The next project begins

My parents found and mailed me an old wool blanket, large enough to cover a double bed. It set them back a whole $2.50. The lighting is bad in this photo so you can’t tell the color very well, but it’s a sort of dusty rose-y brown-y thing. Not my favorite but it’s grown on me rather a lot.

The blanket has now been cut for the next project: a hooded hip-length cape{.broken_link} which buttons in the front, has two welt pockets and slits for hands to pass through. This photo shows the tiny amount of blanket which remains after everything was cut. Yeeeeesh… Just a bit too close for comfort. On the plus side: very little waste.

I dug through my stash and found a lovely burgundy iridescent curtain I’d purchased years ago. It has no mate, so I’d intended to use it for…something. Some day. Which I guess is today. It complements the blanket *brilliantly*, so I’m going to use it for the bias tape for the trim, to underline the collar and to line the hood. This isn’t exactly per the pattern, but the blanket is thick so I’m converting some bits which would have been in the main wool fabric to be the lining fabric instead. This not only lightens the cape and makes sewing easier, it also gave me the wiggle room I needed to recycle the blanket into nifty outerwear.

My hope is to have this done in time to wear for Thanksgiving. Since I seem to be a slow sewist, I’ll have to table a number of other tasks in order to meet my goal. Right now I’m really looking forward to the end result (partly because it’s cold and rainy today and I could use this cape), so I’m well motivated to work on it.