Finished! Ewok Fur Cape

The coast is clear for all of you who hate it when you are bombarded with music (Ooh la la by Goldfrapp in this case). If you want my sew sexy sewing soundtrack, you'll have to press play yourself while you read Monday's post. I'm thrilled that so many of you are going to try to heat up this winter with a little sexy sewing. More to follow!

But on to today's news.... So, after I regrouped from my muslin fail back in December, I decided to go with a simple outerwear pattern for my Ewok fur, and I think the results are totally fun and wearable!

I ended up making V8959, a Very Easy Vogue Cape.

For outerwear, this pattern could not be easier.

I made version B in a size medium since I fell in between sizes. But to do again, I would probably sew a small. This is generously sized and I did take it in a little bit. That said, in a cape, I'm not sure that size is worth obsessing over - just one reason that this is sew easy.

It has a pretty, but simple collar, with just one button to close it. I really like the lines, which give it a raglan look through the shoulders and allow for the armholes/slits to be simply sewn on-seam.

One of the only problems with capes is that they aren't usually particularly warm. In the northeast this translates into a very narrow wearing season.  So, I lined this cape with a light gold colored Sunback (aka kasha) lining, which is a flannel-backed satin. It's toasty warm, feels silky soft and was easy to work with. I hope it makes this warm enough to get some real use out of.

Sunback lining

Because it's me, I did make a few enhancements when it came to construction.

First, to finish the lining, I sewed a braided piping down both front edges between the lining and faux fur shell. Adding piping between the fabric and lining of any jacket is easy to do and makes the finished garment look that much more professional.

Next, the directions have you machine stitch the hem on both the shell and lining. However, I prefer to catch stitch hems by hand and I didn't want the faux fur to have a visible line of stitches. So I simply finished with the fabric edge with my serger turned it up and hand stitched in place. 

Catch stitched hem

I machine finished the hem of the lining (serged, turned and stitched) and then sewed the lining to the hem with fell stitches to finish it all. You wouldn't normally use a fell stitch to finish a hem as far as I know, but it worked out pretty well for this application and I've been wanting the practice anyway. It took two evenings on the couch in front of the Olympics to do all the finishing since the hem is so long, but I just don't really like free hanging linings.

Lining fell stitched in place

I also fell stitched the lining and fur together at the arm holes rather than slip stitching. I never liked the slip stitch, and the fell stitch just looks so pretty.

Arm slit

By the way, it does not get easier than outerwear without sleeves! There are no fitting issues when you are just sewing slits.

Armholes!

The little extra that I like best is the hanging loop I added at the back collar. I used the same method as for my leather jacket.

Hmmm, the button looks off center in these pictures, I think I may move it over a bit to make it a little more centered. Oh and on that note, I used my new welt making skills to do a bound button hole in a scrap of black rainwear.  I somehow only have blurry photos of it, so please make due with this one.

One final note on fabric: I was a little nervous about this faux fur with vinyl spots. But it was so easy to work with that there isn't much to say.  It was easy to cut with a rotaty cutter, sewed up easily on my machine and, with a silk organza press cloth, it even pressed just fine on a medium heat. I didn't really treat it differently than any heavy weight fabric.  The only thing about faux fur is that when you trim, be prepared for fluff to get everywhere.

 Anyway, I'm very happy with how this came out.

And I look forward to wearing it for more than a snowy photo shoot soon!

Ta dah!