Make A Quick and Cheap Circle Cloak
PART 1: JUST THE CLOAK
Step 1. Invite some friends to their first ever event. Make sure it's a cold weather event so that you have to make them cloaks. Then have your Scadian friends ask if you can make them one, as well, because they can't seem to find theirs or found that it wasn't warm enough last year. You have now agreed to make four cloaks.
Step 2. Go to Walmart. Get one (or four) of the $10 fleece blankets in Full/Queen size. If you want a shorter cloak (about waist length) Twin works. But these are all tall mfer's, so I went with the bigger blanket. These blanket don't fray, so there's no need to hem. The edges WILL roll, though, so if you want them to stay flat you'll need to blanket stitch or serge the edges. Or just leave it be, because this is a quick and cheap cloak.
Please note: these ARE polyester so be careful around open flames.
Step 3. Move everything out of the way in your living room, because you don't have any other space big enough to spread this thing out to mark it for cutting. You will probably upset the dogs, but they'll get over it because they're old and still have the couch to sleep on.
Step 4. Fold your blanket in quarters. This means you fold it in half one way, then in half the other way. The material is a bit stretchy, but do your best to make sure that you have your edges matching. Do better than me.
Step 5. Find your scissors and grab either a measuring tape or a long enough piece of string, and a sharpie. Tailors chalk won't mark on this stuff so I usually just use a sharpie instead.
Step 6. Measure the shortest length of the blanket. We already know that it says it is 90x90, but that is a lie. It's actually 90x94 or something like that. Anyway. Measure the shortest length to determine the widest you can make your circle. In this case, we're at 45.
Step 7. Use your tape measure or string like a compass, and mark your cloak. You do this by anchoring one end of the tape measure at the corner of the fold, stretching it out, and marking the fabric at the appropriate length every inch or so. This will create the curve of the circle.
Ignore the fact that I marked this twice. My anchor had come loose and so I had accidentally marked it wrong for a little bit. Anyway. Do this from one edge all the way to the other. Will this be a perfect circle? No. Will anyone be able to tell? Also no.
Step 8. Connect the dots, or find your scissors and just start cutting.
Step 9. Congratulations you have a circle. Now you need a place for your head to go. You do this by measuring two inches from the corner fold, and marking it the same way you did for the body of the cloak. Yes, two inches. Don't worry - your neck WILL fit. This fabric has a lot of stretch to it, and since all of the weight will be pulling from this point it will expand to fit you comfortably. Find your scissors and cut along the dots.
Step 10. Now you have a circle with a hole in the middle of it. Well done. Find your scissors and cut it open, by following the fold from the cut in the neck to the edge of the cloak. This will give you a straight(ish) opening. Try it on and see that I was right about the neck, and you are now cozy and warm.
Step 11. Wait for your housemate to come home so that they can hand-stitch the frog (clasp) closure onto it for you, because you hate hand sewing and she does embroidery as a hobby. Congrats, you have a circle cloak.
PART 2: BUT I WANT A HOOD!
Step 1. Grab that piece you cut off when you made the circle on your blanket. We're gonna turn that into a hood. You only need two matching pieces, but the good news is that you have four. So if you mess up, you still have material to work with.
Step 2. Mark a straight line of 8 inches. This will be the bottom of the hood to connect to the neck of the cloak. Find your scissors and cut it.
Step 3. Find your scissors and cut off the other tail end, making it as deep as you would like your hood to be. Or leave the tail and have a liripipe hood, you do you.
Step 4. Sew up the back and top of the hood. Leave the bottom and face open.
Step 5. Try it on to see if you need to use your back up pieces to make a new hood or not.
That'll do, pig.
Step 6. Pin your hood to the neck of the cloak, and discover that I was right when I said that 2 inches was enough for your neckline.
Step 7. Attach them together. You can do a straight stitch, but I prefer to do a zig-zig, only because there IS a lot of pull on that particular area of the cloak and I like the idea of reinforcement.
Step 8. Try it on. Be warm. Enjoy.
PART 3: GETTING BOUGIE WITH IT
Step 1. Realize that you have made four cloaks out of the same colored blankets because Walmart didn't have any other colors available, and while this isn't necessarily a problem, all four cloaks will be in the same camp and you don't want them to get mixed up or confused for each other.
Step 2. Go find some trim that you have had for years and haven't used up because there's so much of it, or run to the thrift store and see what you can find for cheap. Attach it to the front edge of the cloaks and stitch it down.
Note: you will want to attach trim BEFORE you put your frog on.
Step 3. Silently curse yourself for using wide trim that means you will have to stitch down both sides of it, rather than narrow trim that would only require a zig-zag stitch once down the center.
Step 4. Enjoy.
