basic hooded cloak

For those of you start-up superheros who are forced to make their own attire or those who have a basket of goodies to deliver, the basic hooded cloak.

Three basic pieces:

Hood piece: Used your favorite hoodie to trace out a hood shape by folding your existing hood in half and tracing around the outside of it onto a piece of paper.  Be sure to add seam allowances on all sides.  If you want to line your hood, you will need to cut four pieces, two of the shell fabric, two for the lining.

Back piece:  Make this piece as long as you want, but make sure that the neckline is going to fit you. use the neck of your favorite tee shirt as a guide.  The neck curve should be about half of your hood piece's neck measurement.  The other half of the hood's neck measurement will be taken up with the front piece's neckline.  That way when the two hood pieces are sewn together it will come all the way around to make a nice full hood.  The neckline will begin at a ninety degree angle from the folded edge.

Once you determine how long you'd like your cape and drawn in the neckline on a large piece of paper (or on your folded fabric in chalk), measure out your desired length from your neckline in several places.   Use the ends of those measurements to draw in the bottom curve of the cape.

(Let's pretend that my orange 'measurements' are of equal length.)

Front piece: To create the front pattern piece, use your back piece, eliminating the fold instruction and add about 4" or so on the side that will be your cloak's opening. This is so the opening overlaps a bit so you can close it with a button (or whatever strikes your fancy: ribbon, chains, crab claws, etc.), and will give you a bit extra to fold back into a neat hem. You will also want to shape the neckline to be slightly lower in the front (again, use that tee shirt) so that it doesn't strangle you.

Note: If your fabric is wide enough or your cape small enough, you may be able to get away with using just one pattern piece for the front and back, eliminating the side seam.  Make up both the front and back pattern pieces on paper and then tape the side seams together to overlap your seam allowance amount.  Cut the cape as one piece.

Construction: You have your pieces cut and pressed. Get ready to sew:

1. Align hood pieces right side together.  Sew curvy side. Hem front of hood.

2. Align one front piece side seam with back side seam, right sides together, and sew. (I know I don't have to say this, but take note that the pieces are placed together so the side neck is aligned with the back neck and it's not all turned around.  This is a long seam you don't want to have to rip out.) Repeat for other side.

3. Attach hood by putting middle seam in the middle of the back, right sides together, and pinning away from there along both sides. Sew hood in place.  Take note that sewing curves can be challenging, and the fabric will want to stretch out on the bottom. Control your stitching and fabric, keeping your pins in place as you sew to prevent outrageous amounts of stretching.

4. Hem bottom of cloak.

5. Fold over the front opening into a double fold and hem, making sure an inch or two is left to overlap the other side. Repeat for other side.

6. Attach button so your cloak doesn't come off in the wind.

peasant blouse

Something to know: this tutorial has been modified to improve the shape of the garment and the clarity of instructions. I will continue to update this tute as new possibilites present themselves. If you are revisiting this post, feel free to take or leave any of the changes as you see fit. Please leave a comment if you have a question (or something nice to say - I like that too).

Begin with:
chest and arm measurements
measurement of desired length of bodice and sleeves
1/4" elastic

light-weight fabric (the heavier the material, the boxier the shape!)

Step 1: size and cut bodice and arm blocks

These measurements used here are general guidelines - I suggest you play with the measurements yourself to see what suits the wearee best. These take less than an hour to make, so it isn't very time consuming to make another in order to tweak your pattern. Do not use your best material first time out. And remember, use lightweight fabric (woven or knit) for the best drape.

The measurements below refer to the total unfolded size - fold fabric in half when cutting pattern.

For children, the general rule is to add one inch to the bodice width (at the top of the pattern piece if it is to be A-line) and two inches to the bodice length for every size increase. The arm width should be increased by half an inch for every size increase (the length being dependent upon personal taste more so than formula).

Size 2 - 19.5" chest

Bodice (width of neckline by length) 14" x 14"

Arms (width by length) 12" x 7"

Size 3 - 20" chest

Bodice (w x l) 15" x 16"

Arms (w x l) 12.5" x 8"

Size 4 - 21.5" chest

Bodice (w x l) 16" x 18"

Arms (w x l) 13" x 10"

Also, cut one strip of elastic to the chest measurement minus 2" (or fit and adjust). Cut two more strips at the arm measurement plus 2.5" (this includes a 1/2" or so you need to double over tape to sew closed).

For adults, well, I'm not sure because I have never made one for a big people. But I will soon and will update when I have a formula to share.

Step 2: shape bodice and arm blocks

Here are the general shapes of the cut (in a A-line shape; a straight shape is fine too and the following photos accompaning were done using a straight bodice.) The total area (blue and white sections) of the pieces above represent the folded bodice and arm pieces. The blue section is the shape of garment you want - cut away the portion represented by the white area.

Fold bodice and arm pieces in half. The armhole cut is the same size for all pieces so I suggest stacking up the folded pieces to cut. Shape the bodice and armhole pieces as indicated by the blue and white pattern guideline above. Make note that the top of the armhole should slightly slope in towards the center of the bodice (the photos below do not represent that slope very well).

For a size 2, the armhole cut is about 5" x 2", with a angled cut starting at about 4" mark. If you go for an approximate shape you should be fine. For every additional size increase from a size 2, increase the cut by 1/2" (or find a good fitting existing garment and use that armhole as a guide).
Step 3: sew together
Put one large piece and one sleeve piece together at the arm hole and stitch along cut. Stitch other sleeve on the same way. Stitch sleeves on to the other large piece.
Stitch side seams all the way from sleeve end to bottom.

