KCW: Forest Path Cape

I wear my Liesl & Co Woodland Stroll cape a lot. Quite a while ago I bought some lovely open weave wool in a large scale plaid from The Fabric Store along with some lining with the intention of making the little version, the Oliver + S Forest Path cape for A.

Well, it's Autumn time and chilly and Kid's Clothes Week rolled around, and hey, the Forest Path pattern is almost on theme with Wild Things, right?! Obviously, it had to happen this week!

The cape is a nice simple sewing task for something that ends up looking quite "high end". It was finished last night and worn today and A received  quite a number of unprompted admiring comments from strangers on the street. You've got to love a pattern that's easy to sew but makes you look clever!

 



I would have loved for the plaid to have matched up along the shoulder seams, which are the only seams there are, so it felt like it should have been possible. But if I wanted the pattern centred then the back pattern piece was a fraction too small for matching with the front. I'm sure if I'd been making a larger size the scale of the plaid would have magically fit the pattern and it may have worked out.

I'd bought the pattern way back when I bought the fabric and I only had the small size range pattern. This is a size 4 which is the biggest in that size range.

We took a trip into the city to hit up Buttonmania for the perfect buttons. When we got there the sign on the door said they were closed and I was at a bit of a loss, until I read further and discovered it was "warehouse Monday" when Kate opens up the back of the shop and you buy great handfuls of buttons by weight. So, down the hallway we went and found these buttons and dozens of others and had a great shopping spree (for about half of what I would have paid for 5 buttons at Spotlight).

I've realised I didn't get a good picture of the lining, but it's the lovely acetate from The Fabric Shop that doesn't go all stringy like cheap lining does and it's exactly the same colour as those buttons. My buttonholes were looking a bit anaemic so after cutting them open I went over them again with a zig zag stitch.

The main wool fabric is quite an open weave. It looked like it may not be too warm, and it was threatening to unravel where I cut it. The solution to handling it, and adding some warmth, was underlining with bamboo quilt wadding. I had enough left overs to add a single layer of soft, fluffy warm bamboo between the wool and the lining.

So there you go, it's panda food too! Totally on topic with the Wild Things theme!
Hope you're all having a good Kid's Clothes Week so far.