Welcome to my Musical Sewing Room! I have been meaning to begin my sewing blog for a long time! The problem was trying to decide what project to start with. I think you will really like this one.
I looked at two patterns from Folkwear and decided on the simpler one, the Moroccan Burnoose, though I bought both cloak patterns. Black wool seemed to be the obvious choice for the outer material. The cloak has so much expanse of fabric that the color needs to be very conservative, although I read that black dye was actually very expensive in medieval times. This is a very special, skin-friendly wool boucle from fashionfabrics.com.
I lined it with rainwear fabric I had bought a few years ago from a Seattle Fabrics booth at the sewing expo in Puyallup. You guessed it--the cloak is reversible. The binding is black polyester braid. I bound the hems separately, as I sort of expected the wool layer to "grow" as it is worn, while the lining won't budge.
The clasp is from grannd.com. The cloak is sewn closed by using a piece of the binding as reinforcement, a very good design choice by the patternmakers. Before even starting this project I fussed over what to do about the closure, which has to take the stress of the whole weight of the cloak. In the movie, 300, the cloak wearers had a leather strap to keep the cloak from riding up and strangling them in their fighting frenzy. But I don't think my friend is going to be fighting in this cloak so this type of closure is okay. The beautiful clasp is only there as decoration, so I pinched the hook closed.
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