I have too much fabric.: A Collection of Cowls

Cowl is the Latin word for “hood”, but in this case we are talking about fabrics being manipulated into draped shapes. To do a cowl all you have to do is pin and manipulate.

In order to achieve something like that we need to make sure the fabric is on bias. I started with a square that was 36” x 36” and folded it into a triangle. The edges should meet up, if they don’t pull the sides of the fabric until it is straight of grain. Draw a line on the fold line, this is your bias line and you will pin it on your side seam.

From here you will simply pin the fabric on the front and back until it is the shape you want. If you cowl is pulling or hanging weird, unpin and readjust. Stand back and look at the shape to make sure it is even, or uneven if that is what you are trying to achieve.

The image on the left below is created by angling the fabric towards the center front or center back. The one in the center and on the right are created by angling the fabric upwards and manipulating it to create the tear drop shape.

So once you have the shapes you want, you must trace off the waist, center front, center back, hem and all folds. It is best to label your pleats and show the direction it folds to. I for example used 2-> on the pleat and 2 below the line it met up with.

There are many different types of cowls! So many that I had to outsource some examples for you. For those of you who relay heavily on patterns to understand how a garment works then the photos below are for you. This is only to help you understand what is going on to the fabric. I would never draft a cowl on paper, I would always drape it on the body. This way you get to play with it before you cut.