It's a Wrap!

No, it's a cape! No, it's a wrap! No, the cape is a wrap!

Pattern: Vogue 9329 (OOP) and Women's Day #5015 (vintage)


Fabric: Gorgeous, heavy, wool coating from The Cutting Room (now closed). The lining is another crazy idea of mine. I was going to purchase some thinsulate because I really wanted something warm but after many discussions with myself I decided to use an upholstery suede. I thought that it would be thin enough not to add bulk and warm enough to block out the wind. I haven't worn it enough to know if the wind-blocking works but I do know it's better than a traditional lining. The main drawback is that stupid static. Ugh.

Adjustments: I started with the Vogue pattern as-is but the placement of the armholes is completely, totally, ridiculously non-functional. Do you see the way the model is holding her arms? That's the extent of movement without unbuttoning it. So I pulled out the vintage pattern and used it for the placement of more functional openings for my arms. Then I decided to use the princess seams for pockets (another non-functioning aspect of the Vogue pattern - no pockets, imho).

I also changed the shoulder slope to eliminate the allowance for a should pad.

Construction notes: Nothing too unusual. I constructed the collar/lapel according to the method from the RTW jacket sew-along. Everything else was just as instructed in the pattern.

I should have done a bound buttonhole but just didn't want the bother. I don't mind making the buttonhole I just hate working on the opening needed for the back side. So, I made one machine buttonhole, cut the opening and then stitched another buttonhole over the first. FYI-as soon as I took the pictures of me wearing it I replace the square button. My buttonhole wasn't large enough and it was impossible to button/unbutton. The button I replaced it with is the same size but round and works like a breeze!

Prep time: About 1hr. 20 min.

Sewing time: Didn't really track it this time at all. I do know that in my mind it should take about 4 hours. Yes, I live in a dream world.

Real-life time: Two weeks or two kid-less weekends, whichever way you want to look at it ;)

Miss Alaney: I've got several vintage coat patterns that I was going to use with this fabric. But when I ended up having to take our little Triskit almost hourly and that wind was whipping all that cold, humid air around our backyard I got really sick of having to put a coat on. I started thinking about how fast and easy it would be to just throw on a cape. Well, that and the fact that I already had two cape patterns and capes are everywhere, so I figured I really must have one too!

So far, I really like it. I can move around but it's not so full that the wind blows it around. And, I've only worn it in public once and already got an unsolicited compliment. Yay!

Goes with: My yellow or red leather gloves :)

Comments

Victoria Doe said…
Oh, that turned out great! Nice job!
What a fun piece! I made a cape and it has the useless low arm-opening placement, too. I should have thought to raise it!