Super Hero Capes

Back in May, I made a super hero cape for a friend's birthday gift. I didn't want to blog until I had made one for my own son, Sharkboy. Now, almost 4 months later, I've finally finished Sharkboy's cape.

For the birthday gift, I upcycled some shiny gold upholstery? fabric that I had grabbed at a thrift store. I used it to make the applique "D" for his initial and for the lining. I think the red fabric was just cheap walmart red.

  

It came out about ankle-length on the sweet birthday boy. The strange stripes you see on the gold lining are not a camera problem. they really were on the fabric. I have no idea what kind of drapes they would make, but they made a darn good cape!

Lessons Learned:  Gathered the fabric by pleating (fan folding?) at the two parts that go around the neck, creating really thick things that had to hook together. Velcro hooked them together, but it was just kind of, um, bunchy. Wanted to go more streamlined for the next one.

So, Here's Sharkboy's. Orange and Black for Oklahoma State Cowboys and Silver because hubby said so.

 

Lessons Learned: zig zagging to applique around a lightning bolt has way too many corners. Satin doesn't like button holes, but button holes are cool.  The satin isn't going to hold up too long, so when it fails and gets too fuzzy, I'll cut out the awesome T and lighting bolts and use them on a super awesome, more full cape.  I wish the bottom corners had been rounded.

I used a button to fasten at the neck, despite what the CPSC would probably warn about choking hazards. Sharkboy's fine motor skills and self-dressing skills need work, so for now, I'm helping him, but soon, the button will be his to deal with!

 

I used the same fancy stitch selection on the edges of the "D" cape too, but they were more Roman looking because I had some setting messed up. 

Lavagirl still needs a cape, so that's on the horizon too. After studying a molded plastic cape on a toy at a friend's house today, I'm going to make hers fuller, with a zig-zag bottom more like this: