Capes for children (or adults, really) are so easy!

1. Get your fabric. Measure your child from his shoulders to the floor. Get that much fabric.

2. Now, cut it. Lay the fabric out as shown in the diagram and cut where the red line is. Don’t worry about being too precise, you’re just rounding the corner a bit.

3. Hem. Hem the three sides that are curved.

4. Gather the top. Set your machine to the longest stitch length possible and run two rows of stitching across the top (unhemmed) edge. Pull on the threads to gather the top to whatever length you want. Arrange the gathers so they are even across the length.

5. This step is optional, but I find it makes things easier. Using a zigzag stitch, sew over the gathers to lock them in place.

6. Get or make yourself a length of bias tape about 8-12 inches longer than the top of your cape. Leaving lengths of bias tape on either side for ties, sew the tape to the top of the cape, hiding the messy unhemmed edge inside the bias tape.

All done!