Sweater cape updated - making it wearable!

I made this ages ago and I kept putting it on for five minutes then taking it off because its doesn't fit right. I was actually uncomfortable. Sometimes when you make something it is just not right. In this case its actually down to the pattern not to me. Or perhaps my personal preferences?

This is the a sweater cape with added hoody cowl hood.  Both are Rebecca Page patterns and the fact it does not fit right is not down to me adding the hood from a different pattern but down to the original pattern itself having badly designed sleeves - so pretty annoying really. The hood is from the mens pattern Hoody Cowl and there's details of how to attach the hood to the sweater cape in my original post so I will not go over that here. This is just about the sleeves.

 

Though I have to admit I think maybe my next update for this is going to be adding a channel around the hood to put in some kind of pull-cord. The pattern does say to do that but I decided to miss that. It will stay on better with a pullcord though because I lined this with a scuba knit. I think if I made it in fur again I would line the hood with fur as well as the outer but for some reason it never occurred to me when I made it. 

Anyway: the sleeves are just too narrow and too short. They are the actual pattern with no alterations other than I joined the wristband to the sleeve ( when I originally made this that is) to avoid a thick hem due to the fabric being too thick to sew up easily. 

Anyway if anything that makes my sleeves slightly longer than they should have been. But still they are far too short. And far too tight.  That means this top was uncomfortable to wear for long and does not fit right. But I love the look. Its relaxed and comfortable - or should be.

These are my before and after photos:

Before.

After altering the sleeves

You should be able to see the sleeves are quite different. Though to be perfectly honest I am not so sure the photos show this well. The new sleeves are much wider at the shoulder and higher up closer to the neckline. They are also much longer since they incorporate a new bit as well as the original sleeve.

I love the idea of this top and especially on days when I work from home and its pretty cold due to our being in the middle of an energy crisis in the UK. Well we have actually turned the heating on now which is in itself scary but its on at 16 Deg C so not by any means warm. 

They have capped the average heating bill to £2500 higher than last year. But this does not help us because we do not have gas so do not get dual fuel which is who I believe this cap is aimed at. Where I live there is no gas so we have domestic heating oil and so far the government has not announced any kind of subsidy for us. Oil has actually risen more than gas in price too. I have even tried writing to our MP to find out if they will be subsidising us but so far have had no reply. So we need warm clothing because winter has hardly started here yet.

Of course if its a cold winter though then we may end up spending even more (even if they do decide to subsidise the one million households who have heating oil). Thats what our government have said relating to the dual fuel subsidy anyway. Its scary because we struggle with our normal bills let alone spending that much extra. 

 

Anyway layers is the way to go and this top is perfect for layering  - or with wider sleeves it is anyway. When I could not even get a long sleeved Tshirt under it, no it was totally impracticle. Winter here has not really even begun as yet. Some people are saying its warmer due to climate change. Well it could be, but my own experience when I was much younger is its often quite warm till the end of November then we often suddenly get snow. 

In my youth I used to do apple picking in October and early November. It was when that ended it got really cold. It almost felt like a frost at 05:30am this morning. I had to get up for the dogs who suddenly decided they urgently needed to go out. They are refusing to go out at night because of fireworks. There are not many now really but this year Diwali, Halloween then Bonfire night for 3 successive weekends have really upset my dogs. Once its about 16:00, so dusk here, there refuse to go out.  

Before.

Well what to do with this top then? I did not want to send to charity or dispose of because it was not cheap really to make. Not expensive either but costs is costs and its hardly worn really - down to the fact it doesn't fit and I always take it off after a few minutes. Also there is the fact I actually really like the idea of this top.

Then to top it all I decided yet again to try wearing it whilst working at my laptop (for work this is) and I wripped a stitch on the shoulder seam. Yes much too tight these sleeves!

Well thats the final straw. I spent my lunchtime that day ( a small perk from working from home!)  unpicking the sleeves and then over the next few days I found some left over bits from when I made this and some lycra bits from leggings etc to line it because the original top is lined with scuba but thats so thick with the fur it is very hard to get my overlocker to sew it. The edges of the fur do fray so ideally they need some kind of finishing so overlocking is the best for it really if you can get it to work.

