#cape tutorial

(Aka: Long Cape with Stand Up Collar Tutorial)

It was requested of me to do a tutorial for Eridan’s cape, and although I have never cosplayed him, I have made things with very similar construction so I am confident that this should be helpful!

Tutorial under the cut:

Let’s talk about fabric:

For a cape such as Eridan’s, you will want it to be heavy but still flowing. You want to avoid a single-layered satin or broadcloth cape, because that will simply not give a good effect. A good type of material to look for would be a cotton or poly poplin or bottom weight, or even a lighter poly suiting. Microsuede is also a very nice cape material, but it’s up to personal preference. If you want, a heavy satin (Joann has a type called Casa Satin, which is a nice weight with a matte finish) could be an appropriate and nice looking material for the inside of Eridan’s cape. Ideally, the bolt should be wide enough for the length from your shoulders to the floor, but if narrower material is the only option, you will need to buy more yards of it to panel together for the right length cape. Depending on how full you want your cape, anywhere from 2 1/2 to 5yards will be needed for wide material, which is what this tutorial will be using as it’s ideal fabric. (Questions about narrower fabric cape patterns? Shoot me a message.)

Important! Please read:

To make the tutorial less confusing, I’ve color coded the fabrics in the pattern as follows:

Obviously, these will not be the actual colors of your fabric! haha

Getting started:

First off, you’ll start with four large trapezoids. Two of your outer material, two of your inner material. The width of the top should be a few inches wider than your shoulders, and the sides should slope down into your desired cape width:

Now you’re going to sew the pieces together like so, keeping mind of the right and wrong sides:

You should now have two basic capes (lining and shell), and they should be able to sit on your shoulders.

To cut the collar, first measure how tall you’ll want it and add an inch. Now, measure how wide you’ll want it around the neck, and add in the extra width on the top edge. Keep in mind the bottom of it should fit to where the edges meet with the cape’s edges. (Eridan’s cape comes around to hit about his clavicle- the edges will be much further in but will get sewn into the proper fit later!)

Mark out the rectangle on a paper, making sure to taper the ends. You’ll use this pattern to cut two collar pieces out of your outer cape fabric, and two of the fusible interfacing.

Iron your interfacing to the wrong sides of the collar pieces, making sure it’s pressed down without lumps or wrinkles. Sew your reinforced collar pieces right sides together, along the sides and top edge.

Clip the seam allowances and turn the collar, making sure to push the corners all the way out. Iron the collar so the edges lay flat. You can topstitch the collar, but so long as you iron it it’s not necessary but can be added for cosmetic effect.

Now pin the collar like so against the right side of the cape:

Pin the cape lining on top of that (take out the pins from the last step, they will get in the way), and MAKING SURE EACH LAYER IS PINNED FLAT, sew the edge.

Trim the seam allowance on the collar. Making sure the corners of the collar are folded in (so they don’t accidentally get sewn), pin the edges of the cape and lining to the width you want. Sew these seams and trim off the allowance.

Now you’ll turn your cape right-side-out, and press the seams. You’re almost there!

Mark the length you want on the bottom of the cape, and turn the edges inside to be sewn. (You may need to trim some of the fabric if there’s too much; about an inch to turn under is good.) Sew up the seam, being mindful of not letting the turned in fabric slip out. If you like, a decorative stitch can be used for a more interesting finished look.

(Note: there are many other ways to hem a cape, and it’s really up to your skill/preference! This was just a simple and effective example.)

The only thing left to do is to sew on the buttons and chain! Handsew the buttons on underneath the collar seam, and sew down the chain on one side. To make it easy to take on and off, my suggestion would be to get a metal ring and a jewelry clasp (a heavier one if possible!), sew the metal ring on under the other button, then hook the clasp to the end of the chain.

Make sure everything is nice and ironed, and you have yourself a cape!

Ahhh.... Good point D: 

Intetionally, I did it because I figured it was it was an easier way to deal with putting the interfacing inside the collar. It didn't seem like much for me to then just attach it. However..... all the turns you gotta make to sew the concave parts and whatnot in the collar, it seemed too much fabric to try and maneuver under the limited space under the sewing machine? Like if it were all one big piece, I can imagine all this weight of fabric I'd have to pull in and around... well for me anyway, I just thought it was more efficient to do it in two pieces - one Big Squarish piece and one Smaller More Fiddly piece.. Perhaps efficiency for you could be to do it all in one piece, if you don't mind sewing all in one go around the edge of the entire cape's shape, and can handle passing through all that fabric under that machine and still do the finicky turnarounds!