I've spent the last two weeks making ( of all things) Cloaks. Semicircle cloaks with full circle capelets and hoods.

I have created two of them. The first, my own, is pretty basic. The second, a gift, took ages. Unfortunately, I haven't any decent photographs of the second to upload and show off. Suffice to say that it took eight hours to create the actual cloak, two days to allow the fabric to stretch properly, and about four hours to hem it. By hand. My sewing machine started being an idiot when it came to hemming, so hand-sewn was the only way to go. I also discovered that glue is not my friend. It is, in fact, my worse enemy.

Why am I explaining all of this to you, void full of arty people? I am telling you it so that if I ever express any desire to pick up a needle and thread or a sewing machine again, or I decide that I want to make another cloak, you can tell me that I should only ever do it if someone stupid pays me.

(read that as 'you pay off my student loans, I'll give you a piece of fabric that's been cut up and stitched back together in a different order'

Happy birthday to deviantart. Also I owe a happy birthday to a friend of mine, but he is not a deviantartist, and so will never see this.

I hope.

for those wondering:

The new cloak is deep wine red. It has a fully lined hood edged with some pretty awesome edging stuff ( which I love and want more of). It's 60ins long and I actually tried to hem it. It also has a proper closing, which is something the other cloak lacks. the closing consists of two hoops with either ribbon or string used to tie the two together, as this allows for it to be worn tightly closed or slightly looser, depending on who wears it, as I had no exact measurements to work from for the neck hole. The horrible messy bit where the hood, cloak and cape meet has been tidied away under some bias tape ( wine red, of course) and the hessian panel seen in the other cloak is there, only covered with the same fabric as the cloak for added comfort. it also looks prettier and prevents the hessian from fraying.