White Feather Cape

This feather cape took me many, many hours of time to make but it was so worthwhile. It had been a vision in my head for the past few months when I decided to learn everything I could about feathers so that I could make more unique fascinators. My daughter Kim and I watched the Black Swan movie at that time when it came out on DVD at Redbox and we were fascinated with the gorgeous head pieces that the ballet dancers wore. A few days later I designed my version which I called The Swan Princess. As I made the piece, visions of a cape kept coming into my head and I knew that someday I would make one. So a few days ago, I decided it was time. Now here it is!

On this first photo my mannequin is wearing the Swan Princess fascinator. To make this cape, I first made the cape using white cotton corduroy fabric and lined it in white satin. I wanted the fabric to be strong and not stretchy and this fabric was perfect. I first thought I would count every feather I put on the cape, but I quickly lost count so I have no idea how many I used. These feathers are natural white turkey feathers and I hand cut every feather to the desired shape and length I wanted. This took even more time.

I attached the feathers in a diamond pattern, overlapping and travelling upwards at an angle as I worked. Here you can see how the pattern took shape.

I wanted every feather to hang over the edge of the cape all around. Here you can see the front bottom edge.

The back had the largest area to cover with feathers so it took quite a few hours. The feathers also overlap at the neck edge.

And all down the front of the neckline. The clasp was another thing I really had to think about. I did not want the cape to overlap at the front so I needed a closure that would not detract from the capes feather beauty. I finally hit upon an idea and went to my jewelry parts. I used two gorgeous rhinestone buttons and attached chain and a heart shaped necklace closure that would open and close easily and still look glamorous. Then I sewed the buttons with closure pieces to each side of the cape at the right height and distance apart.

Here you can see how easily it opens. It is a toggle closure and I include this information in case you wish to add something glamorous onto any cape or sweater to keep it secured around your neck.

Here you can see the white satin lining.

I put the cape over a white corset to take these photos but I envision this cape over a long slinky satin wedding or evening gown for that old world Hollywood glamour.

The white swan fascinator is the perfect headpiece to go with this cape for a winter wedding but I also made a second fascinator to give two choices.