Show and Tell Time!

[melannen]

....I seem to have descended back into the headspace where I lose a day and a half to sitting on the couch reading extremely long fanfic one after another. Augh? Augh.

Anyway, one of the things I was supposed to have done today instead was finish my new cloak!

My old cloak is 20 years old this year. It's emerald green wool/polyester blend on the outside and with a Lothlorian grey heavy knit lining. I made it when I started high school because I wanted a cloak like the ones they had in The Lord of the Rings (the books - there were no movies then). BUT I wanted it to look like a cloak that had been to Mordor and back, and I figured the only way to do that was to start getting wear onto it as soon as possible.

It worked! That cloak definitely looks like it has survived a few epic quests and journeys through the slough of despond (and it has, too; some more metaphorical than others.) It is my magic cloak that protects me in dark places.

But. It is still the first thing I will grab if I'm called to an adventure, still warm and waterproof and trusty, but it isn't exactly presentable these days, so I'd been planning for awhile to make another one - I still had the original pattern and I'd been hoarding heavy wool fabrics. And then I acquired an already-sewn lining to the same pattern, so just before Thanksgiving I sat myself down and made the new one. It is just as warm and comfortable as the other one, if not quite as magic yet!

The new one is a blue/grey/rust plaid that I really like (and was also the only heavy wool I had 4 yards of - there is a lot of cloth in a cloak.) It still needs pockets, though; I ran out of time to add the pockets, and I really need pockets. Also, I am debating adding secret pockets. Every magic cloak needs secret pockets, right?

Poll #20944

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 115

View Respondents

How many secret pockets should it have?

View Answers

One.
1 (0.9%)

Two.
19 (16.5%)

Four.
36 (31.3%)

Five.
26 (22.6%)

The ENTIRE CLOAK should be one big secret pocket.
33 (28.7%)

Comments

[green]

(I actually think it should have 3 secret pockets but that wasn't an option)

[melannen]

Based on the possible positions, 3 is unlikely. :D

[sara]

Really this should be a tickybox poll, and I feel like my opinions are uninformed without a diagram of where the seams are in this particular garment, so the real answer is that you should put pockets in locations where you have seams that will accommodate them, and then you can put another patch pocket or two in the lining on the upper inner chest (really this should have been done while the lining and the wool were two separate bits).

[melannen]

I know it should have ideally been done in the earlier step, but one of the changes I made was repositioning the armholes (because they were constantly ripping out in the old one), and I wanted to get a sense of how the cloak sat and moved with the new armholes before I committed to the positions of the main pockets. It should be easy enough to add them, though; the lining and the outer are pretty easy to separate.

I would go into more detail about possible positioning but then everybody would where my secret pockets are! And then they wouldn't be secret!

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

I answered FOUR reserving to you the option of sub-pockets (aka super-secret pockets). Clearly the whole cloak being a pocket would make it a well fed normal distribution not a garment, and you would not be able to find anything. The whole cloak being pockets is a different story, that does not need telling at this juncture.

[melannen]

Sub-pockets are definitely on the table!

[snickfic]

I hope you will post photos of this cloak! It sounds lovely.

[melannen]

I put off making this post until late today because dealing with photos (of any sort) just seemed TOO HARD. Also it would be really hard to capture the colors without perfect lighting. But maybe someday! (The pattern is McCall's 8936 style B with some fairly major modifications, including the existence of the lining.)

[sonia]

I answered one secret pocket so that you don't have to go rifling through all of them to find whatever you stashed in there. That leads to them being not so secret in the long run.

I am so nostalgic hearing about your lovely old and new cloaks! I second the request for photos. I have two cloaks I made... more than twenty years ago... actually more than thirty... yikes. Anyway I don't wear them hardly at all anymore, but I dearly love them. One is water resistant (waterproof until it soaks through) which I wore around campus when I was a college student, and the other is velvet and strictly for dry high fashion.

[melannen]

I too have a velvet cloak! Left over from an old halloween costume but much more well-made than the costume deserved. (Technically I guess it's my sister's but she hasn't shown up to claim it back.)

I love the heavy wool for rain! It keeps me dry and warm for a surprisingly long time, without getting drippy or soaking through like sythetic raingear does. (I slept under it in a very leaky tent one rainy week, even.)

[alatefeline]

Yay cloaks!

[melannen]

I ♥ cloaks!

[sgac]

Something I have always wondered: how practical is a cloak? How much time do you spend holding it closed? Because I have always felt any sensible fantasy world would invent coats as soon as possible.

[azurelunatic]

I installed a discreet hook and eye in the front of mine.

[melannen]

I think it depends a lot on the cut of the cloak. That pattern has a fastener at the top of the collar - I went from a frog to various pins to a heavy-duty ring broach I bought from a sutler to eventually a very large oystershell button and buttonhole, trying to find something that would hold up to the kind of use I was putting it through (I also had to reinforce the fabric in that part several times over 20 years.)

The plan was that if needed, I would add more buttons down the front, but I never really needed it? Even during the periods when my fastener had failed and I didn't have one at all, I didn't really feel the lack. The cut of the cloak is such that it hangs closed naturally, and it's heavy enough and with enough extra drape that it doesn't fly open easily (even if I'm walking into the wind, I can usually wrap it around myself such that the wind helps keep it closed.) Also, if it's nasty enough that I'm worried about keeping it closed, I usually have my hands clutched inside anyway.

