Baby Elven Cloak "muslin" in preparation for the Small Human Being Sewalong...

So, one of my first sewing projects for the SHBsewalong was a baby elven cloak. I want to get some cotton jersey knit, or maybe fleece (but, given the weather in dear Phoenix, I should probably go with the knit, so it can be worn more than 2x a year...)
The real one will be for the new baby, but I used Kuzzles (not yet 1) as my model here.

But I did have on hand a scrap of wool felt (I think it was 34" x 23"?), so the cloak length had to be 17"), and some of a brown sheet...sooo...

Here was my piece of felt. I cut out a simple half circle, and then cut a half circle neck out of that. The radius for the big half circle was 17", and the radius for the neck was maybe 2-3 inches, so 4 to 5 inches in diameter? (this ended up giving a neck that was too tight, around 13" long...next time the neck is going to have to be bigger)

Here is the piece of felt, folded in half, cut up. The semicircle is the cloak part. The hood is the rectangle.

My hood was just 2 rectangles (the piece is doubled over, so every piece in the image is actually double), it's in the upper right hand corner.
I sewed the rectangles together and tried it on the the baby for size....

She resisted.
Even with Grandma's assistance, this was all we got.

So I went off to find Jenny, who put up with being a test subject for me.

As I suspected, the simple rectangle method came out a bit too pointy for my taste.
So I just trimmed a tad off of the top.

Like in the illustration. And I cut 2 darts in the cloak shoulders (to get it to hang better)

Cutting out the shoulder dart.

 On a knit or woven cotton cloak, I'd just put a pleat in the shoulder, but since this was felt and on a baby, I cut the shoulder dart out.

Then I bag lined the hood with sheet scraps, and tried to bind the inside of the neck with a strip of sheet, so there wouldn't be scratchy bits poking there...

She didn't want to wear the cloak. Maybe it was because it was 96 degrees outside....

A miserable hobbit.

She cheered up a bit. I assured her it would be over soon...

She picked up a rock...shot be a doubtful glance....

 And tried to eat it.

Aaand then...

She was done.

Things I'll do differently next time (in April, for the sewalong)

1. Make it out of Jersey Knit, it will be less stiff and less warm
2. cut the neck hole bigger

Anyways, it was fun.