Moth Wing Cloak

This Instructable shows how to make a cozy blanket cloak that looks like the wings of a moth.

Materials:

• Cheap plastic table cloths
• Brown fleece fabric, about 5 yards
• White fleece or fuzzy fabric, about 3 yards (I used a queen sized fuzzy blanket for this.)
• Grey fleece fabric, 1-2 yards
• Black fleece fabric, 1-2 yards
• Clasp or button

Tools:

• Sewing machine
• Sewing supplies
• Patience.

To make a pattern, I used some cheap plastic table cloths from the dollar store. Start with the bottom wings, which will be one piece. Lay the table cloth out flat. Measure out how long you want your cloak to be; it should reach about to your ankles. Fold the table cloth in half vertically. This will make it so when you cut out the pattern, it is symmetrical.

To make the neck hole, use a compass or ruler. Start in the top left corner of your plastic and mark a 1/4 circle, about 6 inch radius. Cut along this line. When you unfold it, there should be a half-circle in the center of the piece.

While the plastic is folded in half, cut the bottom into a rounded shape. When it unfolds, it should be a sort of heart-shape as shown in the pictures above.

*The blue plastic is the pattern for the bottom wings, and the white are the top wings.

To make the pattern for the top wings, get a new plastic table cloth and fold it in half. Lay the pattern for the bottom wings, also folded in half, onto the new plastic. Mark out the same shape of the first piece onto the second, but make the new pattern an inch or two longer than the bottoms. Make sure to cut along all sides of the pattern, so you can separate it into two wings.

Now you should have 3 pattern pieces; the bottom wings, and two top wings.

To make the pattern for the hood, fold another piece of plastic in half. Sketch out the hood shape and cut it out. I literally just free-handed this, and it turned out fine for me, but if you don't think you'll get it right you can print off the shape from the internet.

Set the hood aside for later.

Lay the pattern pieces over your white fabric, and pin it if needed. Cut out the shapes, and we can begin adding the designs. Don't throw out the pattern pieces yet, as you'll need them for the backing later.

To make the designs on the top wings, lay out some black fabric near the bottoms. Using a marker or pencil, draw out two sets of wavy designs and cut them out. Make sure to double up the fabric before you cut so you have two identical pieces, one for each wing. I'm not the best at explaining, so use the pictures for help. Do the same with the grey fabric, but larger and thicker. When you lay the grey fabric over the black, leave about 2 inches of the black peeking out from behind the grey. Make another wavy black line higher up.

For the eye designs, cut a crescent moon shape and a little drop shape to go in the center. You'll need four of these, one for each top wing and 2 for the bottom piece. Place these in the center, symmetrical to each other.

Finally, overlay some brown fabric at the top and cut to size, making the wavy design at the bottoms.

Do the same thing for the bottom wings, except instead of a brown piece over the whole top, cut out a triangle shape that goes in the middle. Make sure the necklines match up.

Now for the most time-consuming part: pinning.

Carefully fold the edges of each piece underneath itself about 1/4 of an inch. Then pin it so it won't move when you sew it. Do this to every piece; the final result will be a neatly hemmed design.

Don't pin the eyes on, but set them aside; you'll sew those on after the line work.

To give the wings texture and make them look slightly more realistic, you'll need to sew segment lines into them. To start, sew a line directly down the center of the bottom wings, beginning at the tip of the brown triangle. Next, mark out lines going from the peak of each wave design to the inverted peak of the next. That probably makes no sense, so check out the pictures for a better idea.

Do the same to the top wings.

Using the original pattern pieces, cut out the 3 wing pieces from your brown fabric. Lay the wings over the backing, and carefully hem both sides by folding about 1/4 inch of the edges inward. Pin the pieces together, and sew it all shut.

Using the hood pattern you made before, fold a piece of white fabric in half and cut out the shape of the hood. You should have 2 identical pieces on top of each other. Sew along the red line marked in the picture above. Then turn the hood inside out. Cut out the same of brown fabric, sewing along the same line. Then place the white hood inside of the brown hood as a lining. Hem the rim inward and sew.

Pin the two top wings along the neckline, making sure that the wings will fall over the shoulders as shown above. Then pin the bottom of the hood to the neckline all around. Sew all the pieces together at the neckline.

Finally, add a clasp to the front of the cloak.