Basically, once you learn to move with it, it's quite practical, and often the movement of the cloak becomes helpful rather than hindering (I used to do very low-key parkour around campus it in, and was amazed how much it helped with balance, once I figured out how to control it to help rather than hinder.) And being pretty much just a large piece of fabric, it's very versatile - it's also been a lap robe and a dressing-gown and a sleeping bag and a picnic and a backpack and a sunshade. And it's very protective compared to a coat - if I'm going out in a cold rain (like today) I just swing it on over everything else I'm wearing, and if I have good boots on, every part of me stays dry.

That's the other main thing about a cloak - despite what fantasy novels will tell you, most places that use cloaks also had things that were essentially coats. The cloak is the thing you swing on over your coat (or your waistcoat and jacket and overcoat) (or your jerkin and doublet) because you can layer it on over lots of other layers without it binding up or interfering with movement. (I usually don't layer it over a coat, but I have at times, and I usually do have a fleece or something under it.) And it's easy to vary how you wear it for warmth; I can wear it down my back like a cape while it's still warm in the afternoon and then really easily swing it around to snuggle in once it's cooler in the evening.

It is bulky compared to coats. Sometimes a two-foot clothing enforced personal space radius is great, sometimes it feels like I'm super in the way. And you do have to think about it more than a more form-fitting coat, in terms of moving with it and getting it caught in doors and things (although probably not a whole lot more than an evening coat or trench coat the same length, and there's more freedom of movement with a cloak.) I have a couple of normal winter coats that I wear when I'm not on and adventure and I don't want to have think about cloak.

(Also if you try to wear a cloak through airport security, they will pull you aside for a special check every time. Which is probably fair because I could smuggle multiple machine guns under it.)

[thenewbuzwuzz]

I misread as "coat" at first, and then I realized "cloak" and got so excited. :D It sounds awesome!

[melannen]

I'm really liking the colorway the more I wear it!

[copracat]

I feel very strongly that the number of secret pockets should always be odd and so I have picked five. But it should be three. Patterns, hey.

[melannen]

I kind of figured that if I was going to three anyway, I would probably just go all-out to five (it has to do with the different fabrics I'd have to use.)

[redbird]

Whichever number of secret pockets you pick, you shouldn't tell the world the answer.

The thing about secret pockets is that it's tricky to use them for everyday items, because -- for example -- my winter coat has an inside zipper pocket that contains a small amount of emergency cash, a pen, and a pair of earplugs. The earplugs are there because I want to be sure they don't fall out/get lost, and the cash is there in case of random pickpockets.

Any time I use the earplugs, the most casual bystander could become aware that I'm using an inside pocket; it's not secret, but feels safer than the outside pockets. (This coat has four outside pockets, two with zippers, and two inside pockets, the other large enough to hold my kindle; the manufacturer labeled it as the place for my hypothetical ski goggles.)

[melannen]

I would probably only use them for secret things!

There are going to be two large non-secret pockets for everyday stuff, and honestly I wouldn't keep the secret pockets full most of the time anyway, because with the big pockets full and the weight of the cloak itself, too much extra secret stuff would become a weight problem. More for temporary things like sneaking extra candy off the dessert table for the drive home. :P Or enough money for exactly one bus fare or something like that.

[j00j]

But do you have any long fic recs?

May your cloak and its many pockets bring you warmth in this cold season!

[melannen]

I am literally just going down the Leonard Snart Character tag in kudos order. I haven't seen canon so I don't know what's ooc or fanon, I working off ten-year old Flash comics canon from scans_daily on lj, and honestly it's all sort of blurring together at this point. But if you would like a source for millions and millions of words of adorkable beginner superhero/ultracompetent nemesis with a heart of gold, all stories p much guaranteed to contain at least three of identity porn, found family, time travel shenanigans , xanatos gambits, really bad puns, or superpowers being misused in bed, it's there!

[brownbetty]

but were any of the extremely long fanfic good?

[melannen]

See reply to j00j above!

[luzula]

I too have a cloak! For similar reasons, I guess, but also because I went to a medieval re-enactment week when I was 20. It is made from thick dark gray woolly fabric that I found in my grandma's closet, and has a lovely large hood and a metal clasp. Sadly I hardly ever use it nowadays.

[melannen]

This one has been through several medieval re-enactments, even though it's technically a modern opera cloak pattern! (Before the first one my friends were like "Do you need to borrow any garb...?" and then looked at what I was wearing to a perfectly normal day out and were like "... never mind.")

[brithistorian]

And, of course, I have to be difficult and say that it should have 3 secret pockets: One on the left side large enough for a large phone/small tablet (which could also be used to hold a reasonably-sized paperback novel), one on the right side large enough for a wallet and keys, and one on the right side large enough for a pen or two. (Reverse orientation if you're right-handed.)

[melannen]

But those are all things I keep in the non-secret pockets!

[dont_panic42]

....I seem to have descended back into the headspace where I lose a day and a half to sitting on the couch reading extremely long fanfic one after another. Augh? Augh.

Ooof, I know that feel. <3

[melannen]

Thanks. Maybe I will pull out in time for work on Monday? It is not a great feel but at least there is fanfic in it.

[white_aster]

My reasoning: I feel like one is fine, but...come on, why not more? Also, if someone is searching for the secret pockets and finds one, they may think "why not more?" and look for others. I feel that by three they might have just given up. Five is just ridiculous and you'll forget what you put in each pocket! And though the ENTIRE CLOAK approach sounds fun in principle, I feel like this would be very disorganized. Like, it'd be huge! With all the things rattling around in the bottom somewhere? It'd be like a purse with only one compartment: can't ever find anything!

[melannen]

Yeah, I had the other one set up as ENTIRE CLOAK for awhile, and while it was fun, it only worked for secreting things away to be retrieved in private later, not for easy access!