Make the Cape: Adding Armslits to your Cape
Sewing along and making the cape? Cape sewn together and lining prepared? If you did all that, it’s time to add some armslits to your cape!
1. Take your cape and pattern piece and mark the position of the arm opening as shown above. The position of the armslits really is up to you. I put mine closer to the centre front, others prefer it to be on the lengthened shoulder seam line.
I recommend you put on your cape and, standing in front of a mirror, mark the preferred position of your armslits on one side of the cape.
The lower end of the arm hole should be approx. 10-15cm from the bottom edge of the cape and the opening should be at least 20-25cm long to be able to move your arms comfortably.
2. When you are satisfied with the position, mark it on the pattern piece and transfer it to the other side of your cape. Thus, you can easily mark it on the lining, as well.
3. After marking the position of the arm opening (with chalk or tailor’s tacks), cut out four strips of your main fabric (or lining fabric if you prefer the contrast), two for each armslit. They should be approx. 4-5cm (2inch) wide and 3cm longer than your armslit measurement. So if your armslits are 20cm long, these strips will have to be at least 23cm long in order to include a seam allowance of 1.5 cm on each end.
4. Place these strips right sides together onto your cape, so that the edges of the strips are lined up along the armhole marking. Pin. Make sure you don’t position the pins too close to the armhole marking in order to avoid sewing over them in the next step.
5. Turn your cape around, so that you are facing the left side of the fabric. Carefully stitch two lines approx. 7mm (2/8”) from the armhole marking, starting and ending your seam at the markings, as shown below.Ā 
6. Cut the armslit open along the marked line starting and ending 1.5cm from the marked end of your line (see picture below).
7. Cut diagonally towards the end of your stitching lines, so you will end up will small triangles.
8. Push the fabric through to the other side and press.
9. You could now simply understitch the facing. I decided to press the facing so that it shows through the openingĀ on the other side.
10. Stitch in the ditch to hold the facing in place.Ā 
I used a special presser foot for that, but you can simply use a standard feet as well, stitching slowly on the previous seam.
11. When you have understitched, topstitched or otherwise secured the facing, pin the small triangles in place and stitch them onto the facing’s seam allowance. You can either to that by machine or with hand.Ā 
12. If you are not adding a lining to your cape, you can sew the outer edges of the facing onto your cape with wide catch-stitches.
Lining the Armslits
If you haven’t done so yet, prepare your lining and sew it into the cape following the instructions from the last part of the sewalong.
1. After your cape is lined and pressed, first pin the armslits closed and an then add some pins to hold lining and main fabric together along the opening. Make sure all layers are lying very flat before you pin (or baste) them together.
2. Take out the pins you used to close the opening and carefully cut the underlying lining open along the marked armslit line. (You can either mark the line before you sew in the lining, or before cutting, after you take out the pins.)
You make the cut in exactly the same way as before, ending the cut with the small triangles.
3. Push the seam allowance between the layers and pin everything in place.Ā 
4. Using thread and a handsewing needle, slipstitch the lining to your facing. If you absolutely loathe handsewing, you can (from the right side) stitch in the ditch again, catching the lining. For a neater finish, I’d always recommend handsewing, though.
And you’re done! Congrats!
This was the last part of the Fairytale Cape Sewalong! Hope you enjoyed making your cape! I can’t wait to see it when it’s finished!
There will be a link party coming up soon where you’ll have the chance to link up your lovely capes! And it might even include goodies! Keep your eyes peeled! š
Happy sewing!
ā„
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Making the cape?Ā 
1. Before you cut into your lovely fabric, have a think about pattern matching, if your fabric has some sort of a print. The centre front will be parallel to the grainline, the centre back will be perpendicular to the centre front.
3. The first thing we will do is sew the shoulder seams. Pin the shoulder seams (right sides together) and stitch on the marked seamline (1.5cm seam allowance).
4. Press seam open like so:
6. This next step is completely optional.
We want the lining to be a tiny bit shorter than the cape, so it doesn’t peek out at the hem later. We will be bagging the lining.
13. Breathe! You just finished the hem! The biggest and most difficult part is done!
14. Pin along the neckline and front edges down to the hem, leaving a 20cm gap on one of the edges (we need this to turn the cape inside out later). Stitch all the way around the front edge and neckline making sure you don’t sew the gap closed. If you’ve attached the hood, make sure you don’t catch it while you’re stitching.
To make explaining this step easier, I have marked two points, A and B. A is where the shoulder seamline meets the neckline. B is where the small circle is marked.
4. Now join the two pattern pieces, so the As match up and the Bs overlap by approx. 1cm. Tape together (don’t glue, you will want to be able to separate the pieces again and tape them back together in order to cut out your cape if you haven’t done so yet).
Your pattern will now look like this:
Now that we have a continuous neckline, we can start drafting the collar.
6. Copy the shape of the neckline, also marking the position of center front & back and the shoulder seamline.
It should look like this:
7. Now add 1.5cm (5/8”) seam allowance. (The seam allowance is already included in the cape pattern, which is why we need to mark it on the collar piece. You don’t want your collar end up too narrow).
8. Draw the center front line (parallel to the front edge).
9. For this step I used a lid, but you can also do this free hand. Starting at the center front line draw a curved line. Here it’s completely up to you how you want the shape of your collar to look. When you’re satisfied with the shape, measure the width.
10. Mark the width measurement on the center back seam. Depending on the fabric you use the collar will be either cut on fold or in two pieces. If you are using fabric in a plain colour, you can simply cut the collar on fold (make a note next to the center back line). If you’re using patterned fabric which needs to be neatly lined up in the front, you will have to cut the collar in two pieces. In this case you will have to add 1.5cm of seam allowance to the center back edge.
11. Mark the measured width all the way around the neckline.
12. Draw a smooth line through all of the marks.
13. Now you’re almost done! Just add some seam allowance to the bottom edge of your collar.
14. Mark the shoulder seam placement and center front with notches. Now grab a coffee and admire your newly drafted Peter Pan collar!
3. If not cut on fold, sew your collar pieces together at the center back. Press seam open.
4. Pin or baste collar pieces together (right sides together) starting at the seam allowance mark at the front corner, all the way along the bottom edge. Leave the top edge as it is. Don’t sew it closed!
5. Sew along the pinned/basted edge using 1.5 cm of seam allowance. Before you turn the collar inside out, clip the rounded edges to remove bulk like so:
You can trim one seam allowance shorter than the other. this also helps to remove bulk.
6. Turn inside out and give it a good press.
Depending on whether you cut directly on or slightly next to the gridlines, some pattern pieces might not match exactly at the notches. That’s ok. Try to match the pieces as good as you can, orienting yourself on the grid and and pattern lines rather than the notches. Use the notches as a guide to match the right pages (they can be a bit off, as long as all the gridlines are parallel/perpendicular and the pattern lines are matched up).
Armslits don’t neccessarily require a lining, but for a more professional result I’d recommend adding one. The armslits are cut into the fabric at quite a late stage in the process. If your cape isn’t lined at all, you can even decide to add them at a later stage after the cape is finished. Adding armslits does not require much extra fabric, you can even use a different fabric in a contrasting colour.
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