With the tailcoat finished and the new year finally looming over my head, I decided to take on the enormous task of sewing Phantom’s cloak, worn through a majority of the songs performed at the stage show. I was most excited to see how this turned out because I’m absolutely in love with the actual cloaks the real phantoms wear, so I couldn’t wait to have one of my own! I hope you enjoy reading and finding out about the process of sewing and putting it together, because I certainly enjoyed writing about it.
The first task I undertook was to plan out every aspect of the garment. (Read the full blog post, ‘The Phantom of The Opera is there…’, here.)
The outer layer is made from black matte fabric, so I plan to use black cotton for the cloak. The inner layer is shiny and silky so obviously I will use black satin or silk.
As you can see from these reference pictures, the cloak is very long and consists of two layers of fabric. In the end, I decided against satin or silk because the amount of fabric I needed meant that I would have to fork out a lot of money. Instead I chose black dress lining fabric- it still gives off the shiny and silky look, but is a little thinner and much cheaper. I ended up buying quite thin black cotton for the outer layer, which I wasn’t sure about at first, but ultimately it worked quite well.
The collar of the cloak is made from the same velvet as the tailcoat.
The collar was definitely going to be the hardest part for me, as I’d never sewn a collar before (neither a cloak!) and I wasn’t sure what the pattern shape was going to be. I planned to make the collar from my leftover black crushed velour from when I added pieces to my tailcoat, and also use bias tape around the edges.
Black sparkly appliqués cover not only the collar, but also swirl around the shoulders.
Each Phantom has a different pattern on their cloak, so I also planned for mine to be unique. In my previous blog post, I indicated that the cloak was covered in appliqués, but in fact it is hand-sewn beading. I intend to use appliqués though because I simply do not have the time or skill to create the whole design with beading.
With the planning out of the way, I set to work on making my pattern for the main part of the cloak. I took my neckline and length measurements, and decided to make a 3/4 circle cloak. This meant that a lot of fabric needed to be used so the cloak was fuller and more luxurious than say, a 1/2 circle cloak or less. With the help of my dad, I drew out and planned the shape first in a notebook, since I am rubbish at maths so he had to help me calculate the measurements. One of them written down is slightly wrong (I cannot remember which) so please ignore that! After I was certain that I had the measurements right, I scaled my pattern up to size and drew it out on newspaper. It already looks huge- and that’s only 1/3 of the final size!
In total, I needed 4 metres of each fabric to be able to cut three pieces from them. I did this first with the black dress lining, and then with the black cotton. I gave an inch of seam allowance around all edges of the pieces. After I had six pieces of fabric (three of dress lining, and three of cotton), I pinned the pieces right sides together. I used my very bad mini sewing machine to sew along the one inch line on the straight edge.
After that, I did exactly the same with the cotton pieces, so essentially, I had two cloaks made from two different materials. Well, first I went to see the stage show again in London before I’d sewn the cotton. I wasn’t feeling very motivated, but watching the talented cast perform again propelled me into action. I’ve seen Ben Forster perform twice now after that, and seeing the cloak and all the costumes on that stage made me fall in love with the show once again, and made me yearn to finish my cloak and finally own such a beautiful garment. So, as soon as I got back from London, I finished putting together the cotton pieces!
Once I had the separate 3/4 cloaks, I ironed them as best as I could so they were smooth and pristine. Here they are spread out over a bed and the bedstead… as you can see, there’s so much fabric! After they were ironed, I was very careful when handling the fabric as I didn’t want to crease it again. This was so that I could sew them together accurately.
After lots of struggling for space, with great difficulty, I managed to spread out one cloak onto the floor. I then lay the other on top, and pinned them together, making sure that the good sides were together so that I could turn it inside out once done. I decided to handsew this, rather than use my machine like I did for the previous steps, because there was so much fabric so it would be a nightmare to try to use it with my mini machine. Also, it’s hard for me to sew a perfect curve on that machine so I thought it best that I handsewed it to ensure that my stitching was accurate. This took the longest, and it was very tedious, but I had my Phantom 25th anniversary DVD playing in the background as I stitched parts of it- so that kept me entertained at least! After ironing down the seams and turning the cloak inside out, then ironing it again to make the fabrics fit together properly, the main base was done; I couldn’t be happier with it!
With the base of the cloak done, I proceeded to carefully transport it back to university and try to iron it once again with the crappy university provided iron and ironing board. After struggling with this huge garment in my tiny room- and being careful not to set off the fire alarm- I managed to get a lot of creases out so it hung better. I then folded the neckline edge inwards by around one inch (on both types of fabric) and sewed this down.
