Capote for the Boy Scouts.

What's a Capote? It's a long jacket or coat with a hood worn by Cowboys and Ranchers and soldiers. It's a lot like a trench coat, but with a hood and small cape.

Anyway we made a Capote.

In our area there is a Campout for the Boy Scouts in the district, where they go up near Payson for a winter campout for four days. It's called The Mountain Man Rendezvous. Several of the troops attending make a Capote, usually by hand, so in their troops they all match. The Boys also make knives and sheaths and other small things to trade with during the campout. So this one boy in the troop decided to go last minute and his mother, who doesn't sew, asked us to make his Capote.

Uh, ok. Twist our arms!

B.S. brought a pattern and a small opinion with him as well as a nice wool blanket. We laid the pattern out and Mardell starts asking him questions like:

"Do you want a collar inside the hood?" or "How long do you want it? "and "Do you want a long cape or short one? and things like that. This kid is only 14 or so and he doesn't have very much opinion about what it looks like, only how long it was and could we make the neck less itchy?

Well let me tell you, if you don't have an opinion about things then Mardell either sends you away until you do, or she dismisses you and we get to play! Which is exactly what we did.  B.S. helped us cut the pattern out and then went and hung out with the other boys in the house.

"We should put leather trim on it" Mardell says to me. Sounds great so I go pilfering through the scrap leather in the bucket.  First order of business, stylish front patch pockets! With a nod to an original Mountain Man, Levi Strauss himself, I go for a Levi type embellishment on the pockets.

While I do that, Mardell is like lightning with the construction of the Capote and even though it about as complicated as a bath robe she has the main section put together just as I finish cutting out the pockets. We called the boy in and measured where the pockets and belt go and went back to work.  I cut the belt loops out of the scrap leather while she sewed the pockets all up and onto the front.

About this time she remembers that her son, Sullivan needs some finishing touches made to his Capote as well and has him bring it in while we are working on Capotes anyway. I proceed to cut out leather embellished pockets and belt loops for his too.

Now let me pause here... Mardell's dream life would include costume making. She often talks about costumes from movies the way I talk about plot and story lines. She sees and remembers more details about what people are wearing than I ever realized. And like I remember stories, she remembers outfits. To be given creative license designing custom clothing is like giving her candy. She gets excited and giddy and both the giddy excitement and the creativeness is contagious.

"Oh! Let's put fringe on the capes!" She calls out from the sewing machine. And like a glutton for her punishments I say ok.

Back to the leather scraps I go.

"And he needs a leather belt too Leae." She says without even looking up or anything. So a three in belt is found, even if we sewed it together in the back.  Fringe strips were next. Now the nice thing about fringing leather onto  a circle cape is that as long as it's the right width for the length of fringe you want (in this case 3") it can be any length of strip you can find in the scraps. It doesn't have to be the same curve as the bottom of the cape, because, well you get to fringe it and then it lays perfectly flat!

Mardell sewed the fringe strips on one Capote and started on the next. I start fringing. 1/4 of an inch at a time slicing the leather until the whole thing was done. Ah the monotony! And then do the next. My hand and shoulder were tired and starting to burn.  But it starts to look like this and it gets so cool.

We call the boys in and make them try them on and say what needs to change or whatever and  we notice that the capes don't want to stay put in the front since they're  really only attached along the back.  After fussing it for a minute we decide buttons must be added and finding two silver ones Mardell fastens them in place while a slightly nervous boy watched the needle in her hand, hoping she didn't bury it in his chest.  Sullivan got buttons as well, but he had actually made his own with his grandpa the week before.

The boys looked great! They were sure going to stay warm in those Capotes up in the mountains and a quick fun couple of hours for us!

Onto the next Project!