Making a Capote (Blanket Coat).

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Eric_Methven

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Apr 20, 2005
3,600
42
73
Durham City, County Durham


Know what this blanket coat is called? It's a Capote. Favored by Mountain Men, fur trappers and Native Americans alike.

These (the blankets) were traded for beaver and other fur bearing animal pelts in North America up till the 1850's when the fur trapping industry pretty much collapsed.

They are warm as toast and easy to make with just needle and cotton. Here's two of the capote's I have made recently.






This one is made from an Italian Army Blanket which cost about fifteen quid on Ebay.






This one is mine to keep and was made from a six point Hudson Bay blanket. It cost quite a bit more.

Here's the plans. (These are reduced size plans as this forum will only allow certain sizes. To get the full size images, click on one of them and it will take you to my Photobucket page where the big ones are. Just right click on the bigger image and select Save Image As, to your hard drive.)









Have fun making one. You don't have to be a trapper or mountainman. They are excellent for bushcrafting or camping while sitting round the campfire of an evening.

Eric.
 

Eric_Methven

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Apr 20, 2005
3,600
42
73
Durham City, County Durham
I like it! will have to give one a bash. where did you get the fabric?

The dark one is an Italian Army blanket. The stripey one is a Hudson Bay Blanket. Both bought off Ebay. Hudson Bay blankets can go for a couple of hundred quid these days. The army ones cost about fifteen quid. Both are toasty warm, but the stripey one is lovely and soft too. Both pure wool.
 

GordonM

Settler
Nov 11, 2008
866
51
Virginia, USA
An excellent impression Mr. Methven! I do like the coyote pelt hat. :cool: The Hudson Bay blanket capote is beautiful. I looks well worth the money you paid for the blanket; heirloom quality for sure!
 

Eric_Methven

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Apr 20, 2005
3,600
42
73
Durham City, County Durham
An excellent impression Mr. Methven! I do like the coyote pelt hat. :cool: The Hudson Bay blanket capote is beautiful. I looks well worth the money you paid for the blanket; heirloom quality for sure!

Thank you. The Hawken was loaned to me for the event, but the powder horn, complete with scrimshawed map of the green river ron-day-voo is mine. I also made the buckskin pants and the moccs. The hat was from a face-on coyote that I used to hang from my baker tent as a prop, along with a couple of siberian wolf skins. I got so sick of the animal rights idiots calling me a murderer and giving me a hard time so I sold the wolves to a roman centurion and made the coyote into a Daniel Boone style hat (different from a Davy Crocket hat). I realised the animal rights people were idiots because they were accusing me of murdering innocent animals, while I was stood in front of them wearing knives and a sharp axe. Death wish or what?
 

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