Hooded Cape DIY for Babies and Toddlers

Casper has worn hooded capes for the entirety of his little life. I started making them after I got bored with a cardigan I was knitting whilst pregnant. I decided to make it into a cape with a hood and a fabric button-up yoke. Then I started making them out of old blankets and other discarded knitting projects and then I realised I had heaps of old woolens that had holes or were unflattering or not the right size. 

I came up with this method one night when I was half asleep and had to write it down to remember it later (I had a five month old baby at the time). I have always thought I would keep it a secret just in case I get signed to write a super cool recycled sewing book one day but then I realised that there might be people out there with piles of old woolens that they don't know what to with because they have already made too many felted hot water bottle covers. FYI, you can have too many of those.

Casper has worn most of his capes from the newborn stage right through to toddlerdom, so most of the time they are one-size fits all. Great for Autumn and Spring and a nice handmade gift that can be quickly put together for all those last minute baby showers.

It's a very simple tutorial, albeit quite image heavy. You should be able to make this cape if you have a sewing machine that sews zig-zag and straight stitch (or if you are a dedicated hand sewer, you can absolutely hand-stitch this). The only fancy thing that I recommend you buy is a stretch needle for your machine as this should lessen the puckering of your seams.

I have to warn you, these things are addictive and easy to make.

Okay so... Ingredients: 

One wooly jumper (sweater, pullover) if possible in a size medium women's or small men's unless you want to make an adult hooded cape (please somebody do this!!!)

A pair of sewing scissors

A stretch fabric needle 

A strip of fabric 13cm (5'') wide by 112cm (44'') long
Sewing thread

So you begin with a jumper. Lay it out flat on a large-ish cutting table.

Cut the bottom of the jumper off just under the armpits in a straight line, the arms in half and the neckline too!

You should be left with something that looks like this ^^^ The arm pieces on my jumper ended up being about 26cm (10'') by 21cm (8'') but don't worry too much about this as you will have the opportunity to trim these pieces down. Don't throw away the pieces of wool not included in the photo. I will be writing another tutorial about how to turn them into some stylin' mittens!

Find the seam on the larger, bottom part of the jumper and cut directly along it.

You should have a long piece of material that looks like that ^ This will be your cape piece.

Do the same to the arm pieces, these will be your hood.

And to the ribbing from the ex-neckline, do the same. This will be the pretty binding on the hood.

Right sides facing, straight stitch down the smaller edge of the hood pieces.

Right sides facing, pin and sew ribbing to long end of the hood pieces with a straight stitch.

Flip to the right side up, and top-stitch seam.

Your hood now looks like this, right side up!

Right sides facing, pin remaining "long edge" of hood and sew right down.

Trim any excess fabric at the bottom of the hood.

Turned out, your hood should be looking pretty snazzy (and finished)!

Okay now for the cape part. Cut the ribbed edge of your cape piece off at a width of 4cm (1.5'').

Cut the long piece of ribbing in half and pin to either side of the edge of your cape, right sides facing.

Sew and topstitch these seams with a straight stitch.

Trim excess, and you should have a neat looking finished edge.

Now if you've never gathered before, you should probably have a look at this tutorial. Don't be scared, it's fun!

Gather the remaining ribbed edge of the cape piece to be the same size as the base of the hood.

Now this part is tricky. Wrong sides facing, pin the gathered cape piece to the hood, making sure they are the same length.

Sew seam with a 3cm (1'') allowance.

It should look like this.

Reinforce these pieces by topstitching down.

Here's where your fabric strip will come in handy, try to choose something that will complement the colour of your cape.

Fold fabric in half lengthwise and sew as shown in the photo above, making sure to leave a gap in your outside seam approximately halfway (allowance for turning strip).

Once you have stitched and turned your fabric strip, it should look like this ^ and is now the tie to your cape!

Pin the cape-tie to the raw seam on the right side of your cape, (concealing the ugly bulk of combining the gathered wool to the hood).

Sew the tie down with a zig-zag stitch on both sides.

Roll-hem the bottom of the cape with a straight stitch. Remember- a stitch in time, saves nine so please double hem this as knits have the tendency to grow ladders!

And...... you're done!

And because you should never forget where you came from x


I welcome any comments you might have on how I could improve this and any other tutorials I have posted. please let me know of any problems you have with understanding these instructions.

Book Binding Tutorial

I am the kind of person who has always kept a diary of some sort. I mainly keep drawing and watercolour books now, as I haven't felt the itch to write down very much in the last few years which is a bit sad. Although when I look at a painting I am brought back to the time and place it was created in and that is just as magical as reading words that do the same thing.

Because I go through them so fast, I make all of my own sketchbooks. I can now knock one out in about 45 minutes to an hour and I get to use really good quality watercolour paper as there's no real cost in making them. I'm going to attempt to explain my process to you Dear Reader, however you should first know that I have never undergone any book-binding training, nor do I know whether what I do is the best way of doing it. I just know that in my 5+ years of making these notebooks, they have stayed intact and kept beautifully.

Ingredients: 

One old hardcover book (that has an interesting enough cover but is not too precious)

A bunch of paper - I use Arches 300 gm watercolour paper (cold pressed)

A joining needle (for doll-making)

A ball of crochet cotton

A Stanley knife

A good quality glue stick

Some scrap fabric

Decorative paper for the inside cover

A pencil

The first step is to measure, fold and rip your paper into the size you want your pages. I usually make my pages 2cm smaller in width and length than my book cover. Obviously this measurement is the page size doubled and folded. I say 'rip' rather than 'cut' because I feel it maintains the integrity of the paper, and also looks so cool at the end, like a weird handmade bible. 

After you have finished, you should have a lovely little pile that looks like this: I have made 10 pieces of paper which then becomes 20 individual pages.

Take your stanley knife and carefully cut the paper in the book away from the original cover. Make sure not to cut the spine out at the same time!

Measure and cut up your scrap fabric to be roughly 6cm more the width of the spine and 1cm less than the length of the book.

Trace around the edge of the book cover and cut out your decorative paper to create an inside cover. Make sure to cut it slightly smaller than the actual cover, as it need to sit inside.

Glue the fabric to the inside lining- this will help strengthen the structure of the sketchbook.

Fold in half...

And draw one line along the crease, with two parellel lines running 1cm out along either side of the central line. These will be your guide for setting the pages in your book.

Squeeze your pages tightly and mark with a pencil where you want to stitch them together.

Thread your needle, about the length of your forearm, doubled over and knot it at the end.

Line the pages up straight and use your pencil markings as a rough guide for sewing the pages on to your paper and fabric inner-cover. I usually sew twice through each page, but whatever feels/looks right to you, should work well as long as your knot is secure on the back side.

When your thread is getting low, knot it off neatly as demonstrated in this .gif I made just for you

When you have finished sewing along the three lines you marked out on the inside cover, the back should look like this:

There should be gaps left in between the pages like this:

Don't worry, they will serve as a guide for the next pages to be sewn in!

When you have finished sewing all of the pages in and they are snugly nestled together resembling something like a book you can rest assured, you are very close to the end.

Now get your glue stick ready...

And start applying glue liberally to ONE side of the hard cover.

Working quickly, set the pages down on the glue, making sure the spine matches up with the stitched paper. Smooth the decorative cover down, making sure that it matches up neatly with the edges.

Repeat on the other side and you're done!

Disclaimer- wrinkles, uneven pages and scuffed covers are a part of the deal and I think they make your book even more interesting.