Inexpensive Wool Cloak Tutorial
(made using 2 wool blend Harbor Freight blankets)
*Materials Needed*
(2) Harbor Freight wool blankets
Dark colored thread
Sewing machine/hand sewing needles
Fabric scissors
Measuring tape
Closure
(in this tutorial I will be using Game of Thrones style cross belt straps,
but a penannular brooch or something of the sort will work. For the GoT style cross straps,
who will need two matching belts/blanks and a buckle to match the thickness of the belts)
Optional Materials
(2) bottles RIT fabric dye
Some sort of fabric for lining
(For this I suggest linen, but cotton/any other natural fiber will do! You will need roughly
four yards to line the entire cloak or a half yard to line just the hood.)
Inexpensive Wool Cloak Tutorial
Harbor Freight sells wool blankets for $10.99, you say!? Yes, they do.
Though it is not listed on the website, the fabric content (according to the tag)
appears to be 80% wool, 8% polyester, 6% acrylic, 3% viscose and 3% nylon.
They are approximately 60” by 80”, and when I say approximately, I mean it.
When I set mine out to start cutting, I quickly realized that none of the
blankets were the exact same dimensions. If you can’t tell from the picture,
these blankets are product #92625 on the website. I have been informed that
some locations do have them in stock in store as well.
Having
ordered six in
one order, I
can say that
the shipping
was only
$6.99 and
appears to
remain $6.99
no matter
how many you
order. For this
tutorial, you
will only need
two blankets
per cloak. If you want to order ten blankets and make cloaks for all of your
friends, I’m not going to judge you, but I am going to be impressed that you
have at least four friends.
Assuming that your standard fabric is 60” long, and a yard is 36” wide,
one blanket is roughly two yards of fabric. TWO YARDS OF WOOL FOR $11.
Why am I shouting? Because two yards of wool fabric for $11 is insane, even
for a blend. Having ordered six blankets for the trial run, I received my
package (I live in MI) within one week. They came individually packaged in
one big box, which my cat
rather enjoyed.
First things first, I
opened all of my blankets,
removed the tags very
carefully with my fabric
scissors , and tossed three of
them into the washing
machine per load. The tags
are very lightly sewn on to
the fabric, and super easy to remove.
I personally washed mine with cold water/on a delicates cycle, then
proceeded to tumble dry them with no heat. I have been told from multiple
sources that these blankets were not harmed by a “hell wash”, and can be put
through a hot wash cycle and dry.
For the second set of three, I used
“Woolite” brand laundry detergent that I
picked up for about $4 at Walmart. I
honestly noticed no difference whatsoever
between the set I washed with detergent
and the set I washed without, but either
way, the washing process got rid of the not
so nice scent that they had upon arrival
and softened them up quite a bit. The
drying process produced A LOT of lint, so
make sure to carefully clean the lint trap
after every dry.
Now I know not everyone is a huge fan of the carpet colored fuzzy grey,
but hear me out. This fabric is super warm, and reasonably soft. It’s a lot
heavier than a suiting weight, but it’s not quite as thick as your standard wool
army blanket. AND HAVE I MENTIONED HOW CHEAP IT IS?
Here’s an indoor versus outdoor natural light color comparison of the
blankets straight out of the box:
Having established that the color isn’t suitable to everyone’s preference,
I decided to try my hand at dying it. Normally, I don’t bother dying fabric that
isn’t 100% natural fibers, because synthetic doesn’t tend to dye very well...but,
at only ~$30 into the cost of what was soon to be a full length hooded wool
cloak, I decided to experiment.
Did I use historical dying methods?
Hell no. I picked up two $3 bottles of “Emerald Green” RIT dye from
Walmart instead, because the bottle said it would work on wool. That is
honestly the only portion of the directions that I paid any mind to.
Having decided that dying the synthetic blend might be tricky, I found it
best to make my dye concentration higher than the packaging suggests.
Scared to ruin the wool and/or my washing machine, I made do with my white
bathtub instead. Taking three blankets, I filled the tub ⅔ full with hot water,
poured in both bottles of RIT dye and threw the blankets in.
Over the course of the next three-ish hours, I made sure to stir the
blankets up plenty, so that the dye would get at them evenly. Having done this
successfully by hand, I imagine dying them via the dye instructions for the
washing machine will work just as well.
Word to the wise, if you want
to avoid looking like the
wicked witch of the west for
the next week or two, gloves
are a great option for
stirring!
Once the dye bath was complete, I drained the tub, wrung out the
blankets to the best of my ability, and then put them through the wash once
more. This time I used Woolite with a cold water delicates cycle as well, and
heatlessly tumble dried them. The bottle of dye advises running your washing
machine through an empty wash cycle afterward to clear out and excess dye.
While they were washing, I attempted to scrub the green out of my
white bathtub…(it does come out, don’t worry.)
The results were surprisingly positive! Here’s an indoors and an
outdoor natural lighting picture comparison of the fabric prior to dying and
after:
Cheap and it can be dyed more interesting colors!
