Red Riding Hood Cape Made from Sheets

     I've been wanting to do a Little Red Riding Hood costume for a while now.  Most of the store capes I've seen are pretty meh, so I figured I'd sew my own.  Last year I went ahead and bought a cape pattern.  I usually order my fabric at the same time as my patterns, so I pay attention to how much fabric the pattern takes, but for some reason, I decided I would buy the pattern and wait on the fabric.  I didn't check the amount of fabric because I think I assumed it couldn't be too much - I've made a cape before from about two yards of fabric.  However, when I took a look at the pattern, it turned out that it took six and a half yards of fabric.
     Fabric is not cheap.  That is, if you buy it as fabric.  I spent countless hours scouring Joann's website, looking for red fabric that I could afford to buy 8 or 10 yards of because apparently you can't just buy 6 1/2 yards online, and I came up empty handed.  However, satin bed sheets cost way less than raw fabric.  I would have loved to try thrifting some and saving even more money, but given our current circumstances, I went ahead and ordered a king sized red satin sheet set online.
     The sheets worked out fantastically.  If you are thinking of making your own cape, I would definitely recommend considering something like sheets or tablecloths for your source material, as it will probably save you a good chunk of change.  Since in person thrifting isn't really viable for most of us right now, if you don't want to order online and you don't have some sheets at home needing a new life, you could potentially try asking around and seeing if anyone you know has a sheet set they would be willing to part with.
     Now the pattern I used also calls for the same amount of lining material.  The nice thing about satin sheets is that they're finished on both sides, so if you're using this for a costume, you really won't need a lining.  I opted not to use a lining, and the process I describe will take that into account, but if you do want to line your cape, you'll essentially need a second sheet set.  Because I used a pattern to make this cape, I'm going to tell you what I've done differently from the pattern.  The rest of the instructions you'll find with the pattern itself.  Also, it's worth noting that I used the XS pattern size.  By inspection, it looks like you could get away with cutting even the large from a king sized sheet set, but that may not be the case, so be aware of that if you are planning on making a larger size.

Materials:

*Simplicity Cape Pattern
*King sized satin bed sheets
*Red thread
*Sewing machine
*Iron
*Scissors
*Metallic marker or fabric pen
*Red ribbon (optional)

Directions:

*Cut the elastic off of the fitted sheet, and cut open the corners (the sewn bit that fits over the corners of the mattress).  You need to be able to lay both sheets flat for cutting.

*Iron both sheets.  Seriously.  Especially if your sheets have been lying in their packaging for a while and have some well set in creases.  I did not do this, and I ended up with some pattern pieces that were longer than others.  Save yourself suffering down the line by ironing everything before cutting.

*Choose your cape style.  The body of the cape is the same for all three styles, but each one (A, B, and C) has a different hood.  I opted for the simplest one, pattern C.

*Trace and cut your pattern pieces.  If you're using sheets instead of fabric, you won't be able to line up the pieces in the exact diagram that they show on the packaging, so you'll have to Tetris your pieces around.  Pay attention to grain line, if that's important to you.  I forgot about it, and while I don't think it made a big difference, it may matter to you.

*I didn't bother with Step 1 of the sewing directions because I don't understand stay stitching, but you may want to do that.

*I then followed Steps 2 and 3.

*Since I was using pattern C, I then jumped ahead to Step 18.

*I didn't have a lining, so I skipped ahead to Step 21.  For that one, I just pinned the hood to the neck of the cape, right sides together, and sewed them.  I didn't do the basting stitches, and I also didn't do Steps 23 or 24 because I didn't have a lining.

*Since I didn't do a lining, I next hemmed the edges.  Satin frays a lot, so to further protect the edges and hide the fraying, I hemmed the edges twice.  I folded over the edge of the fabric all the way around and sewed it down, and then folded it over a second time, making sure to hide all the fraying, and sewed it down again.

*I ended up deciding to use red ribbon for the ties, so the last thing I did was sew a piece of red ribbon to either side of the cape along the neckline.  If you'd rather do the fabric ties that are part of the pattern, you'll have to go back to Step 12 to make them.