Now for something sorta recent but sorta old. This is the Seamwork Camden cape. These photos are from this past February when I finally finished it, but I say “sorta old” because I actually started it about 2 years ago. As in, I had finished everything but hemming the lining. But never got around to it because I wanted to do something extra with it. I had plans. I had ideas. And . . . life happens.
But then this event came up and I needed something appropriately fancy but warm. I had shredded my nice black pashmina shawl to shreds wearing it over something with rhinestones (I am still sad about it), so I had nothing. But then I remembered this and given we had a very long drive, it would give me something to do in the car.
I didn’t work on it at all in the car.
I did it all in the hotel room the night before because that’s how I roll before events.
I originally started this cape as a test for another cape that I was hoping to use the Camden as the base pattern for. The Camden had the right lines that I was looking for so I wanted to get an idea of fit. The major change that I made was to get rid of the bottom panel in the back. I extended all of the back panels to the length they would be if the bottom panel were there. Since there wasn’t a curve between the bottom back panel and the upper part of the pack, this was pretty straight forward. Again, this was because of the other cape this was a test for and I probably would have just kept the bottom panel otherwise though I do like the clean look it gives.
I also didn’t add the buttons. I wasn’t planning to for the eventual cape so I didn’t bother here. I just added a simple hook and eye at the top and I really like the simple elegance in this case.
The outer fabric is some velvet I had laying around which I originally picked in the hopes that this would be a wearable muslin (and it is obviously). I think it’s originally from Joann’s but I honestly have no idea because it’s so old. It’s not the nicest velvet, but it could be worse and at least looks pretty good until you get up too close.
Black is hard to photograph and velvet is hard to photograph. So black velvet is almost impossible. Here’s a photo where you can kinda tell it’s velvet because the lighting was weird:
On the upside, you can’t see all the wrinkles that it has. 😀
The inside is lined with purple habotai silk that I had originally picked up for harem pants and but have since butchered into a number of linings. It worked well with the overall look and feel of the design and velvet. For the lining I just followed the pattern as written.
I’m glad to finally have this done and I know I’ll get use out of it in the future once fancy events start up again.
