Fur Cape

We took a family trip up to DC a few years ago, and I thought I'd post a picture of a sewing project I did. This is Anna, age 3, in a red velvet cape with fur trim. It was a challenging project, but it ended up being very durable and turned out surprisingly well. (the picture makes the hem look rather crooked; it's not really!)

I had a second hand small scrap piece of faux velvet, about half a yard. It was shaped like a distorted trapezoid. The edges were rough and frayed, and there was a singed section about 4 inches near one corner. In order to save the maximum amount of fabric, I gathered the top of the "trapezoid" into a collar the size of Anna's neck, and bias faced the edge. I had her try on the unfitted gathered fabric and marked a gently curving hem on the bottom. After trimming the hem to the correct length, I saved my few scrap pieces of velvet. . .just in case. My aunt had given me a handful of scraps of leftover grayish faux rabbit fur. I measured, twisted, stretched, and eventually managed to cut small strips of the fur, just wide enough for a hem. I attached this with a machine overcast stitch to the hem and collar. I saved the left over pieces of fur also, just in case. After lining the cape with a half a yard of a red polyester blend, I took three large one inch buttons, and covered them with velvet. Out of my scraps, I made tiny loops to attach to the opposite edge of the front opening, and then I had the closure. A small hook and eye under the fur on the top finished it off! Taking a second look at my collection of scraps, I decided to fashion a little hat to match, (lined with the same polyester blend, naturally)! The hat is pieced together like nothing you would believe! (And, you wouldn't even know it if I hadn't told you!) After that, I even had enough scraps to piece together strips about 1/4 inch wide, and made little ties for the hat. Everyone loved her little cape. Complete strangers, tourists, snapped pictures of the little princess in DC!