To make your armholes follow these steps:

1. Following the straight grain of the fabric, mark the place and the desired length of your Armhole by drawing a vertical line. I start my armhole l5" down from the neckline, and 10" in from front opening edge. I make mine about 8" long; you may want to make yours shorter or longer.



2. With contrasting colored thread (so you can see this stitched line), stitch on the marked line of your Armhole.



3. Cut a piece of facing or binding 1" longer than the Armhole, and cut this facing 2 inches wide. (If you would like us to include an extra piece of matching fabric with your order of a cloak, let us know and we'll be glad to do it).



4. With right sides together, baste the center of the facing to the center of your Armhole mark, entirely covering the marking of your Armhole.



5. Turn your cloak to the wrong side, where the marking for the Armhole now shows, and make another column of basting stitches on the same line so that they will show through to the right side of the cloak.



6. Machine stitch around the column of basting l/l6th of an inch from the Armhole mark.



7. With a very sharp knife or seam ripper and scissors, cut the Armhole mark to within l/8 of an inch of the size marked, cutting through both facing and cloak, then cut diagonally to the corners of the stitching, being careful not to cut the machine stitching.

8. Remove all basting threads.



9. Draw the facing through the Armhole to the underside of the cloak, drawing it back to the seam line, and baste it in place.



10. Turn the facing (now on the underside) under at the raw edges and hem.

If you have never done a bound buttonhole before, this may sound complicated, but trust me, this is really very simple, just use common sense as you go. In my opinion, it is actually easier than a machine stitched buttonhole, and looks much better.