when is a cape not a cape?

....when it's an elephant, of course!  No, it's not the constant rain for weeks getting in and addling my mind. Let me explain....

This past week, I was back home in Scotland with the wee man visiting my mum and the rest of my family.  I decided (wisely in the end) not to finish the wheelchair cape until I got there so Bertha Janome came with us for the trip.  I managed to get the thickest wadding I could find (12mm from John Lewis - panic buy!) and hoped it would meet with approval (not easily found these days, unfortunately).  Thankfully, mum approved but wanted to amend the design (of course!) slightly and after a couple of aborted attempts - mainly thanks to my dad and his wine measurements! - Bertha was busted out and work began...

I did the back panel first...

to be fastened together with iron on velcro (well that was the plan!)

Then mum was well enough to sit in and refine the pattern, which led to this....

not the whole story!

But not before I decided to quilt a couple of lines that follow the width of the seat so that the cosy would fit a little neater in the chair.  Out of such small decisions, disaster can arise!  It was towards the end of a difficult day and I was rushing to get finished and was finding that sewing a quilt sandwich 1 1/2 cms thick is NOT FLIPPING EASY!  Excuses, excuses.... I managed to sew the tablecloth onto the cape..

And that was WITHOUT a glass of wine! I was wondering why it was becoming even more difficult but persevered until I'd sewn about 10 cms of the bally thing on.  *heavy sigh*.  Much muttering, stropping and swearing later, my mum's favourite(!) tablecloth was cut out of disentangled from the cape and the blinking thing was finally finished!

Unfortunately, mum wasn't well enough to model it in situ, so the wee man offered in her place....

he had just biffed himself in the mouth with a big wooden spoon
(tears, screams, the works) so looks remarkably composed here!

So why an elephant?  I asked my gorgeous sister P to demonstrate....

Or it could still be a cape (prog rock style a la Rick Wakeman, before my time obviously but I watch TOTP reruns!)....

So the cape elephant is finally finished (minus a couple of small pieces of velcro) and ready for use.  We are hoping that my mum will be well enough to have tour of the garden soon so that will be the trial run. I await the redesign requests!  It was really straightforward to make and I'm happy to draft up a small pattern / guide, if that would be of use to anyone.

Linking up with Jenna @ Sew Happy Geek's Manic Monday Linky Party

Edited to include link up with {Sew Modern Monday} @ Canoe Ridge Creations