More Elven Cloaks: Tips and Tutorial How to Sew a Lord of the Rings Half Circle Cloak.

I'm in the middle of a mad sewing dash, trying to finish outfits for Halloween.


AND I SEWED 2 ELVEN CLOAKS!

I love how the hood turned out. This one was unlined, but the fabric was thick enough that it worked really well.

I had promised my twin to make cloaks for her and her roomate for a Halloween party. I thought, half-circle cloak?  I got this totally figured out.
Heh.
I learned a lot, I think I've perfected my cloak making technique now.
First, I used the Medieval piecing technique to get the half-circle cloak long enough.

From a Bog Man http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/cloth/bockclok.html

 Last time, I had used 55" wool, and cut that into a half-circle with a radius 55". But I had not accounted for the neck hole (radius 8"), and thus ended up with a cloak only 47" neck to shoulder (after hemming, perhaps 46"). It showed off my awesome boots (too large hand-me-down snow boots with twill tape wrapped around to keep them from flopping. Looks kinda like the boots in Skyrim), but was a bit shorter had wanted.

Last time (no piecing) cloak ended up shorter than I wanted, approx 46-47" from shoulder to edge

So this time, when making cloaks for my twin and her friend, I was determined to use the piecing technique.

See how the "pattern" is wider than the width of the fabric. So you piece in the back edge. (I just haphazardly drew my pieces, depending on how big your semicircle is, you can find the best arrangement for the pieces. You could do it with one piece or as many as you need.

It worked really well. I made my twin's cloak, cutting it with a initial radius of 62-63" (using piecing to fill up the edge on the bottom, like the Medieval example above), with the 8" radius cut out of the top for the neck, I ended up with a shoulder to edge length of 54-55". At my 5'4" height, this brushed the ground. I ended up cutting 3" or so off the bottom and getting a nice length of 51"-52".

What I ended up with, perfect for a 5' 4" person

I thought it ended in just the right spot.

For the closure, I used 2 metal rings we had made from a hanger (instructions here,[ insert link]), and brown cotton canvas I sewed 2 layers together, then flipped inside out and ironed to make an "applique". I then handsewed this to the cloak, and sewed the rings onto it. Its then an adjustable opening, with a leather strap. I did a little quick leave embroidery on them.

And here's a few more glam shots of it.

Ignore my silly expression. Note the beautiful drape of the cloak.

I LOVED the drape of this fabric. It looks like linen, although its actually 100% cotton. It's medium-heavy weight is matched with a loose enough weave, that it drapes really well (unlike canvas, whose tight weave keeps even its heavy weight draping stiffly). I dyed it to its current elvish color myself, with dark green RIT dye, and extremely hot water and salt.

Sadly, I didn't get the best pictures of this. I was up till 11:30 last night finishing the Princess Leia dress, and then spent all morning/early afternoon sewing up these cloaks. Then I had 2 minutes to snap pictures, and then we rushed to the post office to mail them before they closed. Hence I didn't get to show off the drape as well as I wish. Just trust me, it looks awesome.

For the neck-hood attachment, I knew I needed at least a few pleats in the cloak, so it wouldn't pull so hard on my shoulders like my wool one did. I put 2 pleats in on each side, approx 5" from the neck opening, and then another 1" away from that. Each pleat was about 1/2" thick, "eating up" about 1" each. See diagram.

It worked really well, just enough ease in the shoulders that it didn't pull funny, and yet not so fitted (like a bag) that you lose the cool sweep of the half-circle drape from the shoulders.

CLOAK #2
This one, I had some adventures. First off, I didn't have enough cloak fabric for 2 cloaks, so I went to walmart, where the only thing I could find that could possibly work, was a beautiful deep forest green fabric that was sadly, rather light-weight (quilting cotton weight) but was 100% cotton, claimed to be 44/45" wide, and had this beautiful soft feel to it. I bought 4 yards, and washed it on hot and dried it in the dryer to shrink it.

