Here's a super easy cloak tutorial.

jason1976

Sr Member
Here's a really, nice, and very easy cloak tutorial.

I just wanted to spread the word to my fellow costumers, that I found a Cloak tutorial that even I can do. :)

http://diyfashion.about.com/od/costumes/ss/Make_a_Cape.htm

This person has many other helpful articles, including a round up of Marcon 44 (2009) Here's a link to there main page, so you don't have to figure out how to get there from the tutorial.

http://diyfashion.about.com/

I hope this all helps you all.
 
Thanks for the link. Even I can do it. This helps me with my Darth Vader costume. The cape I was going to use is too narrow. Now I know how to make one that will be large enough for my Vader Thanks.
 
After looking at the tutorial. It looks more like a longer Little Red Riding Hood cape and hood.

I can still think of a lot of projects it could be good for though. I'm thinking of doing one in dark brown, for a Luke ROTJ cloak. It may not be exact, but if you have little, to no sewing skills, it would be something to hold you over, until you get better, or you get the money to by I higher end cloak.

You could even use "Stitch witchery" (the stuff you put in the seems, and iron it, to make the two sides of the seem, fuse together) and you wouldn't hardly have to sew at all. A cloak, in an after noon, for very little money, and with very little effort. Can't beet that. :)
 
Here's one that shows you how to pattern a semi-circular cape/cloak. More appropriate for a Luke ROTJ. It will give you more fullness and draping in the body.

http://home.clara.net/arianrhod/Aldebaran/DoItYourself/Cloak02.html

That is a very nice pattern to. :) Just two words of caution from someone who has had a lot of cloaks, and robes, made, and worked a lot on the design end of it.

One that Hood pattern is awful (No offence) It well look small, and not hang like that once in any of the Star Wars films, or other movies, with very deep hoods, that drape on the shoulders. you would be better going with a more square pattern that gathers where it meats the cape. Like the one I posted, or any numbers or others. (such as "Amber's" very, very, nice jedi robe pattern found over at the "padawan's guide", or other places.)

Second, this is a great pattern, and way of achieving a half round cape/cloak, However, what I believe this tutorial fails to mention, is that before you use the string as a "compass", you should have some one hold the string up to you, and mark, or cut it, to the length you want your cape to be. (add a little for seem allowance.) This way when you use that string as a compass, you'll be getting the cap you want, other wise, if you just use a string of arbitrary length, you're cape my be way too long, or way too short.

As a side not to that last point: If your very tall, like me, you may find that the string might fight down the fabric long ways, but when you move it in a compass fashion, it might just go right off the edge of the fabric short wise. (i.e. your fabric is say 60" wide, and you need the cape to be 67" with seem allowances, and all, then you're pattern will go right off the fabric. )

But, if your under 6", or you don't want a floor length cape/cloak, you'll be fine. :)
 
That is a very nice pattern to. :) Just two words of caution from someone who has had a lot of cloaks, and robes, made, and worked a lot on the design end of it.

One that Hood pattern is awful (No offence) It well look small, and not hang like that once in any of the Star Wars films, or other movies, with very deep hoods, that drape on the shoulders. you would be better going with a more square pattern that gathers where it meats the cape. Like the one I posted, or any numbers or others. (such as "Amber's" very, very, nice jedi robe pattern found over at the "padawan's guide", or other places.)

Second, this is a great pattern, and way of achieving a half round cape/cloak, However, what I believe this tutorial fails to mention, is that before you use the string as a "compass", you should have some one hold the string up to you, and mark, or cut it, to the length you want your cape to be. (add a little for seem allowance.) This way when you use that string as a compass, you'll be getting the cap you want, other wise, if you just use a string of arbitrary length, you're cape my be way too long, or way too short.

As a side not to that last point: If your very tall, like me, you may find that the string might fight down the fabric long ways, but when you move it in a compass fashion, it might just go right off the edge of the fabric short wise. (i.e. your fabric is say 60" wide, and you need the cape to be 67" with seem allowances, and all, then you're pattern will go right off the fabric. )

But, if your under 6", or you don't want a floor length cape/cloak, you'll be fine. :)

Yes, the hood is awfully small, not necessarily awful, but the tutorial does give an idea of how to do a semi-circular cape even if it fails to mention specific measurements. I think it was just intended to pop of a maximum length from a 60" wide piece of fabric.

I too have made many capes. I am, by trade, a professional costume designer and former professional patternmaker that still does commission work on the side. You specifically mentioned the Luke ROTJ cloak, which I have been researching for a commission and is most definitely a semi-circle (a half circle if I'm not mistaken) which is why I posted that link. Now just because you are very tall does not mean you cannot use a semicircular pattern. It simply means that you have to break it down into smaller pieces like quarter pie instead of half pie. Taller just means more seam (and sadly more fabric).

That being said. The link you posted is a much more thorough tutorial that the one I did, but my point isn't who's is better, but that you should be wary of the different styles and shapes you can get by doing different things. Especially if you want to create a replica costume, you want the right shape of cloak to go with it.
 
