How to Make a Cape, Just Like the Great British Sewing Bee

Are you hooked on watching The Great British Sewing Bee?  Of course you are! I loved this weeks makes and I think I could actually have done a reasonable job with the projects in the show. Given twice the time and without the nosey cameras and the lovely Patrick asking questions in the middle of a tricky stitchy moment, that is. 

Firstly, I am cape-woman.  I have made a fair few capes in my time. I wrote about my very first cape making adventure in this post featuring a Little Red Riding Hood style cape for my Curly Girl. Absolutely my favourite cape which is sadly too small for her now. It took a couple of days of solid cutting out and sewing as it was probably the first proper sewing pattern I had followed. The cape was from a lovely book, Oliver and S, Little Things to Sew. 

Oooh, and there was this super Easy Frozen Dress Up Anna Cape that I somehow managed to squeeze out of one metre of fabric; amazing what some furry trim and pom poms can do for an otherwise basic cape.  

The cape I have made most often is a Harry Potter style black cape.  A really easy cape that makes a great gift if you get hold of a Hogwarts house badge from t'internet and line the cape with the corresponding house colours. The pattern for both of these capes is based on a very simple pattern in the book, Growing Up Sew Liberated.

You can find the Maisie cape PDF pattern for sale on Etsy here (image from My Childhood Treasures. 

A basic cape is a really quick sew when you need a super easy fancy dress costume or something for World Book Day.  Harry Potter, Frozen, Super Hero, Fairy, Princess, Little Red etc can easily be done with a simple cape.  From sparkly shiny fabric to florals and velvet, there are options for both boys and girls. There are so many free tutorials out there; just Google 'free template cape tutorial' and you'll be inundated.  You can really bling up your cape with a contrasting lining or add some appliqué. 

I'm really keen to make myself a grown up wool cape with sleeves. I like the whole cape coat thing, like in this Lemon Pie Cape Coat from Waffle Patterns (image from Waffle Patterns, Etsy).  I'd like something tweedy and country looking though. That would be very Sherlock!

Great British Sewing Bee Book

I couldn't wait to get the new GBSB Book and guess what?  It has a cape pattern and tutorial in it, hurrah!  Review of the book, From Stitch to Style, to follow.

If you missed the cape-tastic blog posts featured in this post, you can find them here...

Riding Hood Cape

Frozen Anna Cape

Harry Potter Cape

TTFN. Galx

Linking up with Craft Frenzy Friday!