OUTER CAPE - $200+

This piece, is probably (if you are going to make it) the most difficult to achieve the correct results, it will take patience, and skill, please read the entire page through before starting the project, lets begin.

Firstly you need your materials, visit your nearest drapers/material source, you want to get a medium to thick wool, pure black and your also going to need a satin for the lining, judge the materials by price, you really do get what you pay for, get the best that money allows. Also get a section of leather-like material, but the upholstering version as it is very strong.

Now, you need to take your height and add 1' to it, so if you are 6'2", then your cape figure is 7'2", this figure is going to be the width of the sheets (you need 2, see below), the length of each sheet is double the width, so both of these sheets below are 7'2" wide and 14'4" long!, you will have 2 x wool sheets and 2 x satin sheets.

Lay the sheets out on a flat surface and mark with chalk a semi-circle shape, then cut, at this stage you don't have to be accurate as you have accounted a large margin - Below Picture...

Now that you have the semi-circle shapes, measure along the straight edge and mark a point in the middle, this is where the neck piece will be removed. We found that a plate or something similar is good for drawing round to remove these pieces - remember to measure your neck and find an object that is close to that measurement!

The best result we found is to lay the semi-circles out to make a circle, then mark out 1 quarter of the circle at the front, this is the front opening of the cape, mark these points and cut along the lines, you need to hem these edges at this stage! - Below Picture...

You should now have something that looks like the picture below, the last thing at this stage is to now stitch the two sections together at the rear so that you now have one large 'pacman' shaped piece (you will ahave the sating 'pacman' also), up until this point you have created 2 'pacman' shapes which are exactly the same - Below Picture...

Now the tricky bit, you need to turn both sheets so that they are technically inside out!, place them together and stitch (hem) the straight edges together (you are joining the 2 sections via the straight edges!), but do not go to the end of the edge, leave approx 1' at the bottom, this will be important for later in the production - Below Picture...

With the pieces joined, now 'hem' the neck together, create 2 stitched lines approx 30mm apart (tram lines) keep the outer stitch close to the edge, perhaps 10mm, this will make the section very strong, ready for the neck piece! - Below Picture...

At this point you want to add the collar and the fastening pieces, we used some Garden chain (see GT) and a dressmakers 'latch' for catching the chain, firstly lay your leather material under the neck and mark with chalk a smaller circle, remove and mark another 'tram-line' approx 50-60mm from it, cut 2 of these from the leather, carefuly stitch them together on the inside edges, then place onto the collar and double stitch the pieces together (you could even triple stich to make it really strong!!), then sew the latch onto the base of the inside of the leather collar (the base has more strength) and attach the chain to the other side, slip on the cape and find what notch the chain needs to be cut at! - Below Picture...

All that is left to do is finish the bottom of the cape, however, you need the cape to be 'hanging' properly for this alteration so first, place the cape onto a mannequin/hanger and leave it for a couple of days, if you want to do it quicker, the place the cape in your bathroom and turn on the shower (very hot), the steam will help the material to relax, but even using this method, it's best to leave it for 24hrs - Below Picture...

When ready you need to get someone to help with this bit, wear your boots, bodysuit, upper armour and then the cape, you are now at the optimum height for adjustment, the outer cape should be first, working at 2' intervals (sections) start to pin the cape, the ideal length is 0.5" from the ground, take your time here, this is probably the most important part of production, a mistake could be costly!, once you have the wool tacked, repeat with the satin cape, it should touch the ground - the inner satin lining will protect the outer wool cape, we have heard others use a leather strip, this is fine but the added weight and stifness will make the cape flow unaturally! we haven't used that idea - Below Picture...

With both cape sections tacked, you now need to 'hem' them both, first cut the excess off and then begin, once they are hemmed, you then stitch the bottom sections together (the parts that you left at the beginning!), you should now finally steam clean the cape and you are finished the outer cape!

Inner Cape - Coming soon!

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