Leather Costume - Spray Painted Cape

The leather album art project, first pants from scratch, then a modified jacket, was finished with a cape.  I had several yards of dark red ponte knit to work with, and I merely rounded the corners to make the shape I liked.  Feeling inspired by the idea of old brocade curtains and lace, but faded and worn, I decided to spray-paint the cape with lacy stencils!  I bought an outdoor fabric spray paint from JoAnn's, in brown. 

MAKING STENCILS

A potato bag made a stencil.

Folded paper to cut

Cut paper unfolded

Snowflake folding paper

Snowflake fold #1

Snowflake folds #2 and #3

Border idea

Finished stencils

Finished stencils ironed flat

PAINTING

I took the fabric outside and laid it on a piece of cardboard.  I spray painted it with brown fabric paint, aiming for a full coverage, layered look.  I did both sides of the cape and used every drop of paint!  Then I hung it to dry in the porch. 

After the cape was dry, I took it down, and noticed a hitch in my perfect plan: the newly rough texture of it, with all the spray paint, made it want to cling to itself like Velcro!  Eeek!  Imagine a heroic fighter of evil, standing against dramatic backdrop, with his hair tousled and his cape-- actually his cape is crumpled up in a sad little ball between his shoulder blades.  Not good.

So I worried about it for a night, slept on it (figuratively), and woke up with an idea: I stuck it in the dryer with several sheets of fabric softener/conditioner.  I don't know what-all they put in those Dryel sheets, but it did the trick!  The cape came out with a "fresh" dryer smell, and with enough conditioner coating it to keep the Velcro effect at bay!  I checked the inside of the dryer to make sure there was no lingering paint, but it was clean. 

MOUNTING TO JACKET

To mount the cape to the jacket, I sewed four buttonholes in the cape: two for each button.  I wanted the top to have a gentle fold, so on each side I folded the cape until the two buttonholes lined up, then treated them as one to put them over the button.  The finished effect was draped like a Roman soldier's cape. 

I wonder how heavy that is... I positioned the buttons just above seams for extra support.

And here's the finished cape in all its glory!  The spray paint effect is subtle... could be mud, or could be threadbare old patterns.  But I think it's better than just a shot of bold red: he's a weary warrior from an endless battle, not a superhero. 

No hem because ponte knit doesn't run (which is why so many hand-sewn vintage gloves are made of it--you can have tiny seam allowances).

THE WHOLE COSTUME

My client soon took his new costume to a photoshoot, to get cover art for his album.  I hope to share a few of those pictures, soon!  They look really cool!