Killer Cape

I found a pattern a while back when Fabricland was having a sale for a cape. I know, capes can be a bit dicey, but I do love a bit of costume-y glory in an outfit so I went ahead and bought the pattern. The idea was always to make a short cape rather than the floor length ones pictured on the pattern but then I decided it would be great to take some of the wall-paper felting techniques that Jessica taught at her workshop (to be blogged about later), and make a fantastic felted short cape.
Since felting requires a bit of commitment in the way of making the fabric I decided to make a mock up out of some corduroy to test the fit and length. Postmodern Hausfrau had some good tips on cape length that really helped. I started out with the hem hitting my wrist and I looked like a huge green box with legs. The pattern only called for one button at the throat but it seemed both a bit twee and also wanted to choke me to death, so I opted for four buttons. I think on the final felted one I will group two buttons together at the top to prevent any pulling in the neck area.
The only other thing I changed on the pattern was to line it. I had some super synthetic lining kicking around in my stash that was a good match colour-wise but makes the hood essentially useless, it just slides off my hair. I realise there are no pics of it with the hood up. I'm not sure if I like it or not. Somehow I feel REALLY Hobbity with the hood up and since the cape itself puts me in a potentially Hobbity, Historical Re-inactors category I want to err on the side of caution. I might try a mandarin collar version next to see how it looks.