In continuing my theme of upper sort warm winter wear--Here is the next garment in the queue--a 1760s velvet cloak. These are some of the images I've been looking at. There are a lot of images of silk cloaks with fur trim as well--one of which I've included. I wanted a cloak to be about hip length and most of the period images I've found seem to be about hip length or shorter.
New York 1763
Philadelphia 1768
I decided to use Sue Felshin's research and draft my own pattern. Here is the pattern that will be cut on the fold and pieced where it hangs off of the fabric. Silk velvet is 45 inches wide so each layer will be pieced in different places as the the taffeta lining is 54 inches wide and the lambswool interlining is 58 inches wide.
Here is the velvet pieced. You can see that it is basically a half circle and there are 6 extra inches added to the neck for pleating.
I cut the wool interlining and placed on top of the wrong side of the velvet. It's pinned and then basted around the edge.
It isn't terribly visible, but if you look closely, you can see how the lambswool interlining stretched and ended up bigger than the velvet. It will be trimmed to size.
I liked the size of the hood on my cloak that was made from the Kannik's Korner pattern so I just decided to use that, adjusting it a bit so the neck edge measured the same as the cloak neck edge.
Hand baste around 1/4 inch from the edge of both the hood and body pieces.
Stitch the back hood seam and turn in the edge of the opening. My seam and hem were about 3/8 inch. Press seam open and pin hem in place.
Pleat the the neckline of the cloak and the hood. Remember that you added 6 inches to the neck measurement so you will want to pleat that 6 inches out as instructed in Sue Felshin's article. Then stitch the hood and cloak together at the neckline right sides together. Press seam open.
It's time to apply the fur trim. My trim is made like piping with a strip of tape that goes in the seam.
I pinned the trim to the right side of the cloak with the edge of the tape even with the edge of the fabric. I snipped the tape when I got to the bottom front corner of the cloak so it would go around the corner smoothly. I basted the trim in place.
After stitching, I went around the whole edge with a tapestry needle to pull the fur hairs out where it got stuck under stitches. This is the most time consuming part of working with fur as this must be done wherever there is stitching.
I cut the lining and pieced it where necessary then I spread the cloak out flat on the floor wrong side up.
The lining was whip stitched to the edge of the cloak. When doing this, make sure to pull the fur hairs out of the stitching with each stitch. Two small pleats were placed at the neck and the lining was basted to the neck seam allowance.
Hood lining was cut and seamed with the opening in the back turned under and pinned in place to the opening in the velvet. Lining was stitched into the hood using the same method as the cloak lining. The neck edge was turned under and pleated and whip stitched over the raw edge of the cloak lining.
At the opening in the hood back, the lining was stitched in place using the 18th century edge stitch.
The pleats were done in the traditional manner.
Here are the final photos. I'll edit when I have photos of it actually being worn.
Hood lining
Full lining
Detail--silk ribbon tie
Back
Back with hood up
Front
Final thoughts:
I'm pretty happy with this project but there are some things I would do differently if I were to do this again. First--I'm not sure if I'd interline the cloak. Second--I'd use a lining that isn't crisp like taffeta--most likely silk Persian. I find that the different drape of the velvet and taffeta to be problematic in a garment where bias is concerned. I notice that the velvet is hanging differently--as if the lining was too small--in spite of the fact that I hung both the lining and outer garment for 24 hours to allow the bias to relax and I smoothed both pieces carefully when pinning. This is disappointing. I think the loftiness and soft drape of the velvet just continued to relax even more over time whereas the taffeta lining did not. I think silk Persian would be a better lining for a bias cloak--the exception being if both the outer fabric and lining are taffeta. Live and learn. It's not perfect but it should be warm. Also--working with fur is extremely time consuming. I had the time so it wasn't an issue in this situation but I could've made a lined taffeta cloak with pleated or ruched trim in a fraction of the time this took to complete. You will want to keep that in mind when selecting your trim.
It looks lovely and warm!
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