This pattern is very simple indeed.

Materials:-

• 4 yards of 60 inch wide fabric.
• Cotton.
• About 5 ft of chord to act as a drawstring.

Tools:-

• Chalk for marking out.
• Sharp scissors.
• Pins.
• Sewing machine. (Or a needle if you don't have access to one).

Take the fabric and hem all the way up both sides. Now sew over about 2 inches at the top to form a tube that will take the draw string around your neck.

Now comes the fun part, feeding the drawstring through the tube. The classic method of doing this is to fasten a safety pin to one end of the chord and to work it through slowly. A much quicker way is to take a length of glass fibre rod (former for making weapons), bamboo pole or any other long straight object and slide this through the tube. Now stick the chord to the end of the rod with a length of sticky tape and pull it back through. Okay so its not the classic method but its a lot quicker and saves a lot of frustration trying to work it through with a safety pin.

Now gather the material up around the neck until you have a nice fit (keep trying the cloak on until it's right). Once you have a good fit put a small stitch in at either end of the drawstring to stop it slipping and hold it fast. Now tie the cloak up and cut off any access chord leaving a bit more that you think in case the ends fray a bit.

Unless you are quite tall the cloak will probably be too long. The final stage is to cut the cloak to length. I have found the best length to be just above mid calf. Anything longer tends to catch on things and drag along the ground. Stand upright with the cloak on and mark off a point just above your mid calf (its a lot easier to get a friend to do this but if you are on you own you will have to do it by trial and error). Once you have got the length right mark across about 1 inch below this point, cut off the excess and sew up the bottom hem. Some people round off the two bottom corners as well but this is really a matter of choice.