I designed a rain cape!

I had an idea for a rain cape a while back. It was a simple half circle with a hood drawn on a small piece of notepaper. I put it away for a while, the idea behind it was something that you can throw on while you are in the middle of something and you need to run a quick errand in the rain. Or you need to take the dog out for a quick bathroom break and the rain is relentless. It’s something that you can pop on quickly, it will keep you dry and keep your phone and keys handy to you.

I met a wonderful lady, Marta a pattern drafter and seamstress. We worked together during the winter of 2018 creating the first prototype. During this initial phase, I found out about Our Social Fabric they receive donations from local clothing manufacturers and resell them to the public. I attended one of their quarterly sales and ended up leaving with an armload of scholar fabric, a donation from Arcteryx. To be honest, I didn’t intend to buy anything on my first time there, I just wanted to scout and see what I could find. This fabric was $15. a bundle and I grabbed as many as they would allow me to take. I took the bus and as soon as I realized how heavy everything as I started to think about how I was going to get home. Luckily I ran into a friend who drove there, an artisan who works with leather and I let him know about the sale a few days before. So lucky to find Al and have him generously offer me a ride home. I was weighted and we laughed at my ambition.

Once we had a pattern drafted I began cutting out the capes and Marta, my amazing pattern drafter and seamstress started sewing on the floor of my studio apartment. A friend gave me a ‘project runway’ sewing machine and we spread everything out on the floor.

Each cape has silk-screened images of my continuous line drawings created from my photographs printed at The Hive Print Shop.

We sewed in pockets and special images to make each one different so when you pop one on to grab that extra bag of carrots in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner you have a personal way to stay dry with ease.

The rest of the fabric we used to line the hoods and pockets is a technical fabric I found on that very first trip to Our Social Fabric. We paired colours with images and made each cape individual. I have one and wear it often, it’s really easy to pop on over any outfit and keeps you bone dry.

To date we have constructed over a bespoke dozen capes. You can find them at Hunter and Hare in North Vancouver and at Barefoot Contessa on Main Street.