So now I have the main body and the two original sleeve bits - still all lined. I opened the shoulder seams much higher up than the original pattern says. Now its sewn up I should have opened even closer to the neck but its still much better now than it was before so I will just try and keep this in mind for a second version if I ever make one. 

I am documenting what I did here anyway so should be able to come back in the future to check how I altered this to make it fit. The wonders of a blog! 

Over the years there are so many times its been really useful to have a blog when I have made something and for example cannot remember which pattern I used or how I altered it. 

Anyway; SLEEVES 

On the main body of the sweater cape where I took the sleeves out; I stay stitched the lining raw edge at new shoulder to the fur and then reinforced the actual seams as well - well I do not want this coming appart this time. Then I overlocked these to neaten and make stronger. 

I measured the new sleeve hole size (along my shoulder seams) and I decided to cut a new "top" of sleeve and use the original bits to make cuffs. Then I can fold them under. I was going to sew these in place but have yet to actually do that. They will not fit on my sewing machine so will have to be hand sewn - yes so very narrow I cannot even hem the things by machine!

I used odd bits of leggings weight / swimwear weight lycra fabric to line the top sleeves. Then sewed them up and overlocked the edges. I cocked up a bit here and ended up having to slightly ( like 4cm!) narrow both sleeves due to my overlocker eating the fabric on my second sleeve so I never even attempted to join the new top sleeve to the original sleeve, which is now a lower sleeve and cuff. 

So here you can see the original sleeve which I removed but kept at the top of the photos. I cut a new piece the width I estimated I would need to add to the top and tapered to the old sleeve part as below. Cut a new lining from the offucts of lycra fabric I have lying around.

The two new " tops" are lined in different fabrics but only I will be able to ever see them.

In the end I just overlocked all the raw edges which also secured the lining to the fur.

Then I used a regular machine and zigzagged the top and bottom sleeve together and also to join the sleeve to the main part of the body ( the poncho type bit). 

The sleeves are still nice and wide at the top which considering how much I had to narrow them ( when one got eaten by the overlocker) is very lucky and now I can wear a sweatshirt or thick top under this. So this will work for layering. In this photo I am wearing this over a sweatshirt so it is much wider on the sleeves than it was.

And thats it. Though really the sleeve joins are a bit thicker than I would like but sewing like this with my normal machine is better than wrecking it on my overlocker which really will not cope with that many layers of thick fabric. It works and if you usually use a regular sewing machine its what you would end up with anyway. I never used to own an overlocker and would have been very happy with the results then. I am just spoilt now.

And it works. It works like a sweatshirt really and is nice and warm and lovely and loose for working on a laptop and has been keeping me warm and toasty the last few days so now at last I am very happy with this top.

If you own this pattern which is actually the Rebecca Page Sweater Cape but with the RP Hoody Cowl Mens Sweatshirt hood added on, then I would recommend either make a mock up to check the sleeves size or just add a large amount of fabric to the width of sleeve if you want something like a warm sweatshirt. Maybe measure against your existing sleeves. I love the idea of this pattern but the RP pattern has a definite fault here. I think if I made it even in lace or a very lightweight fabric  I would want a wider sleeve.

You can see the original sleeve (now a long cuff) here and its far too narrow to be a proper sleeve. Especially remembering the width is exactly the same from wrist to what is meant to be where this joins the shoulder seams. It works ok as a long cuff though.

Of course next time I make one of these I will cut the sleeve as one piece but as an update and considering I did not have loads of matching fabric to play with this works well so I am happy enough with this and importantly I have been wearing it when typing at my PC most days since making the alterations. It even goes over a sweatshirt now as well so its a perfect piece for layering.

This was eventually worth the effort of making despite having to go back and make changes and now I know how to make it work I will probably make another one. Maybe in a normal sweatshirting fabric because I love this top. 

Its also good to actually get back into sewing. I have been doing far more knitting than sewing recently- not that it really matters.

Have a great weekend

Bracken