Tutorial: Blair Waldorf Capelet!

Confession: I've never actually seen an episode of Gossip Girl. In fact, I didn't even know who Blair Waldorf was until someone mentioned her in a comment several posts ago. Well I Googled her, and the girl's got style! I was particularly inspired by this photo of her in the cutest capelet ever.

Obviously, I had to make my own.....

While this is not a no-sew project, like my last cape, it's almost as easy!

1) I started with a long rectangle of delicious fabric (that my mom got for $.75 at a thrift store!), that was 14"x66". I had to piece two 33" pieces together.

2) Then I pleated the top. 9 pleats, aprox. 2.5" each, and right up against each other, leaving about 5" on each side.

3) I sewed a basting stitch along the top of the pleats, to hold them together....

4) Then I trimmed the two front edges to make them curved. (Unfortunately I don't have any magical way to make sure that yours turned out like mine. I just tried it on, marked where I wanted it to curve, and cut the two edges together so they were exactly the same.)

5) Measure from one end of the cape to the other (minus the top), and cut the length of ribbon you need. My fantastic velvety ribbon from Costco (last year, sorry!) was wired ribbon, so I just pulled the wire out first.

6) Sandwich the edge of the cape in the middle of the ribbon, and pin well.

7) Sew the ribbon on.

8) Do the same for the top of the cape, folding under the two ends of your ribbon so it doesn't fray.
9) Try it on and mark where you want your fasteners to go.

10) Hand stitch them on. I used hooks and eyes, which were OK, but I think snaps would have been a little more secure.

All done!!

I thought it might look funny with no lining, but it's actually quite nice looking on the inside!

I love, love, love this thing. I want to wear it every day for the rest of my life!

And I probably will :o)

P.S. Thanks to my husband for taking the pics! The whole take-a-picture-in-the-mirror thing was just not working for me today!