You can see above that it is now a more evenly rounded circle than before when it was just cut. Doing this allows the cloak to sit better on my shoulders and a much neater base for attaching the collar to it.
Now that every part of the cloak was sewn properly, I moved onto the collar. I first made a paper pattern again. The straight edge along the bottom will be the part that is sewn onto the cloak itself. I then randomly decided what angle to have the edges and connected those with a slow curve. After checking that the pattern fit with the cloak, I cut out two of the shapes from the black crushed velour used on the tailcoat. I also cut the shape from some left over black fabric I had (not sure what fabric it is, it seems like a thick cotton). This was because I didn’t have any interfacing, so this fabric would help to stiffen the collar. I gave the fabric a 1.5cm seam allowance as this was the width of the bias tape I prepared to use.
I placed one layer of velour good side down, then the mysterious black fabric, and then the other velour piece on top, right side up. I then pinned these fabrics down to stop them from moving around. Since both of my fabric pencils are useless and kept breaking (it was also hard to leave marks on the velour since it’s very soft), I pinned the paper pattern to the fabric and marked the edges with pins. Then, I used a basic straight stitch and sewed along each edge of the paper pattern. Once that was done, I trimmed off the edges slightly as I decided I did not need that much seam allowance- well, that’s what I thought at least. In the end it turned out I needed to keep the 1.5cm allowance, but I didn’t trim much off so thankfully I was safe!
The bias tape I bought was 1.5cm in width, and in black so it would match the rest of the cloak. I had never sewn with it before so I made sure to do plenty of research before hand. Shop-bought bias tape has two folded edges on the inside, as you can see below.
Turning the collar over to the wrong side, I opened out the bias tape and lined up one edge with the edge of the fabric. Now, I would have used my machine, but I didn’t have it with me at university, so I went through the painstaking process of sewing it all by hand- which I wouldn’t recommend unless you can’t use a sewing machine at all! I started the bias tape in the middle of the edge which would be sewn inside the cloak, so that the cut edge wouldn’t be very visible. After it was pinned in place, I sewed along the fold line of the tape. When I reached a corner, I folded the tape back diagonally, and then back over itself so it lined up with the next edge. It’s hard to explain in print but there are plenty of videos and image resources online which helped me.
Once I reached my starting point, I continued sewing and overlapped the tape a little bit. I cut off the excess, and this is what I ended up with on the wrong side of the collar.
I then folded the other edge of the bias tape back inside itself, then flipped the collar over. I folded the whole bias tape over so it was now on the right side of the collar and pinned it in place. To finish off the mitered corners, I folded down the side piece of tape and then the top piece to give it the corner effect. Again, I’m trying to explain it as best as I can- but it’s hard to do it in words! I pinned these corners down too, and then hand-sewed (using a slip stitch) the bias tape down.
With that done, the bias tape seemed very puffy, probably because the three layers of fabric sewn together is quite thick, so it was trying to unfold itself. I ironed the collar flat and I was very proud of the overall shape! In the picture below you can also see one of the mitered corners which I felt came out quite well.
Taking the iron again, I folded the collar over slightly and ironed it flat, meaning that now it had the collar shape I wanted. The wonky edges are less noticeable now that the collar is in the shape it needs to be- I’m very proud since I was most nervous about sewing the collar and it actually turned out well despite the amount of stress I went through to get it looking somewhat stage accurate.
With the base finished, I ordered two small lace appliques to add onto it. They arrived promptly and I utterly love them! I have a soft spot for appliques anyway, so this cloak is going to make me very happy since I’m going to cover it in them. Thankfully the pair that I ordered were opposites so they could fit the collar and make it look symmetrical. I was worried when I bought them that they would be too big- but to my relief they just about fit.
I trimmed the tulle off from around the edges so they were much neater. After that, I pinned them into place on my collar- trying to get them as symmetrical as possible. I’m not sure what stitch I used to sew them in place, I would say it was similar to a whip stitch. I did this around the edge of the applique piece, and you can see below that the stitches are not visible.
I bought some small black cup sequins to sew on, as Phantom’s cloak is covered in sparkles- and being a sparkle-lover myself meant that I would not miss an opportunity to make a garment with sequins. It was quite hard for me to find applique already with beads and sequins, so I bought quite a few packets of different sized sequins and decided to sew them on myself. I ended up sewing sequins in all of the leaves and small flower shapes on the collar appliques, and a couple in the petals of the large flower. In total, I used 74 sequins on one applique on the collar alone!
