Sunday, June 12, 2011

Super Hero Cape Tutorial

I found a tutorial HERE. They have patterns for the symbols to put on your cape, or you can make your own. I used her instructions and this is what I came up with:

I started with 27" long fabric, folded it in half again (it's already in half when you buy it). I then used the instructions on the tutorial and the pictures to make the neck and then angled it out to the edge of the fabric, then cut straight down and rounded the corner, and straight across the bottom.




Cut out your symbol using a pattern, or some type of die cutting machine.


I used my cricut to cut the K and the circle. The K measures about 8 1/2" and the circle is about 9 1/4-9 1/2". Before I cut them with my cricut I ironed the fabric onto Heat 'N' Bond Lite (for sewing). Then flip the fabric upside down, tape down the piece using painters tape (it won't hurt your cutting mat), and cut. Remember to use the mirror image when you cut your letters or they will come out backwards since the fabric is upside down when you cut it out.




Next, peel the backing off of the Heat 'N' Bond from the letter only, aline the two pieces, and iron them together.


Then peel the backing off of the main piece (the circle), align it on your cape and iron it.




I wanted my capes to have a "finished/store bought" look to them so I wanted to use the satin stitch around the decals. A satin stitch is just a very close zig zag. As you can see the stitch chosen was #4 (a basic zig zag). Then I shortened the distance between the zags and lengthened the stitch to make it a little wider to make it easier to catch the fabric as I went around. This was my first time doing this so I am NOT a pro by any means but it was fairly simple to figure out. Use a piece of scrap fabric to play on until you have the stich just where you want it and then move on to the project at hand.


Here is a close-up of what my letter is looking like with the satin stitch around it. I love the way it turned out. It's not perfect, but pretty good for my first attempt. Once I sewed around my letter and circle, I put the two cape pieces together inside out, serged around the outside leaving a 5-6" opening at the bottom to turn it right side out. You could use a regular machine to sew around the cape if you don't have a serger. At this point you'll want to iron the whole cape and iron the edges well so that it all lays flat and is ready to finish. I then sewed a straight stitch about 1/8" from the edge all around the cape, closing the hole at the bottom and keeping it flat.
The last thing I did is put velcro on the neck. I used a 2" piece. One piece goes on the top of the left side, the other goes on the bottom of the right side. I'm sorry I don't have a picture of this.


I don't have any great pics of the girls wearing their capes because I've misplaced my camera and haven't been taking many pictures lately but it was Jade's birthday and Kazia was giving her a birthday kiss. You can see the cape here pretty well.


At the party you can see both of the girls capes and the lengths of them. You can always shorten/lengthen them depending on how tall/short your kids are. I have one in the works for Cooper and it's shorter. I figured he'd want one to wear when he starts walking and playing with the girls.




Kazia had a birthday party to go to and this is what I made. I used the tutorial link above to get the pattern for the batman and superman logos. I then changed the super man S to a J for the little boy whom received the cape.


Turned out rather well I think. The cape is reversible. I'm going to make more for our house so when boys come over and the girls want to dress-up, we'll have something for them.

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