How to make a super-hero cape

supplies: knit fabric, velcro, plate or another cape

1.  Take a piece of fabric about 1.5-2.5 feet wide and about 3 feet long.  Take a large dinner plate and trace around the corners to round the corners.

2.  Take a small desert plate, in the middle of your fabric (to determine the middle, fold the fabric in half and mark that spot).  Put it partially off the edge, and then trace around this.

3.  Now cut on those lines you’ve just traced.  It should end up looking roughly like the red cape up above.

alternative 1.  Take another cape you have and trace around it.  Let’s face it little kids collect capes like crazy, or mine do.

optional step:  if making a Batman cape, cut triangles out of the bottom to get the cool zig zag look on the bottom of his cape.

4.  cut out a piece of velcro about an inch long and round the corners (this keeps the velcro from snagging as much).

5. Put one side of the velcro on top of your fabric and sew around it, then sew down the neckline to the other piece which will be on the bottom of the fabric.  Then sew around this velrco piece.

Sewing down the neckline keeps it from stretching and running.  I had that problem with some capes I didn’t reinforce and that was quite nasty to deal with.

6.  Find a piece of yellow fabric, ideally a knit, but if not you can zig-zag around it.  Cut out a bat shape.  You can freehand like I did, or find a Batman logo you like the looks of, print it out, and use that for your general idea.

hint: to free form it, but still have it be symmetrical, fold the yellow fabric in half and cut out half of a bat.

7.  Zig zag around the edges of the symbol (if your fabric is a knit or felt you can just sew a straight stitch).  My fabric was woven, so it needed the zig zag to keep from fraying while being used.

Have your child happily model the birthday present for a friend, before heading off to a birthday swim party.

And for those who are wondering, yes Batman is modeling the Batman cape.

I only have about 10 of these at my house, so I’m well practiced in the art of sewing capes, but a friend was wondering about the details.  From start to finish the project is about 1 hour, more like 30 minutes.  Come back tomorrow to see what the kids did while I made this.