Easy Elsa Cape or Adventures of the Reckless Seamstress

B, my youngest, wearing the first cape I made.

So a friend of mine messaged me with a request that was something of a leap of faith.  Her daughter, like a large portion of America, including my daughters, is quite taken with Elsa from Frozen.  She loves the gorgeous flowing train of her fabulous sparkling Ice Queen gown.  So my friend, after seeking a cape with a train and not finding anything in a reasonable price range, asked if I might be able to make one.
I have already admitted that I am no seamstress, but I do have enough bravado to try things if I think for a minute I might be able to figure it out.  This request though, concerned me.  I told her I'd have to think on it.
My youngest daughter has a beautiful Elsa dress she got for Christmas from her grandparents.  It fits her perfectly and is made with higher quality fabric than you often find with these costumes.  The flowing, sheer train part is totally sewn into her dress, not unlike Elsa's actual dress in the film.  There was no way I had the skills to replicate that.
Fortunately, my daughters also have an Elsa 12" doll and a tiny 3.5" Elsa mini princess doll, both of which have capes rather than a singly constructed dress.  Aha!  Inspiration!
Then a stop at Hancock's Fabrics and Hobby Lobby and I was in business and around $80 poorer.  Not knowing what I was doing, the buying of fabric and notions was pretty much a swag--I went a little overboard on notions.  Fortunately, it worked out that I had enough fabric to make two very lovely capes and some fabric that will work very nicely for the Elsa room in the castle I'm building (another story for another time).  I selected two fabrics for the dress, one sparkling, semi-opaque turquoise blue and the other a shimmery, sheer fabric--thank goodness it was prom season.  Because it was the end of the bolt, I got almost two yards of the turquoise and a yard of the shimmer.  They were pretty wide.  I'd purchased two yards of another shimmery fabric at Hobby Lobby but once I saw the turquoise with the tiny sparkly stars, my plans changed.  Plus the Hobby Lobby bolt was much narrower than the Hancock's bolts.  My new plan was to layer the sheer over the turquoise, somehow.
I used wrapping paper to make a pattern.  After measuring my eldest daughters shoulders and clavicle, I determined what the neckline/collar measurements needed to be.  I folded the wrapping paper in half, used a ruler to draw a line of half the width of her shoulders.  Then I angled the ruler down a bit and drew the length of where I wanted the front of the cape to clasp.  After that I freehand drew out half a cape--a long cape.  The last step in the pattern build was to cut out arm holes.  I made a long triangle with about 2/3 the base under the back shoulder line and a 1/3 under the front of the cape line.  I had my daughter try it on.  I cut the triangle a little wider toward the front, retried the paper cape and was satisfied I had a pattern.

The pictures that follow are from the making of the second cape.

The white is the wrapping paper pattern folded in half, the other two are the fabrics, also in half.  I don't know why the pattern looks longer, it wasn't.  It could have something to do with my not even trying to iron the fabrics.  

Paper pattern folded.  Fabrics opened and layered on top of each other.

It's almost a perfect fit.  Fortunately, perfection isn't totally required.
After cutting comes the annoying, but not difficult work.

I used a wash-away wonder tape, instead of pinning to keep two slippery fabrics together.  It takes a little less time than pinning and it doesn't have to be removed.  YAY!  I "taped" the fabrics together with the right side of both fabrics facing up.  I only taped the neck and sleeve areas.  The sides of the cape are left open.

Then on the top of the sheer fabric, I put wonder tap around the sleeves.

Then I added the silver bias tape to the inside of the sleeves.  This is where the wonder tape is really wonderful.  To make the corners neater, I added tiny pieces of bias tape across the corner.  That makes it look nicer and it strengthens the corners of the delicate fabric.

Along the edge of the sleeve facing the front of the cape, I also added a fancy trim piece, tucking the edges of the trim under those corner covers.  Lots of wonder tape was used.  I did get two capes out of one roll of wonder tape, with a smidgen left over.  Then, using silver tape, I ran it through my sewing machine.  I don't have a serger so I just used a zigzag stitch, pretty tightly set and ran over both the inside and outside of the bias tape.

Next, again using wonder tape, I tacked down a wider version of the silver bias tape along the neck, leaving about 2 extra inches of bias tape on either side of the neck.  Then I stitched up both the inside and outside along the neck.

I added another bit of fancy silver trim to the neck--stitching up both sides.

Next, I tucked under the ends of the collar, hand stitched them down neatly and added the hook clasp.  All done with the silver thread.  Warning, the follow steps will possibly disturb serious seamstresses.  I'm sorry.

After testing the fabric to make sure it would survive, I used silver hot glue to seal the edges.  I don't have a serger or patience.  This did the trick and will endure being dragged on the floor better than sewing.  Plus, it looks kind of cool.  

With the top, sheer layer, I intentionally brought the glue line in about a half inch or so from the originally cut edge.  I wasn't particularly neat with the glue, though I tried to keep the inside edge of the glue straight and the thickness consistent.  I glued all the way around the unfinished edge of the cape, keeping paper underneath the fabric and continually moving the fabric to keep it from sticking to the paper.  I also was careful not to glue it to the turquoise fabric.

After gluing all the way around from collar to collar.  I trimmed the fabric to the glue line, neatening up any sloppy areas of the glue and leaving a cool, durable edge.  I did the same thing with the bottom layer of fabric, except this time I kept the glue very close to the originally cut edge.  Trimmed it clean and VIOLA!

Finished cape.  You can see there is a slight reveal of the bottom layer.  Below is my older daughter, with her new cape on over a different snow queen's costume.  

The cost, amount of fabric and notions will vary based on fabric and trim choices.  One spool of silver thread got me through both capes (I bought 4 spools of silver plus two more of turquoise thread--I hope they take it back).  One package of the wide bias tape did both capes with plenty left over but I needed two packages of the thinner bias tape.  Both were double folded.  If you make your pattern first, you'll have a much better idea of how much stuff you'll need.  I bought too much trim, but I will end up using it in some other random project, so no big deal.