Polar Capes... Take 3

 In my last post, I mentioned that I wasn't too happy with my most recent attempt at remaking Agnetha and Frida's capes that they'd wear during the first performance of each 1979 Tour show, or as they're now dubbed per ABBA the Museum, the Polar Capes.  

They were my second ever attempt at properly making the polar capes for my dolls, the first attempt in 2015, and then the second just a couple of months ago.  I don't think I properly expressed how disappointed I was in the way the capes turned out, but by that point I was just mentally exhausted from having to seam rip the ribbons again and again as they would sew on lumpy or slide around on the slippery satin base, and the end result was less than ideal.  Nevermind that I messed up the ordering of the top two stripes, and that was bugging me.

Considering I had collected all the supplies to make those capes years ago, I had been hoping to get by making the capes without spending any additional money. Ultimately I ended up buying 1 yard of thin satin from Amazon, as well as some sparkly tulle and chiffon for Frida's Dance Pants, but everything else was using supplies I already had, and I didn't particularly want to buy anything more.  So in some ways, that's kinda why I ultimately said I was satisfied enough with the capes and moved on.

But then I saw a reel on Instagram while I was casually doomscrolling.  The video was about how a cosplayer makes all of their cosplays out of spandex, a notoriously difficult fabric to work with due to the stretch and slipperiness of it.  The cosplayer gave some advice on how they make it work, like cutting out everything as a single layer, and using a walking foot for their sewing machine, which makes working with slippery fabrics like spandex, chiffon, silk, satin, etc so much easier! And since that was the main thing I was struggling with my capes, I realized I needed to try making them again.

So I immediately ordered a walking foot compatible with my sewing machine, and while I was there, decided to get some more accurate ribbons for the the capes, this time including ones that had sparkle to them.

I'm not the most patient sewer, hence why a lot of my stitches are sloppy, but I did my best to act a little more patiently, and after a good few hours of sewing yesterday, I have completed the Polar Capes yet again.  And this time, I am a lot happier.  Of course, they are not 100000% perfect either.  Because I'm working in miniature, no matter what I do, the capes are not going to drape as nicely on my dolls as they would a human, and I did have some lumpiness start to happen on the outermost stripe, but we're just going to ignore that.

 This time I did actually measure the satin bases, make sure they're a nice symmetrical triangle.  The diagram that I drew up for my main blog post complaining about the ABBA the Museum official costumes came in handy as a quick guide to make sure I was getting everything in the correct order, and the ribbons I got look much more accurate to the real thing.  The walking foot made this so much easier, resulting in neater stitches, and I only needed to seam rip on of the stripes once because I accidentally put it in the wrong place. (Also yes the there are two different colors of silver ribbon on the cape, but they look ridiculously similar in this lighting.  As you can see I didn't bother setting up my ring light to take higher quality photos, so you just have to trust me haha.)  The only thing that would have made this process easier would have been if I got around to threading my serger and used that around the edges of the satin to protect the edges rather than have to use a zig-zag stitch.  But alas I hate threading the serger, so the zig-zag stitch it was.

I am just so much happier, and can now officially cross off these costumes from my mental list of ABBA costumes I want to remake. :)