If you desire, serger or zig zag neck/sleeves/bottom to prevent fraying.
Step 4: add elastic

Fold under top (and press ) to make a casing for your elastic. Stitch almost all the way around, leaving a small opening to feed your elastic through: Overlap ends of elastic together and sew together so it will lay flat. Adjust elastic in casing and then finish sewing casing closed.
Do the same for the sleeves.
(btw, I used 1/2" elastic for this, because it was all I had at the time, and it was way too big and stiff. Stick to 1/4")
Fold under bottom and hem.
Finished!



Modification suggestions:
- add a belt
- use shirring instead of elastic in casing, like so:
- shirr the chest and back areas
- move your casing in 1/4" to make a ruffled edge along neck and sleeves- extend A-line into a dress
- add some small ties to the side seams to pull behind back and tie
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You've seen the shirts and now you can make your own pattern...

OR

You can buy the pattern and have it delivered to your email, all ready to go.  Visit my shop to see the Oh Suzanna Smock for an easy to use pattern in girls' sizes 2-7, complete with clear instructions and plenty of illustrations.

gathering with clear elastic

Quick tute for those who are wondering why and how to use clear elastic for gathering.

First off, why: clear elastic is relatively inexpensive, very flexible, light-weight, and you can sew and cut it (length-wise) and it won't unravel like regular elastic. It gathers evenly and quickly - a nice change for those of us who are 'baste and pull' challenged - and the gathering is done with one line of stitching instead of three (baste two and final secure stitch). Also, it will gather to an exact length (whatever length you cut it to) and takes the ifyness out of elastic thread.

For people with sergers, this stuff is great because you can run it off the edge past the chopper blade without damaging the elastic or disorganizing the gather. Basically, you can use the serger to do the whole gather, no stopping to gather on the regular machine and switching to the serger to finish the seam.

Now, how: Clear elastic comes in a variety of sizes, but I suggest using a 1/2" or 3/8" to start, just to get a feel of it.

Cut the length desired for gather, minus 1/4" (because it stretches out to be slightly larger after sewn.) I usually evenly mark (with pins) both the fabric to be gathered and the strip of clear elastic at 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 lengths (or whatever makes managable sections) and then pin the two together so the gather will be even. Put your fabric and the end of elastic under the needle, make a couple of stitches to secure, and the stretch it out to evenly match the fabric length. Sew right through elastic.

Keep stretching and stitching until you are done your gathering. Presto, done! You can stitch through the elastic again to attach your gathered fabric to whatever it goes on.

Questions?

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This is a free tutorial and I encourage you to use the information in any way you need to (check the disclaimer at the bottom of the page). If it works for you, toss a dollar or two in my paypal to show appreciation and to encourage me to offer up even more quality patterns and tutorials.

Thank you!
Questions about the Donation? FAQ here.

buttonholes are our friends

I've heard a surprising number of people say they are frightened of buttonholes (no, missmonkeymae, you are not alone). But they are so useful, you must be brave!

First off, measure and mark where you want your buttonhole to be. I usually only use pins to show where to start and stop, but a tailor's chalk line helps keep things straight.

I am going to assume that your sewing machine has buttonhole settings. This is how mine looks:

Basically four settings: left side, bottom, right side, top.

You do not have to take the fabric out of the machine when using the these presets. Just switch over to the next setting when appropriate. The feed dogs will move your fabric for you. You will also want to set your stitch width to satin stitch (meaning set your machine to make the zigzags of the button hole stitch very close together)

Your start position. Put the needle just to left of your chalked line:

And away you go!

Once you have your buttonhole outline created, then you cut your buttonhole. I use a buttonhole cutter (shown below) but an exacto-blade will also work if you are careful. I do not recommend a regular stitch puller to basically rip a hole in the fabric because it frays things badly.

Once you've got your hole in, rough it up a little to bring up any little frays. Cut off these frays and neaten up the threads.

The second part of the buttonhole is finishing the edges. By far the easiest part. All you want to do is select a zig zag stitch that is slightly wider than your preset buttonhole stitch. (Some experimenting may be necessary here, but you'll only have to figure it out once if you write it down someplace.)

What you are going to do is zig zag over top of the sides of your buttonhole, letting the needle go off the edge of hole (but not onto the otherside - do not close the hole back up!)

This probably isn't a helpful shot, but this is what it looks like:

I'm also going to apologise now, because my machine is acting up and needs to go in for a tune up so it is not as neat as yours will be.
However, this is one side done:

Remember to backstitch the ends.

The otherside: And that's it! Unless you want to use a bit of fray block, just to make sure it won't come loose (good if you are making children's garments and know they will get a lot of abuse from fumbly, learning fingers), but is should be very secure.

And since my demo buttonhole was sort of shabby, I've got a pic of a buttonhole done in my machine's better days.
Let me know if anything is unclear.

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This is a free tutorial and I encourage you to use the information in any way you need to (check the disclaimer at the bottom of the page). If it works for you, toss a dollar or two in my paypal to show appreciation and to encourage me to offer up even more quality patterns and tutorials.

Thank you!
Questions about the Donation? FAQ here.