When the kids are bored during the school holidays or say the dreaded words Reading Week, it’s time to raid the dressing up box – or more likely make a costume. My god daughter Esmée wanted to be Little Red Riding Hood and here’s the costume her mother and I made for her.
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Buying a Red Riding Hood cape can set you back a few bob but making one is really easy. Esmée’s mum came up with the ingenious design and I helped out with the sewing machine.
You’ll need:
- 1 metre of cheap red fabric (a market stall or discount fabric shop are good bets)
- red cotton thread
- 1.5m of red ribbon
Step 1 – hem the sides of the fabric
Turn in a narrow hem on all four sides of the fabric and oversew.
Step 2 – create the fastening and shape the neckline
Fold over the piece of fabric to about 2/3 of the way down. The shorter section will become the hood and the longer section the body of the cape.
Close to the fold make 2 rows of running stitch – using a large stitch length.
Gather up the stitches by pulling gently on the ends of the thread until you have gathered it to the right size to fit loosely round the child’s neck. Make sure the gathers are evenly distributed.
Lay a piece of red grosgrain ribbon over the gathers with enough left over at each end to form the neck tie. Sew in place. This will anchor your gathers.
Step 3 – gather up the hood
On both edges of the smaller (hood) section make 2 rows of large running stitches in the same way as you did for the neckline.
Gently pull on the ends of the threads to gather up fairly tightly. When you’re happy with the amount of gather secure the Alternatively – if you find it easier you can just fold up the edges like a concertina and anchor them onto the end of the neck gathers with a few stitches.
And that’s it! Tie the ribbon round the child’s neck and arrange the hood over her head. It should fall softly over the back of the cape.
To complete the outfit just add a red or black skirt and a white blouse – and maybe a little white apron.
