I was invited to participate in the Twig and Tale Tour for upcycling, and of course, I said yes. Then I remembered I had tweens, and not cute little people that didn’t voice their opinion. I love their Wild Things add-ons. Talk about adorable! I so wish I could have done that with this tour, but alas…tweens.
So…onward to a very simple upcycle. Yes, I made a cape with a blanket. Too hard, right??
You do kind of need a blanket in order to upcycle this garment. I had a specific garment in mind, though.
My daughter is obsessed with these books. They are young adult geared books. If your girl likes strong female leads with adventure and butt kicking…she may like these, as well. My daughter wants me to make cosplay outfits of several of the book covers.
I used the Traveler’s Cape (disclosure: given to me for free for the tour) as the base for this garment. I should have lowered it a bit, but I was at the limit for the width on this blanket.
The cloak was the easy part. The embellishments…not so much. I drew out a sort of copy of the design (I didn’t really like their design), and then cut it out from upcycled suede pants. I have been upcycling that pair for few years, so not much left at this point.
Next was hand-stitching it on. The cape took about an hour to make, if that. The leather took several hours to hand-sew onto the cape. Glutton for punishment, I am.
The cloak fasteners were purchased from Pacific Trimmings online.
I get quite a lot of my hardware there, since they have so much variety. Many times I purchase with no plan in mind. This is why I have this box here, which is not all of the hardware I have:
Creating Magic
So, photos. I love doing composite photography, however, I don’t have a lot of opportunity to do so. I took this photo on my white backdrop, erased out the background, and made a new one with brushes.
Brush credit:
Clothes: Cape from Twig and Tale. Shirt and leggings are self-drafted.
Decorative blades: From our collection. We have several.
Different pose with more natural skin tone…
To follow along with the upcycling blog tour at Twig and Tale:
Blog tour overview at Twig and Tale
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Link up:
Day one: Sew Shelly Sew – Handmade Boy –Nap time Creations – Boevenbende
Day two: Stylin Stacy – The Craftingfiend – Gaafmachine –While she was sleeping
Day three: Huisje Boompje Boefjes –Life in our busy household – The Crazy Tailor – Sew Sophie Lynn
Day four: Crafty like a Rox – The Wolf and the Tree – NZ Green Buttons –Vera Luna – Paisley Roots
Firstly, what an awesome job you did on this up-cycle cape! I love the purple! It’s my favorite color! Secondly, I love your composite photography! How fun to be able to add it to this up-cycle project! I’m a photographer and have a lot of fun with composite stuff too. Lastly, I just knew I needed to leave a comment to tell you how awesome you did! I would have liked to see some up close photos of your leather details (and hand sewing), but otherwise this is great! I need to work on that myself. Thank you for the fun project (and I love that you have the decorative blades as a prop)! My husband and I are big gamers and tend to have neat things like that too. <3
Thanks, Tracy! Photography composites are really fun, though time consuming. I really appreciate your compliments. 🙂
Very cool, I know who to contact for our costume tour! I do not often use hardware in my sews, but I have gathered a small box of buckles and special buttons that were kept from clothes that were really worn out, because I know that those hardware pieces are sometimes the most expensive piece on the garment.
Oh yes, I love to do cosplay costumes! 🙂 You are 100% correct on the cost of hardware. I try to find them at cheaper places, but it is hard to get what you want. I have hunted and gathered this pile for several years, so now I get to reap the benefits. 🙂
so cool how you remade the book cover, I love it. Creative way to still sew for your older kids!
Thanks, Emily! It really helps to sew to their interests to keep them wanting mama made items. 🙂
You did a fabulous job! So much love and care went into creating this cape, bravo!
Thank you, Jenya! 🙂