Super Hero Cape Tutorial

Yesterday we made a cape. 

You heard me. 

I guess I should back up. It's not every day you make your kid a cape.

Well, we were at a baby shower on Labor Day (pun intended) and Ivy and a little friend were stealing the tissue paper and ribbon from the opened gifts and making capes. All week, Ivy's been begging to wear the tissue paper cape, but it's pretty much ripped to shreds. So I got tired of the disappointment in her eyes every time I told her we weren't going to wear the ripped cape, and asked her, "Should we make a better cape?" Of course she said, "Yes!" So we went to my fabric and she picked out this magenta fabric with chartreuse root/coral/dead tree print on it. Girl's got style.

First I cut it out like so:

Ivy is almost 3 years old, and tall for her age. 

The bottom is about 24 inches across. 

It's 22 inches from the bottom to the base of the neck, then I eyeballed the part that goes around the neck. It goes up to about 28.5 inches from the bottom.

It's 18 inches across the top (part that sits on the back of the shoulders)

I used a white piece to line the cape.

 Then I created the letter "I" in white fabric, and sewed it over a black circle. I didn't like it alone like that, so I added a white square around it. Plus, I hate sewing circles, so it was much easier to sew a square to the cape. You can see in the photo below, I just sewed straight lines up and down the circle to fasten it, rather than actually sew a circle. It will fray, but what good super hero's cape doesn't show some wear and tear from the crime they're fighting in the world? ;)

Before you sew it all together, sew on some velcro to the neck pieces. Think about which sides you're going to sew... 

Then I placed the two pieces of fabric together, so I could sew them. I did add a little "super power" to this magenta/chartreuse cape...  Black leather fringe along the bottom. I picked it up at a garage sale in San Diego earlier this summer. This cape demanded for it. Look closely at the photo below on the right-- you can see I pinned it inside, so it would be included in the stitch.

I left the nape of the neck unsewn so I could flip it inside out through there, then sew a reinforcement stitch around it once it was right side out. 

See the stitch around the neck?

So then Ivy enthusiastically suited up. Checked herself out in the mirror...

Then flew next door to grandma and grandpa's house to show them...

Showing it to grandma was super (hero) exciting.

And that's the story of Ivy's cape. 

NEWS UPDATE: Super Ivy has been spotted flying around in her cape since yesterday. 

Aloha, 

Rebecca

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