Tuesday, January 28, 2014

KCW Day 2: Reversible Hooded Cape

Merry Christmas, Adelaide. I finally finished your cape. Mother of the freakin' year right here, folks.



This is the Red Riding Hood from Oliver + S: Little Things to Sew. It's a size medium, which is supposed to fit up to age 4. It was bound to be a bit big on my on-the-small-side 2.5-year-old, but that's the smallest size for the pattern, so I went for it anyway. She wanted a hood, and this way it ought to be wearable for quite a while.

I used a couple of quilting cottons I picked up from JoAnn Fabrics. The red is just a normal solid, though it is somehow also the most fuzz-attracting fabric in the world. I must have lint-rolled the thing five times, and there's still stray thread and cat hair clinging to it. The starry lining isn't my usual cup of tea, but I really like it. In fact, I like it so much that I decided to make the cape reversible just so the lining can be the star(s)--see what I did there? yeah, sorry--sometimes. Making it reversible was super easy: just put a button on each side. Bam! Reversified!


Other changes I made: I moved the little arm holes up about an inch, which helps the fit if your kid is smaller than the pattern's intended wearer. I also top-stitched all around the cape at the end. The prime reason for the top-stitching was sparkly silver thread. I bought it because it was shiny and wanted to use it. It's pretty subtle on the cape, though, not as glitzy as it was in my head. But, as Adelaide exclaimed, "now it's fancy!"








































As for the pattern: I would totally recommend it. If you actually focus and work on it, this project is pretty quick and easy. Everything came together really well, and both Adelaide and I are happy with the results.



3 comments:

Ecochic said...

I like your take on the pattern.

I've been thinking of making one of these capes as a car seat cape for my daughter. Have you tried putting her in and out of her car seat with it on? How does it hold up?

Sarah said...

Thank you! I haven't used it in the car seat, but I can't think of any particular reason it wouldn't work out well. The construction is simple and the top stitching makes it very sturdy, so depending on the fabric it should hold up quite well. Ours is still going strong after 2 years!

Sarah said...

Thank you! I haven't used it in the car seat, but I can't think of any particular reason it wouldn't work out well. The construction is simple and the top stitching makes it very sturdy, so depending on the fabric it should hold up quite well. Ours is still going strong after 2 years!