Aloha Cape!

After ages of browsing and wondering if I'd ever be skilled enough (or find out about it before it expired, rather than months after it ended), I participated in an online challenge. Me. I did it. And within the challenge deadline too! (Pause for collective swoon and recovery time...)

So what, you ask with trepidation, did I do? Relax, it is not one of my wild bucket list schemes like going to this restaurant, it's a sewing challenge. One that, for a change, caters to my quirks and allows me enough time and leeway to choose what I'm going to do and then actually get it done. Like!

The Monthly Stitch is a new sewing group with a monthly challenge. Their first challenge ever started this August. I stumbled over it in the first week, and figured "a whole month? WONDERFUL!" and joined. See my TMS button over there on the right under "Labels"? Yup, that's them. Cool, huh? I've even got an icon! I feel so grown-up now.

So the first challenge was a cape. Any cape you like - Superman, Dracula, I love Lucy, just as long as it's a cape.

Of course, I never make things easy for me (as if I need more challenge!), so after days of poring over patterns, I decided to draft my own.

Under the watchful eye of Quality Control 

Then it was onto fabric search. Scrabbling through my stash, I found this green, broadcloth-y fabric that I think is cotton, but didn't do a burn test to check.

Wash, iron, cut. Great.

The Monster Kitty Committee. It's not often Trix participates

Now for the lining. Ooooh, the lining. Choose, wash, iron, check, discard. Repeat. Over and over, like a shampoo ad! I think I unpacked half my stash before I stumbled upon this gorgeous Hawaiian print remnant sent to me by Mom G. It was perfect! Also no burn test, but it's a sateen-y cotton.

My sewing machine is still incommunicado (I'm thinking of giving up and buying a cheap machine locally), so I used my serger to seam the garment, and then handstitched a reinforcing line along the inside edge of each serged seam. Darn thing is so neat, I can wear it inside out with pride! Well, not really, because the cape is fully reversible, so all my neat edges are tucked away invisibly. It's kinda like wearing naughty underwear to a staid business meeting - wink!

Add ribbon for the closure and all done! Unfortunately, having completed my ensemble and flounced out to show Himself, he burst out laughing, so this will probably be yet another item that finds itself donated to some happy recipient of the local populace. Still, I had a ball making and modeling it!

As long as nobody notices that my Hawaiian print is upside down on the back! ;)