Aurora's Cloak : Finished

Fits perfectly! Just grazes the floor, so the 8" grow stripe leaves plenty of years worth of wear, yet. I tried it hilariously on my husband (comedy) but he declared it VERY comfy and wants his own made of velveteen. That would take... a lot of velveteen.

Anyway, Aurora loves her cloak, says it's very warm. Exactly what I was going for! And I can't say how glad I am that this mink collar finally has a home. It's been kicking around in my sewing box for eight years. GET A LIFE! (It has.)

The purple looks glorious with her Sansa Stark hair.

Moving Along

So Aurora's cloak is almost done. Obviously as you may have noticed by now, I really do straddle a line between fantasy costuming, and what would be period. For example, I'm pretty religious about using only natural fibers in my garb, with a rare allowance for blends if they're comfortable and good looking. But I'm as willing to use cotton, which is not period, as I am silk, wool and linen, (which would all be perfectly accurate.)

My designs are somewhere between Pre-Raphaelite and accurate, and honestly, I'm okay with that. If I have a desire to do something historically accurate from the ground up, I will, but most of the time I'm satisfied with just looking fantastic. I'll put the work in, it's not that. I'm not one of those people wandering around in an unhemmed poly-cotton t-tunic and jeans, fuck that noise. I'm going to look like I tried, and tried hard, but so long as the SCA doesn't have accuracy restrictions (like one would see in a typical reenactment camp) I'm not going to lash myself to perfection. I would rather see brilliantly executed fantasy than poorly executed period any day of the week.

I've got a massive fabric stash to use up, and use it up I will.

The point of this diatribe is that very obviously this cloak is not period, the velveteen is cotton, the pattern is Kinsale (late 19th century) if it's anything, the stripes are so Rennie, and everything about it just smacks of fantasy. But I'm okay with that- I'm great with that! I think it looks great, and that's what matters to me.

So all that's left to do now is add the mink collar, make the button loop, and sew that and the button on. I'm not 100% pleased with how the grow-stripe got stitched down, it's a little lumpy here and there in the front, but she's six and if she has this cloak on she'll either be a) in the dark, or b) running around (these two things are not mutually exclusive.) So I don't think many, if any, will notice that.

I got all of this done in 4 episodes of Lost. Awesome.

In other news, I've been cannibalizing all of my old underkirtles and overkirtles into over-and-under-kirtles for her. This lucky kid is going to be awash with silks and linens and all kinds of lovely things.

Aurora's Cloak

 Started Aurora's cloak today- pulled the following out of my stash- purple cotton velveteen, purple cotton, a strip of purple silk (to use as a button loop), a shell button and the fur collar. The shell button is actually quite sparkly with lots of colors flashing through, but you can't much tell in the photo.

Took her measurements- she's 37" from shoulder to floor, so I measured a cloak 45" long and am going to fold over an 8" grow stripe and sew it down. I figure a 45" cloak will last her several years, and the colors and design are mature enough to see her through several phases of her girlhood. I'm planning to sew the lining (a recycled duvet cover) in by hand, and possibly use a contrasting shade of thread for that. ::rubs chin:: Perhaps a fun marigold color? Or an olive green?

I discovered in the middle of my work that the two velvet panels I had (recycled curtains,) were two different shades of purple, even though, omfg, they came from the same damn set of curtains. One was a dusky plum, the other was a richer wine shade. So I cut each panel into quarters and then sewed them back together, alternating. As you can see, (with my husband holding it up for me,) the outcome is whimsical without being jester-esque and obnoxious.

She's sick and run down with a fever, so there won't be much of me holding things up to her and asking her to repeatedly turn around so I can see how they look. But a cloak is just a rectangle, what could go wrong?

(Famous last words.)