Winter product highlight: capes

This week's product highlight is capes. There is no big story behind the beginning of these, just that my love of them and my love of wearing them has driven me development of my original pattern. Subsequent alterations / options have evolved from a combination of ideas from my head and requests from customers.

The 'true' original design is the fleece outer, polyester lining and rounded hood:

After this design was tried and tested fully I added in the option to have a pointed hood instead:

Next step - other materials! I wanted to offer a wool version but didn't want the colours to be limited to just a few shades. Fortunately I found a supplier that can offer a wide range, and what a range that is:

And most recently? Capes with armholes part way across the front. In either hood design and any fabric, the overall shape of the cape remains the same.

So where will I go next with them? I seem to be always looking at waterproof pvc options and I'm working on my pattern and design for that but this year's personal events may delay release a little bit. I'm always happy to custom make though, and have a variety of one-offs in a few designs and fabrics (including some velvets and lace) for sale either on my website or in Fabrication in Leeds.

Catching up after Christmas...

Blimey December was a busy month! I barely had time to catch my breath between sewing sessions to get all the orders done and keep my area in Fabrication in Leeds fully stocked. Rather than bore you with a post per cape/cloak, here's a round up of some of the beautiful custom pieces which left my workroom in December...

Black crushed velvet cape with a pointed hood:

Semi-circular boiled wool cloak a red lining, with 3 frog-clasps as closure:

Semi-circular pure wool cloak with a midnight blue satin lining and a beautiful celtic clasp - a surprise Christmas present for a very lucky lady!! The hood on this one is detachable, revealing a mandarin collar underneath:

Full-length boiled wool cloak with a jacquard weave lining. This was designed to go over a silk-velvet wedding dress in the same colour as the lining, which I also made but don't have any decent photographs of:

Child's red melton cloak with a white fur trim, after the cloak worn by the main character in the Goth Girl books. Also a Christmas present! 

This month already has a couple of cloaks and a wedding dress lined up, so I'm sure I'll be doing another round-up at some point!

A trio of capes

A trio of capes to show you now, all made for a returning customer.

First up, charcoal fleece with a red/black jacquard weave lining:

Second, a lightweight linen/cotton blend cape for summer wear (they were dispatched to her in time for her holiday so she could take it with her!) with a pretty button closure:

Third, a cape made in the colours of her rugby team (Northampton Saints, in case you're wondering). I think this is a great idea, if I followed a team myself I'd definitely have one in their colours for me!

First wedding cloak of the year...

Yes I know it's April, but January to March doesn't really seem to be a popular time for weddings. I made this cloak a little while ago, but I always wait until after the day to share pictures of anything the bride's wearing even if she hasn't explicitly asked for secrecy.

So, here we go... this was a lovely idea for a cloak, full-length ivory cotton velvet with a round hood, silver clasp and arm slits so that she could hold a bouquet / champagne glass and still be warm!

The full-length picture doesn't really do it justice, since it's on a mannequin which is just a torso. It draped properly and without distortion on a body with arms, but that didn't work for photography. I've added renovating my full body mannequin to my list of things to do!

Wool melton cape with a detachable collar

In addition to having some ready-made items for sale online I also offer custom made capes and cloaks, so you really can have the cape of your dreams!

This cape was a custom order for a lady who'd been looking for something similar for ages and was delighted to find that she could get exactly what she was after made! Made from a polyester/wool blend it has 4 buttons down the front, a contrasting stormy grey lining and a detachable faux-fur collar.

I also made a matching faux-fur headband for her, very stylish!

What my customers get up to...

...or rather, one customer in particular. You see, I happen to have a customer who's a Shirley Bassey Tribute, and a rather good one at that. 

Anyone who's been on my Facebook page may have seen the photos of a stunning gold sequin dress and matching gold lame cape, which were commissioned by Jacqui to take with her on a trip to the states this Feb/March. I was quite pleased with the result, and the dress especially managed to look stunning both on the mannequin and on Jacqui during fittings.

By all accounts her trip seems to have gone really very well, she had a wonderful time and some of the comments on her Facebook page give testimony to how well her show was received everywhere she went. The gold dress seemed to make an appearance at most shows she did, and she said there were often little gasps of amazement when she walked out in it - based on this photo she gave me, I'm not surprised!

Sewing with tissue lame

After finishing a recent project which reminded me how daunting tissue lame can be if you haven't used it in a while I thought I would share some tips to take some of the mystery out of it. Please don't launch straight in to a precious piece of fabric with these though, test them on a scrap and play around with the settings on your machine as they all behave slightly differently!

Cutting the fabric

Don't use your best dressmaking shears to cut the lame. The metallic threads will blunt your shears in no time. If you can, buy a cheap pair especially, or clean-up and use a different pair of household scissors.

Needle  

If you don't use the right type of needle it will catch as it sews, resulting in 'ravels' and pulls all up your seam. Although it's not a jersey fabric at all, you will probably find that a jersey (aka ball-point) needle works best. Make sure your needle is new and change it more regularly than you usually would - as with scissors, the metallic threads wreak havoc on the needle. You'll be able to tell if it's too blunt as you'll start to get pulls in the fabric again.

Tension

You should find that normal sewing tension works fine, however if you get a rippled effect on your seam the best way to remove this is to use the same trick as with chiffon and other fine fabrics - while feeding your material through to sew, pull gently on the seam coming out from behind the presser foot (not enough to drag the fabric through faster than it otherwise would but enough to increase the tension in the fabric)

Enclose all your edges

You need to finish all your edges on tissue lame otherwise it will fray within minutes. Don't try to overlock them, however, as it looks messy on this fabric. The best way to finish them is some sort of enclosed seam - I would suggest either a french seam, or even better a 'run and fell' seam (both sides shown below):

The same goes for your hem: chose a rolled hem if at all possible. If you've got a rolled hem foot for your machine the fabric should go through fine, if not, leave an extra hem allowance and do a thicker hand-rolled hem.

If you do particularly want to leave a raw edge, run a narrow zig-zag stitch about 1/2cm from the edge to reduce the likelihood of fraying reducing your fabric to bare threads.

Oh, and take your time! Tissue lame is not a fabric you want to have to unpick a long seam from!!

Once you've done it though, you'll be able to stand back and feel proud of your work. It is a fabric that can create amazing garments!

Spectacular feathered cape!

It's not just me saying that this piece is fairly spectacular, it was seen by a few family members on Friday who all thought so as well!

I was commissioned by a customer who is a Shirley Bassey tribute to make a cape as similar as possible to the white cape she wore for her Electric Proms performance. Complete with feathers round the edge. And, quite a few metres of chiffon and several boas later, I'm please to say that the result is pretty good. But first, a few snaps of my workroom as the feathers were being attached!

The new boas trying to escape from the box they were delivered in...

Even my dressmaker's dummy was roped in to holding some feathers...

And it did feel like they were going to swallow the sewing machine at times...

But the end result was worth it (even if it was a bit difficult to photograph in full without someone to model it for me!)