Our Fashion Projects Category

Let’s talk capes. No, not the Renaissance fair kind, but the stylish every day kind. Capes are just one of those things you either find really attractive/elegant or silly. I’m of the former group. I find them simple and beautiful (when done right). I’m going to walk you through a tutorial for making a really easy cape out of flannel. But before I do I want you to know, you can simplify this way down if you are looking for a fast project. You don’t need the pockets or collar if you don’t want them. I tend to go crazy if I don’t have pockets, so I had to add them. You also don’t need to line it. I wanted something that would be useful in DC’s weather, so I opted for a warm liner so I could get some use out of it.

Materials:

1.75 yards flannel

1.75 yards liner (I choose thick velvet-ish fabric)

Buttons

Some scrap vinyl

Tassels

1. Fold fabric in half, then half again

2. Cut circle with 29” radius

3. Cut circle with a 3” radius out of the middle for the neck hole

4. Open up the circle, cut a straight line, opening up the cape

5. Now we are going to make the pleats where the pockets go. If you don’t want pockets (or pleats, skip to step 11)

-Measure 20” in at the bottom edge, mark

-Measure 3” past the first mark, mark this spot

-Tuck the 3” portion back on the underside so it points towards the opening

-Pin pleat along edge

6. Now we are going to cut the pleat open on the back side, about 13” in length. Roll this edge back once and stitch to finish.

8. Using the scraps from around your larger circle, cut the pockets by tracing your hand.

9. Sew each pocket right in to your pleats. You’ll sew along the top edge of each side first, and then sew the pocket itself together.

10. Top stitch the pleat as follows:

11. Lay out your cape, cut a copy out of the lining fabric.

12. Using the rest of the scraps from your big circle, cut a collar. I just used as much as I could, I didn’t measure or anything.  Sew pieces together, leaving bottom arc open. Then turn right-side-out, press and top stitch

13. Sew collar to right side of cape (1/4” seam). Then sew lining to the cap (1/2”), leaving an opening on the front straight part so you can turn it right side out.

14. Turn cape, press, finish opening. Now you can top stitch.

15. Now mark and add buttons to the front. I chose to have the buttons face inward so you wouldn’t see them

16. Put on the cap, mark where you want you “arm” to be defined. Stitch multiple times here, about ½” up.

17. Add tassels.

Done!!

So my Dita Von Teese inspired wrap dress was such a success for the summer, I’ve decided to go a winter version. This is a traditional style wrap dress, it actually ties closed, unlike the other one which was a faux wrap. I honestly have no idea how long this took because I worked on it in like 15 or 30 minutes chunks when I had the time.

To start out I found this amazing knit at G Street for $3/yard. With my Living Social deal my purchase was ½ off ($25 for $50), so it was basically $1.50/yard. It’s a panel- print knit called “Bunny” and it has a pretty good weight to it; almost like a light sweater. I needed 3.5 yards because of the panel. So I made this dress for $5.25 + a closure. Pretty darn good.

****Before I go on I want to make a note: Even though we are working with a knit, I don’t recommend using elastic thread. It will bunch/ruffle the fabric and we want smooth seams. So instead use a small zig-zag. *****Oh and all seams are 0.5”*****

Here are the measurements you’ll need:

1. Cut two (opposite of each other) as follows:

2. For the upper back, cut 1:

3. For the skirt panels, cut 3:

4. The ties: cut 4

5. Sew ties together, turn right-side out, top stitch. Now you’ll have to strips

6. Assemble the panels, attach the skirt to the top, pleating in the excess in the skirt.

7. Sew Front panels to back panel at shoulder.

8. Trace arm hole, add seam allowance. Cut two as follows:

9. Sew front right panel to back panel along side seam.

10. Pin one tie strap in place on back panel at left side seam. Then sew together back panel, tie strap and front left panel along seam.

