18th Century Style Cloak

October 27, 2009

We recently got the new windows finally installed in the room that is our sewing/office room. (although the office stuff is not in yet, since I told David he has to wait until I get it painted first!) With the new windows in I have been rearranging things and settling into what will be "my" corner - the south and west walls, with two windows. The other corner, with one window, will be the office area.

Anywhoo, I came across a great bolt of Stuff that my mother in law gave me a few weeks ago. She had found it at the thrift store and had kept it at her house for a while before bringing it over, along with a big bolt of white cotton which, at the time, I was far more interested in. :)

I did a burn test on the Stuff and found it is probably a poly blend. It is a heavier weight material. Not upholstery weight but a heavy suiting weight. Definitely too heavy for a dress, but I measured the length and there is 13 and 3/4 of a yard of it, plus it is 60" wide. It is a pretty blue and brown subtle plaid which looks blue-gray from a distance.

I have been wanting to make a cloak for a while. Last year I cut up my old green wool kinsale cloak so I could reuse the fabric for the boys Civil War dresses. I liked my kinsale cloak but I did not really like the style of it. Especially the hood. While decorative, it was really not practical and I never used the hood up for fear of being ridiculed.

I've been researching headware for the 1820-1830's period and have found it very hard to come across any references for anything practical and warm! The bonnet in vogue at the time appear to be the wide brimmed large poke style bonnets and anything else is definitely in the minority. At last I found a pattern on Millers Millinery for a c. 1830 hood which, the pattern description said, was made just like 18th century hoods.

"Ah Ha!" thought I. "Perfect information. Now to find out how to construct an 18th century style hood." I knew I there was a pattern for a quilted jacket with a hood, c. 1750's in my Janet Arnold POF1 so I looked it up. I also looked around on the net, knowing that there must be some information about these garments. I didn't find much on hoods, specifically, but did find some great articles and information concerning hooded cloaks. So my plan slowly developed until I had decided to make a whole cloak rather than just the hood. For, I reasoned, the big-sleeved gowns of the 1820's and 1830's would fit better beneath a warm cloak. Just from wearing my 1820's style gown last winter I found it very hard to fit the sleeves into the sleeves of my rather large wool coat. The sleeves looked stuffed and awkward and I looked like I had Huge arms.

Besides, cloaks are lovely and romantic. :) I love this one made by Jenny La Fleur.

And besides, again, I want some form of outer wear to wear with my regency gowns as well. I currently only have 2 regency gowns I wear on a routine basis but I want to make a few more once I get a new set of short stays made for the early regency period. The ones I made a few years ago don't fit correctly anymore.

So today I got out the monstrous poly blend stuff and decided to make a cloak with that as a practice one. It will be warm, though the fiber is not authentic, and I can see what tweaks I want to do to the pattern before I make an authentic one (which I plan to hand sew) whenever I get enough money to get a few yards of broadcloth from Abimelech Hainsworth, the company we got David's CW federal broadcloth earlier this year.

The pattern I am using comes from a diagram of an extant cloak. This cloak was pieced but I have so much fabric and it is so wide, I do not need to piece mine. I used the dimensions from the left side of the cloak and cut mine on the fold. I cut two layers, and will sew them together around the hem and turn it. If I were using wool broadcloth I would use just one layer and leave the cut edge plain since there is no need to hem good quality broadcloth. I plan to pleat the neckline and pleat the hood from POF1 to the neckline. I think it will be a quick and easy project.

Love,

Sarah

Update: As of this evening, it is finished! Quick and easy project indeed. :)

Here is a front view: The neckline on the cloak has 4 small pleats all around, on each side of the neck (a total of 8). The original diagram called for gathers but two layers of this fabric was much too bulky to nicely gather. Pleats were so much easier. :) The pleats shape the neckline curve so the final garment fits much better than it did prior to pleating.

And a side: I lined the hood with black cotton sateen. It was sewn right sides together along the face edge and then was treated as one with the hood for the rest of the construction. The back seam is sewn with a french seam up to where the pleats start, then that area is stitched and overcast by hand. And back: It was pretty straightforward to put together, except for the hood which has pleats at the top of the center back seam, forming a fan shape when it it turned right sides out. I thought I followed the pleating diagram in Janet Arnold for this pleated seam, but I left a space between each pleat instead of putting the pleats on top of each other, so the seam is pleated, but not circularly. :( So, something I will definitely do differently next time!

Once I sewed the hood and cloak together, I finished the seam with a tall binding strip. This encases the seam and also is a kind of "collar". I am not happy with how the collar waves at the top edge, due to its not being shaped, but I can fix that on my next, "real" cloak. A hook and eye were sewn to each edge, just under the collar, to fasten the cloak in the front.

Now it is ready for mysterious midnight journeys across lonely fields, riding swiftly on a fleet-footed steed to rescue at the last moment your one True Love from an untimely death, smuggling important and secret letters across enemy lines and, more practically, (though less inspiring) going to church and shopping.

Love,

Sarah