Stitchin' in My Kitchen

Just in time for an El Nino winter, I just completed the Sewaholic Cypress Cape. Described as  "perfect for cycling, dog-walking, and long walks in the rain. Wide semi-circular sleeves allow you to easily stretch your arms and reach in front, with pleats at centre back for extra mobility. A hood keeps you dry in wet weather. The Cypress Cape is unlined, to keep it light and packable. Hems are bound with bias tape. The cape closes with a centre front zipper, which is covered by a windflap with velcro closures. Add optional reflective piping for extra visibility. Flap pockets give you a place to keep your keys or cards." My old raincoat was disintegrating so I decided to sew up this pattern.  I headed to Fabric Outlet in SF in search of fabric - they always have a good selection of water-resistant/proof fabrics, but back in November I hit the jackpot - in addition to the neutrals they usually carried, they had bright pink, yellow, turquoise, bl...

Sometime in January I found myself browsing patterns and I was hypnotized by the cape patterns from New Look.  I bought this one and  also this one and will probably eventually buy this one! I never thought I was a 'cape person'.  I had also recently bought some really beautiful Tahari wool plum speckled coating from Califabrics.com coating and for a lining I used Bemberg rayon in mustard from Mood. I started with 6227 - no hood.  I cut a size S, view C.  The trick with this fabric that I did not foresee is the directional stripe - I managed to creatively lay it out and cut it so that it made a chevron at the center front and back.   Construction is simple, there are only a few pieces.  The slits are basically like cutting a welt, if you've done that before, only larger.  The only change I made was not to attach the lining at the bottom edge; I'd read a review where this seemed to cause the fabric not to lay right, wh...