Reflective Cape

Step 2 Make a Pattern

Before cracking into the finish material (the reflective sheeting), I mocked up a pattern for the cape from an old bed sheet. 

To obtain the shape and size, I draped part of an old sheet over my shoulders to hang down in the back with two loose ends overlapped in front of my neck.  With the aid of a mirror, I marked a point on both ends that when aligned and overlapped would give me the correct amount of material around my neck.  I then traced a curve at the base of my neck pulling up the material bunching around the collar.  This is the neck swoop you see at the top of the photo.  While standing with the draped fabric, I also marked how long I would like it to be against my body, and how wide it should be both at the cape's base and at the shoulders..

Then laying out the newly marked sheet, I created curves around the two points I had marked to allow room for a button on one side and it's hole on the other (the top two points in the photo).  I then hand drew some curves between the top and bottom making sure to go as wide and tall as marked.

Finally I cut out the newly formed shape for both the clarity of seeing what I will be working with and for the ability to try on this mock-up and make sure it fits as desired.

In case you're wondering, my dimensions are approximately as follows (I'm six feet tall)...
Width of Neck - 20 inches
Width of Button Tabs - 3 inches each
Total Top Width - 26 inches
Width of Bottom - 50 inches
Total Height - 66 inches
Neck curves in from top - 6 inches