Winter Belle Cape with McCalls 6196

    Hello sewing friends!:) This was my main project last month. I made this "Winter Belle Cape" for my 4 year old niece as a Christmas gift. I knew I wanted to make her one some time ago, so I was pretty excited about it! I had to wing it since I couldn't find an actual "Belle Cape" pattern, but I used McCalls 6196 as a good base. The main fabric was a deep red panne velour and I decided to line it with a novelty satin-type fabric, just to complicate things for myself!;) I purchased a cut of faux fur since the fur trim that was available in spools was all long pile and I wanted the cape to look as much like Belle's as possible. I used the smallest size after reading some reviews for this pattern. I think I cut the fur in strips of 2 or 2.5 inches with the bottom under-cape trim 3" (I think!).

McCalls 6196

Disney's Belle in her winter garb;)

  Here shown is the pattern pieces for the hood and altered "caplet". I used the measurement from my niece's elbow to wrist and subtracted that amount (plus an inch more I think), so the caplet would come slightly above her elbow.

Here is the main sewn hood piece and lining piece. I constructed the hood and pressed up the hem as instructed for the main piece, and tucked the lining piece inside, having trimmed off the hem allowance on the lining piece so it would fit inside the main hood piece better. I trimmed off a bit of the bottom lining as well.

  Above is shown the two main caplet pieces. I sewed the front and back pieces together on both lining and main pattern piece then sewed them right sides together along the bottom and turned right-side out and basted the pieces at the neckline.

Pressed bottom of caplet inside and trimmed seam allowance.

   Here you can see how I attached the hood and caplet. I later added an "under cape" from another pattern in such a way that the raw seam was hidden. I though I had taken photos of that part but I must not have:(

I added some twill tape to the neckline, as it didn't seem particularly stable. Here is the "under cape" and caplet lining with the attached twill tape.

On my dummy:) I didn't get any of the finished cape on the dress form. Thats what I get for finishing it last minute!

 


    For the under-cape I followed part of a tutorial for a "Anna" (from Frozen) cape, but I wish I had made the under cape a bit wider. This is ok, but I think it would have been better to use a full "red riding hood" type cape so it would go over the shoulders better. I made it so the under cape would fall at my niece's ankles.

I was going to hand-sew the trim on, but I quickly realized it would be far too time-consuming so I simply used my sewing machine!:) I applied fray check to both the cut top and bottom edges (this should be done before sewing on the trim. Only after I sewed some trim on the first section did I realize the bottom needed fray check as well.

  

      I both machine sewed and hand-sewed the trim on the hood. Machine sewn along the edge and secured the rest by hand. I left the trim around the caplet hang free for the most part but secured it in a few spots. I machine and hand sewed the trim to the under cape as well. 

How perfect is this wrapping paper? Bonus, I already had it on-hand! Disney princesses in their winter capes! Funny though, that Belle is the only character that actually had a winter cape but she's not featured?? 

   I wish I had gotten a photo of this on the dress form! *Sigh*. Oh well, turned out pretty well I think! Now I can work on sewing for myself;) Til next time!:)