, art store, big box store, anywhere a kindergarten teacher might shop.
Clasp: same as hook and eye or online.
Step 1: fold the conveniently already circular tablecloth in half. Pin in place and then cut along the fold leaving you with two semicircles.
Strep 2: measure the size of your neck hole. Use your tape measure around your neck, leave it loose. For heavier fabrics you'll probably want an opening that hits near or on your collar bone, for lighter you can go smaller. But what you don't want is your cloak choking you. Too big is okay, in fact we're probably going to be cutting your first neck hole bigger later.
Find the flat edge of your semicircle of fabric. Fold over and pin down the raw edge.
Figure the diameter of the circle you want your neck hole to be and then use that as the radius of a semicircle. Draw that out on a piece of newspaper, cut it out and pin to the middle of the flat side of your semicircle. Cut your neck hole.
Throw the cloak on over your shoulders and check the fit. Neck not choking you? Good.
Step 3: Notice how your cloak is falling open at the bottom making a sort of inverted V shape on the front of your body? We're going to fix that. Pin some small pleats into your neckline. you're going to shape your semicircle into something closer to a full circle. Start with a smaller number of pleats, say 2 on each side and then try the cloak on again. If it still doesn't fall closed instead of open then add more pleats till you're happy.
What's that? Now the neck hole is too small and you're being strangled? Take out your pins, make the hole bigger and re-pin your pleats. Repeat until you're happy with the fit and the front opening. Leave a little room for the seam when you attach the hood.
Hand stitch your pleats into place.
Step 4: Remember that raw edge you turned in and pinned into place? Now would be a good time to sew it down.
Step 5: Make the hood.
Your pattern is another semicircle. measure from your eyebrows over the top of your head and to the base of your neck. That's your radius. Draw out the pattern on some newspaper and use that to cut your hood out. The half of the tablecloth that you cut away will be the source of your material. I suggest the bottom of the curve as the place to get your hood fabric. This will leave a maximum amount leftover for other uses.
Step 6: Gather the rounded edge of your hood till it is the same size of your neck opening. Sew to the body of your cloak. I used a french seam.
My camera was acting up and I couldn't' find someone willing to be seen with me in public while wearing a cloak So I offer my apologies for the bad photo of the hood in the up position.
Step 7: Sew the hook and eye a couple inches below the hood. If your fabric is too lightweight you might need to add a small scrap extra to keep the hook and eye from being torn out.
Luckily since I started with a circular bit of fabric, the bottom was already hemmed. If yours isn't, um now would be the time.
You now have a finished but plain cloak.
Optional: decorate!
Ribbon in a contrasting color along the edge can break up the monotony, or some fancy trim that is entirely too expensive can be found at fabric stores. You can replace the hook and eye with a clasp or even embroider a pattern an inch or two inside from the edge.
Cost
one tablecloth: $3.05 at the salvation army
hook and eye closure: $1.80 for a package of two so $0.90
Total $3.95 plus decoration.
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