Book Week 2013: Hooded Cape

In previous years, my son has come up with an idea for a book week costume about a week before, and expects that I'll be able to whip up something for him. Last year when I said no, he went as the saucepan man, and I wasn't even there for the parade thanks to a quick trip to Melbourne with the husband (Book Week Parade, what Book Week Parade? I'm having too much fun!) The previous year I convinced him to use an existing dress up and go as Robin Hood. I did have time though, to make him a quiver for his arrows (which he was rather impressed with).

This year, I had plenty of notice that he wanted to go as Lief from Deltora Quest. He has been devouring the books, and just in the last few months has read all 3 series from start to finish. Quite an effort for a boy who isn't even 8 years old yet! Thankfully my husband had been borrowing the books from him and reading them too, so he was able to give me a pretty good idea of what we needed for the costume. The boys came home from a walk one day with seven giant gems to use in a belt, and we all went for a trip to Marrickville in search of some fabric for a cloak. We were after something dark, but not plain black, and when we came across this fabric we knew we'd found the perfect fabric. It's a black stretch fabric with sparkly threads all through it.

The Fabric

The belt starts with a wide strip of fabric. The gems stapled between two painted rounds of cardboard, stitched onto the belt with cooking twine. To put it on you just wrap it around twice, with the gems on the outside. Easy.

The Belt

I made up a basic cloak pattern to come down to his ankles, and then tackled the hood. Having never made a hood pattern before, I thought I should try to follow the instructions, and then proceeded to change everything about it, except for the neck section. It's good to know the theory on how it should be done, but I wanted a really huge hood that he could hide under.

It fits me quite well too! The hood that is, the shoulders are a tad small for me!

The really good thing about this cloak is that we can re-use it for all sorts of things. I'm thinking Harry Potter, a witch, a hobbit, maybe one of the kids can wear it every year until they're both in high school!

I'm really keen now to make something else with a hood. I'm thinking a summer sleeveless top with a hood. Stay tuned to see how I go with that one!