I definitely think the sequins make the collar look even better, and I spent a good while just watching the light dance off of them as I moved the material around in the sunlight. After painstakingly hand sewing one applique and its sequins, I went ahead with the other side of the collar. Another applique and 74 sequins later, the collar was finished and I was pleased with the result. The appliques don’t show up well in the pictures below, but they look really effective in person.
I set the collar aside and then picked out what appliques I wished to use on the main body of the cloak. On front, I picked two delicate appliques that looked similar to the ones on the collar. These ones came pre-beaded and also had sequins sewn on too. For the back, I chose a large, thick piece which would fit perfectly in the centre. I found two appliques that reminded me of wings- I new immediately I had to have them because they reminded me of how the Phantom calls himself the Angel of Music, so of course I had to pay homage to that! I didn’t take pictures of my final two appliques, but these had a long and thin flowery pattern, which I could use to connect the front and back appliques.
With these pieces chosen, I first pinned the front pieces into place where I wanted them. I spent a long time making sure they were aligned as best as I could, and I think I got them fairly straight! I sewed these on how I did with the appliques on the collar and I made sure only to sew through the cotton layer, and not the lining layer. I was slightly disappointed with these as most of the beads have fallen off now, which makes me sad, but hopefully no one will notice up close. After these were finished, I spent about 3 weeks slowly sewing the large applique onto the back of my cloak- which I have to say was very tedious!
After that was sewn down, I went and continued to hand stitch sequins over the design. I used two different sizes of sequin- one larger for the large sections at the ends of the swirls, and thinner ones which I would use for the rest of the design. I spent a long time doing this, and often getting frustrated as I kept pinging the sequins all over my room! Finally, 518 sequins later, the main back section was done.
I pinned the two wings onto the cloak after this, and I struggled quite a lot to get them as even and straight as possible. I think they would have looked good on the front of the cloak, but I liked them better on the back- especially since they reminded me of angel wings. I then sewed these on, and covered them in small sequins. I opted for less sequins on these just so I could show off more of the actual wing design, and not the sparkles.
The final two appliques were the long flowery ones, and I positioned those in between the front appliques and the wings. Again, I sewed these down and added sequins. This was all very tedious but in the end I feel it was worth it.
With the appliques finally done, and the sequins put into my sewing box so I never have to deal with one again for a long time, I figured out where I wanted the strap on my cloak to be. Most Phantoms don’t have a strap on their cloak since it stays on their shoulders, but I would have to compromise and have one so that I could save myself the trouble of constantly keeping hold of mine. Using Velcro dots, I put two on either side of the cloak on the inside. This means it would be easy for me to take the cloak off if I wanted to show off my tailcoat underneath.
Now I was onto the final big step: attaching the collar to the cloak. I lined up the edge of the collar piece I made earlier on (I sound like a Blue Peter presenter now) with the neckline of the cloak. I pinned it into place and sewed it on- through each layer of the cloak for maximum security, and so that it wouldn’t hang oddly. I then measured what length of black ribbon I would need for the strap, sewed the edges down so that they were neat, and added more Velcro dots to that.
And after four months of work, The Phantom’s Cloak was finished… and I couldn’t be happier with the result!
The cloak fits perfectly, and hangs beautifully. When the light catches it in the right place it really does sparkle- and I wonder what it would look like under stage lights! The strap keeps it nicely in place and the collar really does make it all the more high-class and mysterious. In total, my cloak has 932 hand sewn sequins (including the collar)! Maria Bjornson’s designs are truly beautiful, and as I have said before- I instantly fell in love with Erik’s cloak and I knew I had to make it. Now I finally have my very own cloak, and let me tell you, I never want to take it off!
I apologise for this incredibly long blog post, but I thought it was best to go into detail with this, since I haven’t found a tutorial on how to make this cloak. I hope this WIP post will help a lot of you out if you wish to make a POTO cosplay- please let me know if you have any questions, and I’ll be happy to answer!
What is one piece out of all the Phantom of The Opera costumes you would like to wear and why?
~Jade A.K.A. Phantom
Phantom Tea Cosplay 
Hi! I know you did this project a while ago, and I’m not really sure if you’re still up to answering questions on it, but I was just wondering where you got the appliques from. I’ve been looking everywhere and can’t find good selection online, so I was just wondering where you found yours. Thanks, and great job on the cloak!
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Hi! I believe I found them all on eBay and Etsy. It took a while to find ones I liked, but don’t give up your search! I sewed sequins over mine too, so that changes them up a bit if you’re not too happy with how they look. And thank you – let me know if you have any other questions!
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