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Yes, the hood is awfully small, not necessarily awful, but the tutorial does give an idea of how to do a semi-circular cape even if it fails to mention specific measurements. I think it was just intended to pop of a maximum length from a 60" wide piece of fabric.

I too have made many capes. I am, by trade, a professional costume designer and former professional patternmaker that still does commission work on the side. You specifically mentioned the Luke ROTJ cloak, which I have been researching for a commission and is most definitely a semi-circle (a half circle if I'm not mistaken) which is why I posted that link. Now just because you are very tall does not mean you cannot use a semicircular pattern. It simply means that you have to break it down into smaller pieces like quarter pie instead of half pie. Taller just means more seam (and sadly more fabric).

That being said. The link you posted is a much more thorough tutorial that the one I did, but my point isn't who's is better, but that you should be wary of the different styles and shapes you can get by doing different things. Especially if you want to create a replica costume, you want the right shape of cloak to go with it.

My comment in no way said you couldn't modify this pattern for a taller person. I merely pointed out as it, it will only go up to 60" with seem allowance.

I think it would be perfect for a Vader. (that was shorter, or who didn't mind 3 or 4 seems, and all the extra sewing that would include.)

As for Luke. No affiance, but I really don't think is was a half round at all. Look how Vaders goes out from his neck, and down his sides, just forward of the sinter of his arms? That's a half round in my mind. If you look at the seans in Jabba's palace, then Luke has his hands folder in front of him. His cloke hangs down the front of him, almost meating in the front, leaving just enough of a gape to see his hands. This means it was either. a) a "3/4 round" cloak. (witch you could do with this pattern, with some mods) or b) A fare more complex pattern.

In other words, you couldn't pull Vader's cape closed, in the front, if you tried. I believe hat makes it a half round. Luke's, you could pull closed, if you really needed to. (though it may not be overly comfy if you did.)

I can say without a doubt though, that hood my fit the neck of the clock nicely, but it will not gather on the shoulders mutch at all. And, one of the things I've always loved about movie cloaks, is the way they lay on the shoulders, setting out twards the shoulders, and you will not get that with this pattern. Instead you'll get something like the hood, on an over sized "hoody".

But I'm not looking to argue, it really is a nice pattern. I just posted what I did, to let people know a few things, before they ran out, bought fabric, and ended up with something other then what they expected. I do wish that pattern had some finished pics of it on someone, so folks could see what they would end up with.)
 
As for Luke. No affiance, but I really don't think is was a half round at all. Look how Vaders goes out from his neck, and down his sides, just forward of the sinter of his arms? That's a half round in my mind. If you look at the seans in Jabba's palace, then Luke has his hands folder in front of him. His cloke hangs down the front of him, almost meating in the front, leaving just enough of a gape to see his hands. This means it was either. a) a "3/4 round" cloak. (witch you could do with this pattern, with some mods) or b) A fare more complex pattern.

In other words, you couldn't pull Vader's cape closed, in the front, if you tried. I believe hat makes it a half round. Luke's, you could pull closed, if you really needed to. (though it may not be overly comfy if you did.)

None taken. I wish I had some better visual examples. Let me try to explain. The circumference of the cloak has nothing to do with how it closes on the neck, but more to do with the fullness around the body. Its kind of like a circle skirt. A half circle will have a little flair, but a full circle will start to fall in nice cascades around the figure. Dancers use sometimes 2-3 circle skirts where the outside circumference is a double or triple circle, but they somehow rangle that back into a single circle around the waistband. So the main difference in the Vader and Luke would be in how the neckline is cut. Let's just assume for an example that both capes are a half circle. That is to say, the outside circumference of each cape, when laid out flat on the floor, makes a half circle. Now the reason Lukes would close and Vader's not is because Luke's neckline is cut to his full neck measurement (actually a little bigger for comfort), and Vader's is only, say, half or 3/4 his neck measurement or perhaps gathered shorter. Both capes are still half circle, they just have different size necklines which terminate in the same circular arc as the outside(half circle, 3/4, etc.). So, in other words, for the half circle cloak, you just make the half circle at the neck as big as the area you want to cover. I'm not sure I'm explaining this very effectively without visuals. Does this make any sense at all?

Incidentally, they both look semicircular to me, though neither extremely so. I do think that Luke's has a little extra shaping in the shoulders though. You can do this on either a rectangular or circular cape by curving the side seams in at the shoulders. It does make things a little more complicated, but its an effective look.

I hope this post pushes this more towards a discussion than an argument.

So to further said discussion, here's a pic of the cloak I'm building. Its only about 95% finished. The picture quality is rough as I did it with my camera phone on the fly, but it gives you an idea of how this circular shape drapes around the body. The pattern is similar to what is in that link, with some alterations. As for the hood, I actually used the pattern in that tutorial as a base. I took a measuring tape and kind of draped it over the top of my head, as if it were the hood opening, and took that measurement (divided in half of course) and subbed it for the one on the front line of that pattern. I then scaled the other measurements up to fit. I think I extended it from 14" to 25", then lengthened it a bit because it was still very narrow.

3583442931_aabed13459.jpg
 
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