The readers have spoken…

and I have responded! Fasten your seat belts folks, it’s time for another installment of the juicy, the sexy, the riveting, the awe-inspiring, soon-to-be-bestseller-thanks-in-large-part-to-teenage-girls-everywhere…The Twilight Cape Saga! I’m sure you’ve all been waiting as eagerly as my new pal, Lil’ Humphrey. (more on him in a later post) so let me not keep you any longer.

Onward to the gut-wrenching epic tale of woman vs fabric.

Cutting the chiffon was just the beginning. I knew I was in for a ride-and what a wild ride it was! Let’s take a gander at some of the highlights:

1. Time for everyone’s favorite technique.  Yes, that’s right: sewing to paper!

Now, some of you might be wondering, “is this really necessary? ” and to that I say, no. That’s right, you don’t have to do it at all….if you’re not worried about running the serious risk  of having your fabric:

-torn

-snagged

-uglified

-sucked into a vast gaping vortex of death…kind of like this:

Observe, this oh-so-haunting photo with it’s poor focus artistic blur,  and the eerie diffused ghost-like glow emanating from the dark depths of th- okay, you get it. This is what you don’t want. Jeeze, the things I do to make a point. Are we clear? Paper is your friend.

2. To quote the famed line from Hamlet, “to pearl or not to pearl…” Okay, that might’ve been slightly altered from the original and… not as profound but, work with me. I do think it can be a nice finish on things but I’ve just never thought of a pearl finish as, uh, “sportswear-y”. Know what I mean? Anyway, I figured I’d try it out and see if my mind changed.

My cape has two layers of chiffon so I tried to baby hem one (turn it up the tiniest bit to stitch), which looked amazing until….it didn’t. And then pearl the other.  Then genius struck me. Dare I marry the two?!?!?!  Muah, ha, ha! To my knowledge this is a sportswear first (I’m not that knowledgeable). What I’ve settled on doing is actually turning up up my pearled hem and stitching it that way. Take that, demon textile! And more, for I could not simply be satisfied with taming the mighty beast-oh no. I did not claim a true victory until I had beat, beat, beat it into a bloody submission. And so it was, the wheels of my ingenious mind kept turning and turning until at long last….Eureka!!

3. The original design of my cape had a front panel that was meant to be a rib. Alas:

-I couldn’t find what I needed ready-made and affordable ($59.99 a yard for a rib knit? Surely, you jest?), and,

-though I had planned on doing a lot of my own knitting (GASP!), I’ve recently moved but my machine-knitting tools didn’t come with. Also,

-It would take me FOR-EV-ER to do it by hand. Man, it’s a good thing I don’t even know how!

-Crochet, on the other hand, I can do; but where to find matching…. ::::eyes pile of fabric and light bulb goes on:::…..yarn….????

The fabric never saw me coming….

Prepare to witness a momentous occasion folks. At least it was for me anyway. It’s something I’ve only ever dreamed of doing, and here was my opportunity. Follow along and prepare to be amazed.

*Alternate titles for this post: “Say my Name, Chiffon. Say it!!!!,” and  “How I Kicked Chiffon’s A- and Made it my B-” …just something to think about…

Now sing it with me guys, “follow the yellow silk road…”