How to Make a Cape Without a Hood

A cape stands out as a way to keep warm.

A cape is a garment that can be used for costuming or for regular wear, depending on your wardrobe and the design and length of the cape. This project uses a technique drawn from use in skirt making. The advantage to a gored cape is that it doesn't require a huge piece of material, and a gored pattern is intended to use as much fabric as possible with little waste. This cape will be as long as the bolt of fabric is wide, but if you require a longer cape you can buy wider fabric or lay your pattern pieces out differently.

Things You'll Need

• Measuring tape
• Pencil
• Scrap paper
• Yardstick
• Newspaper or butcher paper
• Tape (may not be necessary)
• Scissors
• Medium to heavy fabric
• Chalk or fabric marker
• Sewing machine
• Matching thread
• Needle
• Frog closure

Instructions

1. Measure around your neck, and mark the measurement down with the pencil on scrap paper. If you want your cape to fit snug to your neck, that's fine; if you want a bit of a looser fit, you can add a few inches to this measurement. Do any adding before you write your measurement down.

2. Measure around your body at the length your cape will hang, including your arms. This depends on the bolt the fabric came off of, but will generally be about 45 inches away from your neck. Double the measurement, and write it down with your neck measurement.

3. Divide both numbers by 4. Lay your newspaper out, and find a straight edge that is at least as long as your fabric is wide. You may need to tape two pieces together for this. From the top, measure in by your divided neck measurement plus an inch, and mark the top with that number. From the bottom measure in by your bottom number divided by 4 -- it's possible you'll need to tape another piece of fabric to the side to reach this length. Mark that measurement along the bottom edge. Using your yardstick as a straight edge, draw a line connecting the two markings. Cut this shape out.

4. Lay your fabric out, with the long edges towards and away from you. Line your cutout with the straight edge against one of the short edges. Use your chalk or fabric marker to draw along the edge. Flip your gore pattern over, line the angled side up with the chalk marking you just made and use the flat edge to make another mark. Continue in this way until you've outlined four shapes, and then cut them out.

5. Lay out your pieces of fabric, with the shortest end facing away from you and the right side of the fabric facing towards the ceiling. Each piece will have a short top, a wider bottom, a long straight edge and a longer angled edge. Fit the straight edges together. Match two pieces with the right side up so that the straight edge is in between them, and do the same with the other two. Flip one piece over, on top of the other, so that the right side is in, and then sew a 1/2-inch seam up the straight edge. Do the same with the other two pieces of fabric. You now have two larger pieces of fabric. Lay them down, right side facing in, and sew a seam along one of the long edges.

6. Hem all of the edges by 1/2 inch by folding each edge in by 1/2 inch and sewing along it. Thread your needle and sew one side of the frog closure to one of the throat corners, and then sew the other half of the closure to the other side.

Tips & Warnings

• You can make a lined cloak by cutting out more pieces for lining, sewing them together into the basic shape and then facing them right side in and sewing all the way around the edge, leaving a gap for turning. Turn right-side out and hand stitch the gap closed.

• You can make more gores by dividing your numbers out smaller -- just make the number of gores you divide by, and add 1/2 inch for seam allowance when you make your pattern.

• Using light cloth with this cape is not recommended, as it won't hang properly when you wear it.

References

• The Rusty Bobbin: Drafting a Multigore Skirt