At this point, your fabric is ready to be patterned into a cloak, assuming
you have it washed/dyed to the color you want. I followed a very simple half
circle cloak pattern for this, using roughly the height of the fabric as my cloak
length.
It is as simple as two pieces for the hood, and two pieces for the body of
the cloak! I chose a half circle cloak rather than a three quarter to full circle
cloak because this fabric is fairly heavy, and I think making the cloak any fuller
might cause it to become incredibly heavy in the rain.
Starting by laying out both blankets one on top of the other, as pictured
above, I proceeded to measure out the length of the fabric. In this case, mine
was ~58”. To get the length measurement, I usually just go from the base of
my neck to the floor/a few inches from the floor. That’s going to be where the
cloak ends up sitting.
Using a tape measure and some chalk(I prefer a tape measure because
it’s easier to get the lines to stay straight, but a cloth measuring tape works
just as well), I measure out the same distance from the same corner to form
my quarter circle marks.
I make plenty of marks at my measurement away from the corner (my
measurement being 58” as that is being used as the radius for my circle), and
when it’s time to cut, I make sure to cut along the marks in a rounded fashion.
Reminder, this is two layers of “fabric” thick, for either side of my half circle.
Once I got the quarter circles cut out, I squared up my outer two edges
as well, removing the factory stitching around the outer edge.
I then proceed to cut out my head hole/shoulder opening.
At this point, your fabric should look similar to the image above,
particularly if you have your very own helper cat. You have both quarter
circles for your cloak “body” cut out, and it’s time to pattern the hood from the
remainder.
You COULD go with a standard hood style or, scraps permitting, you
COULD make a kickass elven/hobbit/wizard long tailed hood instead.
Having been left with a wizard hood outline, I decided on a wizard hood
for this particular cloak...but I also made a standard hooded one as well.
I made a few measurements, and squared up my two layers of fabric.
For hoods, I’d like to say there’s a universal measurement, but sometimes it
doesn’t work for everyone. A
good base size to go from is 17”
long by 14” wide. For a
standard hood, that means you
make yourself a 17”x14”
rectangle and round one outer
corner as pictured.
I used similar measurements
for my wizard hood, having the
bottom width be 14” cross and
the face opening 17” long.
At this point, you should have
two hood pieces, and two
quarter circle body pieces cut
out and squared up.
IT’S FINALLY TIME TO START SEWING THINGS!
These are the two seams you need to start with. One connects the two
sections of the body of the cloak, and the other connects the hood.
I personally dug out my sewing machine and set up shop at the dining
room table after searching my entire house for my large bag of thread. Seeing
as this design only has three seams and the hems, it could very easily be sewn
by hand as well.
Once your hood and body sections are sewn together, you should have
something like this:
That’s it, a big half circle with a little half circle cut out and a hood. Once
you’ve made it to this step, it’s time to attach the hood to the body.
In this step, focus on the blue lines, because that’s what is getting sewn
together last. It is important to make sure that your seams are on the right
side...meaning that when you go to sew the body of the cloak to the hood, you
want the seam on the hood to be facing up, and the seam on the cloak body to
be facing down, resulting in this on the inside of the finished product:
I like to pin this section together to make sure that the seams line up
perfect in the center, then sew away! If you’ve sewn it together correctly, you
shouldn’t be able to see the excess fabric along the seams anywhere on the
outside of the cloak.
You should also have some leftover scraps of fabric, and I’ve been told
that some kenders, as well as many goblin folk over in Militia love scrap fabric,
so rather than throwing it away, you could always bundle it up and gift it to
them come Ragnarok. I think they make nests out of it or something.
Now it’s time to finalize the project, with hems and a closure!
To hem this particular fabric, I folded the edge over as tightly as I could,
and simply ran a zigzag stitch over the edge for the entire hem of the cloak
and the hood.
Once it was completely hemmed (I ran out of thread, so mine isn’t
actually completely hemmed yet), it’s time to add your closure.
For cross straps, you will need two belts, each long enough to wrap
around from the top of your shoulder, across your chest, and meet at the
center of your lower back. This method of cloak closure distributes the weight
of the cloak nicely so that it’s not all on your neck. Attaching them at a
diagonal, similar to that pictured, helps them to sit properly. I used a leather
punch to punch holes in the belts prior to sewing them to the cloak.
These two belts will buckle behind your back.
As an alternate, and possibly more inexpensive option, you can also use
any other sort of traditional closure, such as a penannular brooch.
Ignoring my current lack of hems on the green cloak, the penannular
brooch will hold the cloak together near the base of the hood, similar to the
picture.
Now you can throw it over your shoulders, buckle the straps behind
your back/clasp up your penannular, and you’ll be plenty warm and dry!
Final product pictures!
(keep in mind this cloak is for someone larger than I am, I’m just modeling for the
sake of modeling/being derpy)
