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!

New Etsy shop listings this week

As I've listed a few new items in my Etsy shop this week I thought I'd do a brief round-up of them for you.

First, two ready made wraps, both £15. Perfect for the changeable spring weather we've been having, and for days when you don't want to wear a coat but it's not quite warm enough for going without a top layer, these are made from soft high-quality fleece. If you'd like a different colour then see my listing for made to order wraps instead.

Black fleece wrap:

Charcoal fleece wrap:

I also listed two beautiful one-off capes. Both £65, and both with my new-style pointed hood (the rounded hood version is still available, but now you have a choice on custom capes).

First, dark green crushed velvet with a brown lining and a bronze clasp:

Second, black fleece with a red lining and a bronze clasp:

If you're local and would like to try any of these on just let me know, otherwise you can buy them through Etsy and I'll post them out within 1-2 working days.
 

New outlet for my work...

Just a quick blog post to 'announce' (if you've not been on my facebook or twitter feeds) that a selection of my capes, wraps, shrugs and other clothing are now available to purchase in person from the lovely Fabrication inside The Light, Leeds.

If you've never been in and are local, why not? Remedy that immediately!! It's a lovely shop packed full to bursting with high quality handmade items, and I'm proud to have had my stuff accepted to sell in there. I will be working in store 2 days a month too, so if you'd like a custom item making you can call in and talk to me in person about it, and collect it from the store once it's completed.

They've had a rearrange since I took this photo of my stock, but here's a tease of what you can expect to find...

Moving out in to the big wild world...

This week I took what is at once both a small step and a big development for my business: the owners of Handpicked Hall (which has stores in Leeds, Ripon and Skipton) have opened an area of the store called the Bob-In, which is a space for small businesses to have their wares permanently on sale in exchange for a few days a month staffing that area (and of course, some rent, although it's very reasonable).

I have been trading on a monthly basis from Handpicked Hall in the Grand Arcade, Leeds, and thought the Bob-In sounded like a good opportunity to get my products in the public eye on a more regular basis and hopefully increase sales to boot. So, this Wednesday I took over a few capes, wraps and shrugs plus my ever-popular long wristwarmers and set my space up. The whole Bob-In area consists of shelving and some hanging rails, and my space is a shelf for wristwarmers and leaflets etc plus hanging space for the garments:

I'm not due to spend a full-day in store for over a week but I did stay in store for a little while to meet a new seller I'd not met before plus have a catch up with some of the vendors that I do know from previous selling days. The whole store is filling up nicely and the food hall and vintage cafe seem to be in full swing so if you're nearby I'd definitely recommend dropping in for a visit!

fabric haul!

Should I admit now to having a fabric addiction or has everyone already worked it out?

You know you've really got a problem when vans start pulling up outside your house loaded with the stuff and all you want to do is jump in and roll around in it!! Which is exactly what happened today...

To roll the clock back a little, yesterday I got a call from Fabricman saying that he sold roll-ends and offcuts of Scottish Mill fabrics, he was in the area tomorrow and could he call in and meet me, give me an idea of what he sold and his prices. I will admit I was expecting more swatches than actual lengths, but this morning Fabricman pulled up with a van full of fabrics... wools, wool/linens, wool/silks, silk/linens, wool/cashmeres. Really high quality material, a lot of it more lightweight than you usually find on sale here in the UK (a lot of the finer weights that are exported straight to the Middle East) plus some lovely coating weights.

All things considered, I was really quite restrained! I got a few samples for a customer who's looking for the perfect material for a full-length coat, then the following two lengths of material:

1) The softest dark grey cashmere/wool blend with a brushed finish. This is so soft you could swaddle a baby in it and they wouldn't complain, although given babies propensity for dribbling I'm not going to test that tomorrow when I see my friend and her little one. This is definitely mine, no amount of begging will make me part with it, and it's going to be made in to a hip-length cape probably with a jacquard lining if I can find one in the right colour.

2) The other length was another cashmere/wool blend with a less obvious brushed finish that is still lovely and soft but not quite so soft as the grey (slightly lower cashmere content). This one is in black, and is going to be made up in to another hip-length cape, this time for general sale.

I have a lining in mind and the cape I'm planning will go on sale for £80 but if anyone wants to snaffle it up before I get round to it (i.e. in the next couple of weeks) and get it custom-made with their choice of lining colour instead then I'd be happy to give you a 10% discount on that price. Just email me.

Keeping snug and warm

One of the benefits of winter has to be the extra layers that we get to wear. Yes, I know it can be a pain when you're stood at the front door piling on the gloves and scarves, but outer layers of clothing do give some scope for an extra bit of flair.

I've always loved capes and cloaks (although with the latter I have to battle with my urges to have a cloak that goes completely down to the floor - completely impractical in wet weather as it just soaks up the water from the ground!) so as last autumn approached I set myself the task of coming up with my own cape pattern, which I planned to make from warm fleece. The result was a lovely soft green cape, complete with hood for that little bit of extra wow:

After wearing it a few times and establishing that there weren't many tweaks I wanted to make to the design, I've since made a second one, the outer layer in black fleece which increases the amount of outfits it can be worn over but with an eye-catching spotted lining to brighten it up.

And in the intervening time I'd managed to find some beautiful fastenings for future use:

Only thing is, this one's not for me - it's up for sale for someone else to enjoy!