Hah.

It turned into the crinkliest stiffest stuff ever. I washed it 2 more times, trying no soap, air dry, and more dryer dry. It remained stubbornly stiff. Which is what you want for a vintage sundress, but not what you want for an elven cloak.  (the drape is all about the loosness/tightness of the weave ratio to the weight of the fabric.)
Well,  I knew with multiple washings/wearings it would soften over time. Theoretically. Praying. But the color was gorgeous and we didn't have time to go back to the store.
Then I measured it. It had somehow shrunk (?!?) to 38.5" from its vaunted 44/45".
I had a brief freak out.
I tried to cut creatively, to piece, etc, but there just wasn't enough fabric in the 4 yds.
In the end I ended up with a cloak 47.5" from shoulder to hem, just a smidge longer than my wool cloak. I was sad. But it still works, and shows off your boots. I think Faramir's cloak hit him about there too.
So that was the sad part.


The good part, was I spent a lot of time trying to make it look beautiful. I sewed on a strip of brown fabric to the inside edge of the front, and really liked how it made the forest green pop. I then bag lined the inside of the hood with brown, and it really really looks good. (If I say so myself)

You see the facing strips down the front. And how awesome the hood looks. Ignore the weird faces, I was tired.
Strangely enough, it seems it did come down a lot longer than I thought it would. Interesting.

I really like how it looks when the hood is down, how it falls and the brown peaking out.

How the hood looks down with the cloak thrown back. Ignore the face.

I went a little crazy with the applique. 2 layers of brown broadcloth, cut and sewn in the shape of a leaf, flipped inside out to hide the seams, hand embroidered.
Also to make up for the cloaks other problems, I used a fancy clasp that adds instant class. I tried to mirror the leaf theme with the applique.
I think it worked :)

I was quite pleased with how my embroidery turned out. And how the clasps mirrored the effect.

When I was done, I noticed it didn't seem as short as my wool cloak. Perhaps I used a lot more in the hem of the wool cloak, making it shorter. With this cloak I used very narrow hems.
Anyways, at the end of the day, I think it looks pretty awesome :)

Things I learned:

1. French seams are awesome, don't do the half-job of just felling it, taking the time to trim and iron in order to enclose the raw edge is totally worth it (especially for many washings...)
2. Stabilize the front opening. Fold over/hem the front opening twice, or better yet, sew a facing onto it (that folds under, enclosing all raw edges and sewn down on the inside) to stabilize the drape of the front opening.
3. Bag Line the hood. It looks really good. Especially if you do it in brown.
4. When Sewing the hood to the cloak, sew it with a facing strip, then fold down the facing strip over the raw edges, enclosing everything nicely before sewing it down. No scratchy raw edges at the neck!
5. For a 5'4" person, a shoulder to hem length of 51-52 is nice.
6. Keeping circular hems as narrow as possible and try not to stretch as you are hemming, it keeps it from going all rumply.
7. Don't trust the bolt when it says 44/45", bring your measuring tape and measure it. And if you do get 45" wide, buy at least 4.5 yards.
8. You never know what a cotton's drape/weave/softness will really be until its shrunk and washed
9. Avoid quilting cotton weight for cloaks in the first place

Sneak Peak~~~~
update: here's pictures of the finished dress
I finished a (gorgeous) rendition of Princess Leia's Ceremonial Dress for my sister in law. I improved the bodice and sleeves from the original design, in my humble opinion.
I actually inserted in invisible zipper, drafted double French darts and (drumroll) SEWED WITH CHIFFON!!!
It was a series of firsts for me, and it turned out absolutely beautiful. Photoshoot and construction
details coming soon.

It looks like these, only much better :)

And to me, it looks kinda like Arwen's angel dress.

I also sewed Isaiah up a little Luke Skywalker outfit. I haven't finished the outfit yet, more on that too...
And still am working on Jenny's R2D2 dress for tomorrow.... ahhhhh too much sewing.....