I have a fun project to work on this week. I should have started it much earlier this month but time slipped away and it’s a simple project and somehow last Saturday I realized there were fewer than ten days until Hallowe’en and I’ve never done much sewing with silk. Oops.

I’m making Maisie a play cape for Hallowe’en from the pattern in Growing Up Sew Liberated. I’ve made it once before for my niece so I already had the pattern traced and know that it goes together well. Maisie picked out the fabrics for me to order: dark purple and light purple. I’ve been trying to decide if I’ll let her choose her own button or if I’ll make that a bit of a surprise. The fabric is organic peace silk (meaning the silk worms are not killed and are allowed to break their cocoons) which I picked because it will flow so beautifully and Maisie really enjoys playing with her play silks. I expect the cape to become a dress-up after Hallowe’en so I didn’t mind spending a little extra for nicer material. Silk is fancy but it’s still washable and I find a lot of pleasure in using good quality materials. I also couldn’t find the colours Maisie wanted on any of the other fabrics I looked at.

The fabric is only 45” wide which was going to necessitate adding a centre back seam to the cape until the moment when I realized I could fold the fabric the other direction and create my own “centre” fold to put the pattern piece on. I got really daring and pinned both layers of fabric together and cut them at once. This made cutting go a little faster but I’m also hoping it will increase my chances of the layers lining up properly when I put the cape together. I’m planning to use some of the scraps for practice sewing before I dive into the actual cape. I haven’t worked with silks much and I’m not sure if my usual needle or tension will be the right thing. Much better to practice first.