Sew an April Showers All-Weather Wrap

Sew an April Showers All-Weather Wrap

April showers are here! For garden enthusiasts…who doesn’t love the May flowers that follow? If you’re caught in the rain this spring, you’ll wish you had a fashionable, easy-to-sew All-Weather Wrap. Think of it like a rain slicker with serious personal style! This wrap is one of 14 in Mary Mulari’s book, All Occasion Fabric Wraps. Today, Mary shares her step-by-step construction process. Plus you can always watch the sewing demonstration on Sewing With Nancy.

All-Weather Wrap

By Mary Mulari, guest blogger and friend of Sewing With Nancy

On a cool or partly cloudy day, wear this wrap as another layer of comfort. When it rains, put up the hood.

Supplies

• Two yd. 54″–60″ wide fabric (Use Rip Stop Nylon or any other water-repellent fabric)
• Two buttons, at least 1″ in diameter
• Two ponytail elastics
• One yd. trim or ribbonfor hood
• Ultrasuede fabric scraps for wrap closure

Note from Mary: Don’t have Ultrasuede fabric scraps? Consider purchasing a purse/bag from a thrift store and using the leather or faux leather in place of the Ultrasuede.

Cutting

• Fold the body of the wrap: Cut a 54″ wide x 57″ long piece of fabric.

• For the hood: Cut fabric 24″ wide x 15″ long.
• Cut the storage pocket fabric 10″ x 14″.
• See the suggested cutting layout, below.

• Work with the body fabric section folded in half.
• Then, fold the wrap body fabric in half again, to create a second fold in the fabric.
• Mark the foldline on each side of the fabric with pins or a disappearing marking pen, as illustrated.

• Place and pin the pattern on the center front fold of the wrap body, aligning the shoulder line marking with the fold mark.
• Trace the pattern and extend the line down to the bottom of the fabric, 1″ away from the fold.
• Cut out the neck opening, cutting from the bottom up and around the curved neck opening.

Construction

• For knit or nonfray fabrics, no edge stitching is required, but on water-repellent fabrics and woven fabrics, consider the choices of serging around the edges of the fabric or overcast stitching on the sewing machine.
• Then, turn under the stitching and topstitch a neat edge finish. You can round off the corners of the wrap for an easier continuous seam around the fabric.

• Serge or overcast stitch all four sides of the hood fabric.
• Fold the fabric in half, meeting the 15″ edges with right sides together.
• Sew across the top edge with a 1/4″ seam allowance and then overcast or serge that seam edge.

• Sew a 3″ seam across the point of the hood back, as illustrated.
• On the bottom edge, turn the serged/overcast edge 1/4″ to the wrong side of the fabric and sew in place.

• Turn the open edge of the hood 1″ to the wrong side; press and pin.
• Sew the edge to the hood; cover the seam with a piece of decorative trim or ribbon.

• Fit the hood into the curved neck opening, matching the wrong side of the center back edge of the hood to the center right side of the neck opening, and pin the edges together.
• Topstitch the hood to the wrap neckline.

• It’s time to try on the wrap to select placements for closures. Though the closures are optional, they help keep the wrap closed on a rainy, windy day.
• Overlap the two sides of the wrap to determine where the loop and button closures should be located.

• Cut two triangles from Ultrasuede fabric or other nonfray fabric scraps.
• Sew two ponytail elastic loops on the right side of the wrap, in the closure locations chosen. Sew back and forth to secure the loops.
• Cut off extra lengths beyond the stitching. Pin the two triangles on the wrap to cover the elastic ends and sew them in place.
• Sew buttons to the opposite side to complete the closures.
• Add an extra layer of fabric reinforcement behind the buttons for a more secure hold.

• Sew the wrap storage pocket to the bottom inside edge of the wrap.
• Turn under 1/4″ on the bottom and sides of the pocket fabric.
• Serge or zigzag stitch the top edge and turn it under 1/2″ and stitch in place.

• Position the pocket as illustrated and sew the three sides to the wrap back edge.

Here’s how you can fold the wrap and store it in the stitched pocket:

See this wrap and 13 more in the All Occasion Fabric Wraps book, which includes detailed step-by-step instructions and illustrations for 14 easy to sew fabric wraps!

Watch All Occasion Fabric Wraps on Sewing With Nancy online.

To watch Sewing With Nancy on your iPad, iPod Touch, or iPhone, download the app.

For a chance to win a copy of the All Occasion Fabric Wraps book, leave a comment below telling us what color fabric you’ll choose to sew your all-weather wrap.

Thank you, Mary, for sharing this tutorial!

Bye for now,

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