How to Guide:
How to Make a Basic Cloak

The must-have article of clothing for LARP, a cloak can serve as many things, from sunshade to picnic blanket to warm thing on a cold night to weapon (and if you don't believe me on that last bit, find someone who knows how cloak-and-dagger combat works).

Rectangular

The most basic sort of cloak is a large rectangular piece of cloth. Something with which to hold it shut, be it a cloak pin or a clasp type thing, is nice, but ultimately optional.

First, get a piece of cloth long enough to go to the backs of your knees when it's draped over your shoulders and short enough that it doesn't drag on the ground while you're wearing it. Make sure it's something that will at least try to keep the weather outside, like wool, and tough enough that it won't rip if you tread on it, again, like wool.

If you use an old blanket with satin edges, take the satin edges off so it's not quite so obvious. Pretty pink and pale blue are also not recommended for anyone who wants to be taken seriously. Old military blankets are fine for this and other uses, especially if you can dye them a shade that makes the stripes up the middle not quite so obvious.

Darker colours are better in general unless you really want to fall over in a puddle of mud. Even if the entire country's been baking for the last six weeks, if you're wearing white, you will get dropped while standing over a puddle - and if you're lucky, it'll be water.

Once you have your cloth, edge it so that it doesn't fray. Chances are you'll find yourself running through brambles at some point, and leaving half your cloak behind when you do is just annoying. Most blankets will happily take blanket stitch edges (I'll cover that soon), but for thinner cloth you can just roll the fabric over so that the edge is hidden and sew it down. If you're using fabric that has selvedges (a thin strip up each side that doesn't look like the rest) get those out of sight too. They're modern, and tell the discerning eye that you cobbled your cloak together at home and couldn't really be bothered to make it look decent.

If you have a cloak pin or other fastening device, install it near the neck, but not so near that anyone grabbing the back of your cloak will throttle you. You shouldn't expect them to grab the back of your cloak, but you can expect them to sit on it, stand on it, die on it - the list goes on, and that's without you sitting on, standing on or dying on your own cloak. The fastening device is there to keep the cloak on you, nothing more and nothing less.