While I have a long warm Cardinal Cloak in my costuming closet for 18th Century winter-wear, the length and weight of it can be a bit cumbersome. I came home from a recent fabric swap with a short length of boiled wool, gorgeously soft, and of a nubbly white-and-charcoal sort of color. What does one do with just over a yard of charcoal colored boiled wool? One hopes that there is just enough fabric for an 18th Century Short Cloak so that one can be warm and mobile in cold weather!
Burnley &Trowbridge has a short cloak pattern. The Burnley and Trowbridge Short Cloak has quite a few variations – there are options for both a hood and a double collar, and patterning for both hip and knee-length options.
Looking at the fabric, I knew I didn’t have enough for a hood. For the hip-length hood-less variation, the pattern guidelines called for 1 1/3 yards of 56″ fabric. I have a long torso, so I knew I wanted to add a few inches to the hip-length version to get it down to my natural hip. I was going to have to be very careful with my pattern layout!
Note: If you are going to piece, remember to add seam allowances onto each edge of each piece. It’s always worth reminding yourself before you cut!
After a lot of pattern-laying tetris, I was able to get my double collar and my hip-length cloak – and even had enough extra fabric to squeeze an extra 3.75 inches of cloak length.
You can see just how much of the fabric I had left when I was done! My scraps were tiny!
A short cloak is basically a half-circle with an extra rectangle of length inserted at center back to allow for gathering. This particular cloak also has a little extra length in the front, to allow for the topography of the chest and a bit of elegance in the drape. Because of standard fabric widths, this pattern is pieced horizontally along the front.
The sewing on this cloak is pretty minimal. I sewed my piecing seams, then fitted the pleats along the neckline (a friend helped set these for me while I modeled the cloak) that gather up that extra rectangle and give an elegant fall of fabric over my shoulders.
When sewing the collars I first held the collar pieces in place with pins and quilting clips, but the thick layers of wool were still sliding past each other. I ended up basting quite heavily instead, especially at the collar ends. Once everything was stable, I sewed the collars according to the pattern instructions.
The last thing I did was sew on two wool tapes to make neck ties.
After pressing my piecing seams on the fronts, I wasn’t happy about how they were lying; despite pressing with a clapper the thick fabric made a deep and very visible seam. This deep seam was also shown in the example photo on the pattern envelope, but i just didn’t like it! I pulled out my iron and wooden clapper again and pressed the snoot out of the seams and then basted every seam allowance down to the cloak body.
Then I whipped each seam allowance down properly, trying not to have my stitches pierce through to the front of the cloak.
I am quite pleased with the result! The seam is still visible, but it’s a seam, not a valley.
I had sewn my long seams (the piecing seams and under-collar) by machine, and from cutting to sewing on the neck tapes, the whole thing came together in a day. My extra seam-pressing and whipping was done the following afternoon. With its minimal sewing and no hemming, if you need a quick outer layer for a cold event or a fast palate-cleanser between larger projects, Burnley and Trowbridge’s 18th Century Short Cloak is a fantastic one-day piece!
And just look at that gorgeous double collar!
