To the Rescue.....

This past week, I made superhero capes for my cousin's two boys. The oldest, who is four, loves Batman! Both he and the youngest, who is almost two, spent many hours this summer with blankets or towels tied around their necks for ready-made capes. A superhero must be ready at all times, and a really good superhero knows how to improvise. :)

I was assigned the task of creating their official capes as the result of a facebook picture of the superheros in their ready-made blanket capes. Two of my aunts commented on the picture asking if I could make them capes due to my newly found sewing skills. When I saw the comments, I went to work on Google, knowing their must be a cape tutorial somewhere out there. Sure enough, I was not disappointed. I found this amazing cape tutorial and FREE pattern by Thread Riding Hood. It was the perfect find! I loved the idea of using the superman logo so I could put the boys' letters of their first names on the back. Like I said, the oldest loves batman, so I came up with a compromise. I used a black and yellow color scheme for both the cape and logo, creating the batman effect, while using the superman logo. Take a look at how they turned out.

The older superhero's cape

The younger superhero's cape

I used broadcloth to make these. The black fabric is this premium broadcloth that I bought at fabric.com for $3.98 a yard. I was very impressed with the quality of this fabric. The yellow fabric is this cotton blend broadcloth that I also bought at fabric.com for $2.98 a yard. I also purchased half a yard of this Rainbow Felt in both the black and yellow, which was way more than I needed. But I like having some felt on hand. 

I followed the tutorial exactly. The only thing I modified was the length and width of the cape. My aunt wanted the capes to reach their lower calves, so I just added a couple of inches to the length and I added about an 1inch to the width.

For the logo, I googled the superman logo and then traced it and made it a little bigger. I drew the letters myself by looking at some examples online.

I think they turned out great! I can't wait to give them to my little cousins. Anyways, if you have some superheroes in need of some official capes, be sure and check out Thread Ridding Hood's tutorial here.