thread to keep myself accountable since i want to finish this Today
remaking gentaro’s capelet!

this cosplay is pretty nice but there’s some issues with the cape i wanna fix so i’m remaking it
-outer fabric is purple not black
-too small in the shoulders
-i wanna move the placement of the shoulder slits

i figured i’d do a thread since people may be interested in seeing my approach since i make clothes for a living ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ

so! i want to save as much of the lining fabric as possible since it’s super visible in all his art. to do this i want to take this apart “correctly”

this means going in and taking the seams apart as if i was gonna do a professional alteration. i’ll just be taking it apart and harvesting the lining and remaking the pattern, but this is the best way to get ALL the lining fabric

to do this i need a seamripper, fray check, and pinking shears just in case.
first we find the hole to open the capelet- bagged lining garments are sewn with the lining and self facing each other, then turned inside out through a hole that’s then topstitched closed

this wasn’t topstitched but i’m guessing the factory was rushing to make this since the cape is the wrong color anyways, lol.
anyways you can pull the garment through the hole like so- this is after removing any buttons or decorative stitching on the garment

this is what it looks like on the inside- pretty standard construction and exactly what i expected tbh. very happy to see a generous 1/2 inch seam allowance! i need all the fabric i can get since i’m gonna widen this pattern substantially through the shoulder

since i’m taking the whole thing apart i’m just gonna pick a spot and go in. i like to find where the stitcher finished a seam and just start from there. CAREFULLY pick up a stitch with your seamripper and start seamripping out the back stitching

this will take a while but patience is key as you can rip a hole in your fabric if you rush and accidentally snag a fiber from it while picking up the thread. there’s an advantage to starting at the back stitching i’ll show once it’s seamripped!

also worth noting while i’m here- i’m referring to the stitcher who made this because all clothing is made by a person at a sewing machine. there aren’t “clothing making machines”, only individuals operating one of several types of sewing machines, by hand.

once you’ve seamripped that backstitched section, pull out a section of the thread so there’s enough to grab, and go find the end of the seam. you don’t have to seamrip the whole end, just a little section

then you can start pulling the thread out!
it’s challenging with fabric that’s been interfaced but it’s doable. don’t be afraid to pull on the fabric to snap the thread- you can just pick it back up and start again.

as i go i’m trimming back frayed sections with my pinking shears and applying fray check. frayed edges are pretty common if you’re gonna be altering or taking apart a garment- raw edges on the inside is normal since finishing them adds unnecessary bulk

i’m only adding fray check if the edge is fraying SUPER badly but i’ll probably go and add it to all the edges once i’m done just bc it’ll be faster to do all at once

this seam is pretty interesting and i’ll probably copy it. they sewed the self and lining shoulder seams separately, and then sewed up the capelet along the edges, stopping at the edge of the shoulder. basically zero bulk! very cool

also i showed one way of seamripping buuuut here is another way if your fabric isn’t super thin and your thread is, lol. warning make sure to only do this once you’ve seamripped a gap at the beginning and end of the seam or you WILL rip the fabric once you get to the backstitch

the key with this is to tug very fast but not very hard and stop if there’s a lot of resistance, you get the hang of it after a while. don’t do it if your seam allowance is kinda small though or it’ll just fray the fabric

there are two seams connecting the capelet and the collar- one for the self and one for the lining. usually you’d just sew them both at once but maybe they weren’t confident about lining stuff up correctly, who knows. anyways i’m just taking the lining off bc that’s all i need

since this is a short seam and i want to be careful of the clipped curve, i’m just going one stitch at a time and ripping out each one very carefully. i’m gonna fray check this as soon as it’s all removed and then go back to the other seams

lining is free! gonna seamrip the panels apart, then press out the creases and fray check the edges. this fabric is nice and was wasted lining interfaced broadcloth lmao

while fray check dries gonna figure out how i wanna change this pattern...happy the collar is still attached to the self so i can just try it on lol

thankfully the back width seems to be ok afterall, and i can get away with just adjusting the shoulder seams. i’m gonna let them out by mmmm a half inch on the back piece, but i’ll need to change the shape of the panels anyways to move where the openings are.

i’m tempted to add a back seam but i am also lazy lmao. i may add one anyways depending on how the pattern pieces work with the lining and also just bc it would look nice and add some mobility through the shoulder area but we will see

anyways here’s the major change i’m making- the shoulder opening is right at the shoulder seam, which means it doesn’t naturally fall open around the arm, since our arms curve forward usually when we’re doing stuff

the shoulder seam being set too far back on me doesn’t help this but it would be an issue even if the capelet did fit lol. his white sleeves are ALWAYS visible so i want the fit of this to reflect that without having to constantly move the capelet

the shape / size of the collar is ok too which is good bc i don’t wanna redraft it LMAO. the other change i may make is topstitching down the front pleats but that should be it
anyways i’m gonna seamrip this apart and make a pattern