How to Sew a Witch Cape with a Rectangle of Fabric in 1 Hour

Years ago, my daughter was invited to a Halloween party, but didn’t have a costume that fit her. She had outgrown her Field of Flowers costume. All she had was a witch hat. All I had was one afternoon. (Hello, procrastinator!) So I decided to sew a witch cape with a rectangle of black fabric that I had in my stash.

Before having kids, I loved black and white photography. I had my own little darkroom and had purchased this fabric to block out the light from the window.

Once I became a mother, I no longer had long blocks of time to prepare everything, print, and put everything away, so this fabric ended up in my stash. It had gotten ripped in quite a few places. The ugly white lines across it looked like spider webs.

It was PERFECT for a witch’s cape!

I covered the holes with some scrap fabric, then added more to create a tattered patched look, sewed a quick casing along one long end, and slipped a ribbon through it to gather the rectangle and hold it on.

Could you get any easier than that? Or cuter?!

I added a “scary” spider, spider webs, a mole and other random markings on her face with face paint crayons*, and she was all ready in time for her party!

That’s one happy girl! I mean, one mean witch! 😉

Do you need a quick DIY Halloween costume? Check out just how easy it is to sew a witch cape with a rectangle of fabric! It’ll probably take you about 1 hour!

Materials:

• A rectangle of black fabric, about 70 x 90 cm (27 x 35″)
• Scraps of colorful fabric
• Heat’n Bond Lite*
• 150 cm/ 60″ (or 300 cm/ 120″ if doubling over) grosgrain ribbon about 2.5 cm (1″) wide* (preferably black, orange or Halloween-ish!)
• Regular sewing tools
• Safety pin*

Print out these instructions!
Scroll down to the end of this post and click “Print”.

Sew a witch cape with a rectangle of fabric

1. If your fabric is ripped like mine was, sew the holes closed.

2. Iron Heat’n Bond Lite* onto the back of scrap fabric and cut it up into random shapes and sizes. I chose colorful fabrics that would show up better.

3. Iron the scraps on the main fabric, covering up any holes you sewed shut. Then sew around the edges of the scraps with a zig zag stitch.

This technique is called appliqué. Learn how to machine appliqué here.

4. Press both short ends and one long end of the rectangle over by 1 cm (3/8″), then again. Sew the hems in place.

5. Press the other long end over by 1 cm (3/8″), then again by 3 cm (1 1/4″) and sew this casing down. (Click here to learn about sewing a casing.)

6. (optional, but preferably) Fold the ribbon in half with the wrong sides facing and the two ends meeting in the center. Sew down the two edges and zig zag the ends together, as shown in the picture above.

7. Stick a safety pin* into one end of the ribbon and slip it through the casing.

8. Scrunch up the fabric and you’re done!

A perfect faux-tattered witch’s cape, made in about one hour!

How happy your little witch will be with her new cape! Ready to perform all sorts of magic!

If you like to make costumes, but sometimes wonder why you put in the extra effort, make sure you read my 10 reasons to make your own costume instead of buying one. There are a lot of funny pictures of my childhood handmade costumes, as well as 10 gems of wisdom held in DIY Halloween costumes!

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