Spring is in the air and this month’s free sewing pattern is the ‘pretty as a picture’ Caprice free cape sewing pattern for girls. With its shabby-chic look it is sure to impress whether for party or play. Keep reading to find out how to make one for your little girl.
Sizes Included – One size fits most girls age 3 to 10
Suggested Fabrics – This free cape sewing pattern is suitable for light to medium-weight, non-stretch washable fabrics. It looks great in cottons and cotton-blends. I made my cream sample from calico and the pink sample from a quilting cotton. If you are going to leave the edges of the ruffles raw like my samples then check that the fabric rips easily. Densely woven fabrics usually rip well.
I suggest you prewash your fabrics in case it shrinks. If you use a light colored fabric make sure any contrast fabric is colorfast so it doesn’t run on the lighter fabric when you wash your capelet.
Extra Supplies Needed – 42 inches (1.05m) of 1/2 inch (12mm) ribbon for the neck tie.
Fabric Requirements
- 1/2 yard for the capelet (0.45m)
- 1/4 yard for the ruffles (0.25m)
General Notes
- Seam allowances of 1/2 inch (12mm) are included in the pattern.
- I recommend backstitching at the beginning and end of all seams and ruffles to secure the stitching.
Printing and Assembling Pattern Pieces
Download your pattern by clicking on the image below. A PDF will open up in a new window. When printing your pattern pieces, make sure that your printer’s “page scaling” is set to “none” and “auto center and rotate” is checked. The pattern pieces print on 8.5” x 11”(letter) or A4 paper. You can check your pattern has printed in the correct size by measuring the two inch (5.1cm) test square. Each page is marked with a number 1 to 6. There are 3 rows of 2. Tape the edges of the boxes together, trimming where necessary.
SEWING THE FREE CAPE SEWING PATTERN
RIPPING THE RUFFLES
In order to give a shabby-chic look to this capelet, I ripped the edges of the ruffles. The easiest way to do this is to make a small cut in the edge of your fabric the width of the ruffle and then rip. A densely woven fabric will rip easily. Then trim the strips to the lengths of your ruffle pattern pieces. Pull at the loose threads. It will get to a point where the edges are fluffy and the loose threads stop coming. You will have quite a pile of threads when you are finished! If you don’t like this raw look you could of course serger the edges or finish them with a zig-zag stitch. Pinking shears also give a nice look and stops fraying.
SEWING INSTRUCTIONS
1.) On the RIGHT side of one of your caplet pieces, mark the ruffle guides from your pattern piece.
2.) With RIGHT sides together, stitch the caplet pieces all the way around leaving a 1 inch (2.5cm) gap as shown at the straight edge.
3.) Trim the seam allowance to 1/4 inch (6mm) and clip the corners and curves.
4.) Turn your capelet the RIGHT way out through the gap and press well. Topstitch around the capelet close to the edge. This will close the gap.
5.) On the top edge of RUFFLE E, stitch a row of gathering stitches. (longest stitch length.) If you don’t want to remove the gathering stitches later then use a matching cotton. I’m always looking to save time! Pull the bobbin threads to gather RUFFLE E to match the length of ruffle guide E on the capelet.
6.) On the RIGHT side of the cape, pin RUFFLE E to the bottom guide E. The top ruffle raw edge should touch the guide. Stitch on top of your gathering stitch through all layers.
7.) Repeat steps 6 to 8 for RUFFLES B,C,D. Make sure you are matching the correct ruffles to the correct guides.
8.) Gather RUFFLE A with a gathering stitch down the center.
9.) Stitch the center of RUFFLE A to the marked guide A. You will be aligning the center gathering stitch to the marked guide A. Stitch on top of the gathering stitch through all layers. Below shows how it will look from underneath. You can see the ruffle comes off the edge.
10.) Match the center of the ribbon to the center back of the capelet. Sew the ribbon on top of the gathering stitches of RUFFLE A. Stitch along both edges of the ribbon.
11.) You can stop most ribbons from fraying by cutting the ends at an angle or using a stop fray liquid.
Congratulations you are finished the free cape sewing pattern!
UPDATE – You can now download this sewing pattern and instructions as a PDF. Click here for the free downloadable sewing pattern.
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