Making holes in custom capes

[Solscud007]

Someone asked me about my custom capes and I advised them that making the post holes for the neck and the fold hole is difficult to make. Or course if you are steady and skilled with an x-acto knife then you could cut these out by hand.

My friend recommended this craft punch for a recasting project I did a while back. I did not really find it that handy until now.

Yesterday I tried my hand at making custom capes. I could photoshop it, print and cut it out but the neck holes were a slight cause for concern.

Here is the final product. My cape for Pre Vizsla leader of Mandalorian warriors.

And here is my smokebelch inspired orange pauldron (since I only have the recent black pauldron sand troper from Luke Speeder set) I wanted an orange one.

Here is the craft punch. I think at most it cost $5. I bought this at Michael's craft store. A nationwide chain here in the US.

The large tip is the perfect size for neck post holes. The medium is a hair big for the fold hole and the small is just too small. But it works great.

Hold the punch vertically and set it over the hole to be punched. Tap the top of the punch, like a nail, with a hammer. Not a lot of force is necessary. Make sure you have something sturdy under the paper. I tried a wooden cutting board but the wood was too soft and gave into the punch. It creased the circle rather than cut it. So i used a harder nylon/plastic cutting board and the hole punched out perfectly.

Here is a picture of what im talking about.

There are three holes.

[prateek]

Those look exactly like official capes! Great job

I think I have one of these, so I'll give it a try.

[Enpaz]

Wow Solscud, your Pre Viszla minifig is amazing! Nice photography too!

What material do you use for the cape? Thanks for the tutorial.

Edited January 5, 2011 by Enpaz

[CommanderFox]

What material do you use for the cape? Thanks for the tutorial.

Read the Latest page to see, he used Cardstock or scrapbook paper.

Nice capes and Pre Visla Solscud007! I never new paper scapbook paper would look that on minifigures. the texture is great!

For cutting holes in my capes I use this. Works like a charm for cutting paper to cloth.

CF

[The_Customizer]

That is really cool! BTW, would that work with Clothe? And what was it called?

[Solscud007]

Read the Latest page to see, he used Cardstock or scrapbook paper.

Nice capes and Pre Visla Solscud007! I never new paper scapbook paper would look that on minifigures. the texture is great!

For cutting holes in my capes I use this. Works like a charm for cutting paper to cloth.

CF

Thanks. Yeah I only went with Scrapbook paper, since they have so many colors and patterns. No need to print color if you want a simple cape.

[fred67]

I use one of these. The leather hole punch with variable sizes and you don't need a surface, but depending on the material you may need to squeeze really hard. My avatar is wearing a cape I made out of microfiber suede.

[Solscud007]

Nice. I didnt even think of that. But since i didnt have one on hand. I used my craft punch.

[prateek]

I use one of these. The leather hole punch with variable sizes and you don't need a surface, but depending on the material you may need to squeeze really hard. My avatar is wearing a cape I made out of microfiber suede.

That's what I use. I think any form of press is better than scissors/knives.

[ka.lego]

Those look exactly like official capes! Great job

100% agree. This looks amazing, Solscud007! I also agree that this looks really official. Thanks for the tips.

Read the Latest page to see, he used Cardstock or scrapbook paper.

Nice capes and Pre Visla Solscud007! I never new paper scapbook paper would look that on minifigures. the texture is great!

Tried to look up scrapbook paper online. Is there a particular brand, paper weight description, etc.? Is it the "canvas fabric paper" found here?

Anyway, thanks so much for all the help, insights, and knowledge sharing folks. Definitely love the spirit of collaboration amongst LEGO fans.

On a somewhat related note, I wonder if LEGO will ever move away from the paper/fabric capes to actually molding them out of plastic, preferably that softer plastic used for things like some of the alien heads (eg Kit Fisto), similiar to how they made the recent Magna Guard heads with the beginnings of a cloak. The cloth capes are cool, but there's definitely a shift in the overall look from the plastic to fabric. Don't get me wrong...not complaining about fabric cuz it's worked and looks cool. I just like the idea of the level of detail (eg folds, wrinkles) you can get with the molded plastic.

Edited January 30, 2011 by ka.lego

[nilseman]

I have a hole-punch plier which I use with aprox 3 layers of electrical sticky tape as backing and the template with the hole on top. That works perfect when you get some thickness in the material to cut a hole.

[cetanhota]

Leather hole punch works great. I also try to coat my cloaks with mod-podge, You can get at most craft stores. I like to us ribbon to make my cloaks and the mod-podge helps keep it from fraying. I like to mix a little water with the mod-podge so cloth is not so stiff.

[AmperZand]

cetanhota,

I suspect that PVA works just as well as Modge-Podge but costs less. It's important to use pH neutral PVA which is sold for DIY rather than PVA sold as school glue which is quite acidic.

Amps