For the Fairytales challenge, I decided to make myself a Little Red Riding Hood cloak. I used the pattern diagrammed out in Costume Close Up, partnered with the instructions from The Hive Online's discussion on short cloaks and building on what I learned from the short cloak I made last fall for my mother-in-law to wear with her Acadian costume.
The wool is re-purposed from a plain hemmed shawl that I wore with my Melisandre costume. It had been run through the abuse of a hot wash and high heat dryer cycle to get it a bit felled and a softer, more abused look. The lining is silk twill and it and the silk ribbon for the ties and hem facing were dyed together. (The ribbon went into the bath first, then the twill. But at that point, I needed to add a touch more water to keep everything submerged, and thus the lighter tone of the hood lining.)
The entire thing is hand-sewn, with a silk ribbon used as a lightweight hem facing instead of leaving the edges raw. I doubt it's terribly historically accurate to accentuate the ties with buttons, but I had the wolf head buttons on hand and couldn't resist.
The Challenge: #6 Fairytales
Fabric: wool outer and silk twill lining
Pattern: from Costume Close Up, with modifications from The Hive Online
Year: mid to late 18th century
Notions: silk ribbon, gold tone buttons and cotton thread
How historically accurate is it? Just about as accurate as I can get.
Hours to complete: Maybe 12, I didn't really keep track.
First worn: you're looking at it
Total cost: $18 for the wool, $1 worth of silk twill, $3 worth of ribbon and $3 for the buttons. So $25 total.
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| Yeah, ignore the fact that I'm in my skivvies. I was pulling double duty and photographing an upcoming project at the same time. |
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| I just LOVE the way this falls over the shoulders. |
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| Yay for an even hemline on the fist try |
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| Close up of the back of the hood. I'm still not sure I got the pleats arranged the way they were intended, but this is what I could manage to make work. The instructions were very insistent on there being a correct way to do this, but not terribly clear on exactly what that way was. |
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| Close up of the buttons and ties. |
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| And the hem facing. I pretty pleased with the color matching. Even though they're not all the same intensity, they are all the same shade and I think they go well together. |
Now, to find myself a basket!