11.  Pin sleeve to dress, sew

12. Finish the neckline/side seams by rolling the edge

13. Hem the bottom

14. Attach the second tie strap to the outer edge of the right front panel

15. Attach hooks on the outer left panel and on the side seam which attaches the right front panel to the back panel. This is so when you put the dress on the left panel will stay secured with the hooks and the right panel is tied in place.

And that’s it!

AKA How to make a hat with a bill

For a long time now people have been asking me to do a tutorial on how to do a hat with a bill (because of this post). So finally I got around to it. Sorry it took almost a year. This tutorial is basically the 45 minute hat, plus bill

So I’ve already cut the elbow patches and leg warmers out of my sweater (shown in white). So I had to cut around the missing sections.

1. Take a ball cap and trace the bill. This is your insert pattern.

2. Now add 0.5″ all the way around your insert pattern. You’ve now made yourself  a bill pattern.

3. Here’s my big secret. Transparency paper. You know, like you used in school for the over head projector? It makes a great bil insert. I don’t like using cardboard like some people do because it gets gross when wet. This stuff is fine. I haven’t tried to wash/dry it. But otherwise it works great. So take a sheet of transparency paper and cut a bill insert out

4. Using your bill pattern, cut 2 out of your sweater

5. Sew bill pieces together with 0.5″ seam

6. Snip around curved sections

7. Turn right side out, press

8. Insert the bill insert. pin. Top stitch 3 lines equal distance apart. I used 1/2 a presser foot width as my measurement

9. Measure around your head. This is your headband length

10. For the headband portion, I did not have enough of my sweater left to do both the inside and outside. Also, it was too short to do 1 piece, so I had to pieces together the band. To do this, I cut 2″ strips out of my sweater down the side. I sewed these together. Then cut to the length from step 9. Cut an equal strip out of scrap fabric. It’s going to be on the inside so it doesn’t matter that much

11. Sew your headband strips, both inside and out, together to make 2 loops.

12. Find the center of your outer headband. Pin to the center of you bill. Working out from this point, pin your bill to the outer headband. Repeat with inner.

13. Now sew together inner and outer headband all the way around, including bill section.

14. Cut out circle from back side of sweater. I cut mine at 8.5″ to get a good amount of fullness.

15. Pin edge of circle to raw edge of outer headband, pleating as you go. Sew

16. Finish raw edge of inner headband as you like, I surged it.

17. Turn inner headband up so it covers seam from 15.

18. On outside of hat, on the upper hat portion, stitch as close to the seam from step 15 as you can. This will hid all the unfinished edges on the inside of your hat.

Then you’re done. You have an adorable hat will a bill!

Last week we did elbow patches, this week is leg warmers!

I opted for a multifunctional leg warmer. I know it sounds tricky, but it’s not. I used some scrap fabric so one side of the leg warmer has three tiers while the other only has one. This gives me plenty of options.

1. Cut the sleeves off your sweater. Cut the bottom ribbed part off, about 3″ total

2. Cut the raw edge (near shoulder) off so it’s straight across. Measure the circumference of the opening. This is your width.

3. With your second and third fabric (must be stretch of some sort) cut rectangles 8″ and 14″ tall and match the width measured in step 2 plus 1 ” (seam allowance).

4. Finish the upper edge of the 2 spare fabrics (roll or surge). Sew your waist band strip and two extra fabrics into tubes, like above

5. This next step was tricky to diagram, so bare with me. Now you are going to place your tubes inside each other from tallest to shortest. So it’ll go gray, dotted then green. Line up the bottom edge. Pin together

6. Now place the sleeve section from step 2 inside all of those. Pin

7. Using elastic thread in your bobbin, stitch along the bottom edge.

And that’s it! So now you can wear these bad boys multiple ways. You can tuck the upper black portion in so you only see the patterned fabric and the green. Or flip the whole thing over so you only see the green!

Here it is with all three showing. Sorry the picture is fuzzy and has a brown hue. My camera has been acting up

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