Thing a Day 8: KittyBee!

And now for something completely different...costumes for kitties! This was started as part of a barter with a friend of my husband's: a video game for him, and a few "capes" for her kitty, to keep him warm. I started three capes, and was only able to finish two of them in time for the trade. The first two were simple - flannel, in a tweedish-print. The third was more...out there. I found some yellow flannel in my stash, and purchased some black synthetic satin. It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to make my bee stripes. The yellow cape sat, unfinished, for months! If you look closely at the cape, you'll see that I tried a few different methods. One of the stripes was sewn (right sides together) and then folded over, edges turned and pressed, and then top-stitched. I wasn't satisfied with that - I couldn't get the edges as straight as I wanted. The remaining three stripes were sewn together with backing, turn turned and pressed before I turned and pressed them, and top-stitched them onto the cape. 

Next time, I think I would cut the backing a bit smaller than the topping. That way, when the stripe was turned and pressed, the black would tuck around to the back and the white wouldn't show around the edges. (Did that make sense to anyone else?!)

(PS - A big thank you to Aslan, my model today. Aslan, you're a champ! The first two capes were modeled by my, then crawling, son. As my son is now running, climbing and jumping...he was less than agreeable to modeling for me today. Thanks, Aslan, for saving the day!)