FINALLY!! I am posting again! Did you miss me? 🙂 I have been up to my elbows lately in “mom stuff” and can’t seem to get control of the relentless string of laundry, housework, grocery shopping, bill paying, baby soothing, and diaper changing. But, what can I say. Thats what moms do I s’pose. Anyway, I have several posts coming but first I am going to show you how to make a super easy, inexpensive, quick, no-sew superhero cape and mask for your little ones. Or yourself…we won’t judge. My 3 and a half year old was asking me to make a cape for him today, and not wanting to go to the store or drag out my sewing machine, I came up with this little number using stuff I already had. So heres the breakdown:
Cost: $0 (for me although you most likely will need to go pick up a couple sheets of Presto-Felt for about $1 each)
Supplies:
- An old mens t-shirt that your hubby/boyfriend/dad/brother/etc. doesn’t like anymore. One without any graphics on the back is best although I suppose if you needed to you could just turn it inside out and it would be fine.
- Regular felt. I used 3 colors but you can decided.
- Presto-Felt. I used 3 colors of this as well. (Presto-Felt comes in a sheet with a sticky back)
- Elastic. You can also use a piece of old pantyhose.
- Scizzors. I also used pinking shears.
- Felt glue. Or hot glue would work.
- A cute little person to put it on.
Thats about it. Lets get started then.
1. First thing is gather and lay out your supplies.
2. Next you want to start making the cape out of the old t-shirt and the presto felt. To do this, lay your t-shirt out flat (I used the back of the shirt since the front had a design on it) and cut off the sleeves and the FRONT of the collar only. This is important if you are going to be using the intact t-shirt collar to hold the cape on. Basically, you just want to cut off the front of the shirt leaving the collar. I cut my cape in sort of an inverted “V” shape, cutting into the front of the t-shirt a little bit so you might want to hold on to cut down the sides.
3. Next, cut down the shoulder seam.
4. Now you should be able to open up the top half of the shirt like this.
5. This is where you create the shape of your cape. This works best on a t-shirt that has seamless sides. Cut down the sides of the shirt at an angle if you want the cape to fan out (so cut from the back armpit toward the bottom center of the front of the shirt). You can get creative and make this your own. This is what I did.
And then I chopped off the shoulders…
6. And voila! Theres your cape! Now we decorate it with our super cool superhero logo. You can get creative here and make any design you want but I decided on a lightning bolt/sheild design and sketched the design on the paper side of the Presto Felt and cut it out with sharp scizzors. *Tip* When drawing your big letter onto the felt you need to draw it backwards because! I didn’t think this through and ended up with a backwards “P”. DUh.
7. Once you got all your logo pieces cut out of the Presto Felt you can just take off the paper backing and press your design layer by layer into place on your cape. And thats your no-sew hero cape! But my hero wanted a secret identity so I made him a mask…
1. To make the mask out of regular felt and leftover Presto Felt from the cape you first need to use your hero to find the eye holes.
2. Mark the eye holes on your felt and cut out your mask design.
3. Next you can decorate your mask to match your cape using the leftover Presto Felt. I used pinking sheers to cut out my eye hole felt and then added a lightning bolt to the center down the nose and regular felt for some “flames” off the sides of the mask.
4. To finish it off, use the elastic strip to measure around from ear to ear of your hero’s head and hot glue into place on the underside of the mask. *Tip* Put a dab of hot glue down on the mask and then the elastic and then a small square of matching felt to secure the elastic and hide the glue. If you don’t have elastic you can also use a loop cut from old pantyhose or a stretchy headband to hold the mask in place.
Thats it! Easy and quick! Now just dress your hero and let them go save the world! 🙂 P.S. My little superhero doesn’t like to wear pants. Sorry if this offends you. 🙂
It’s Super-cute! Great job, thank you for the idea…
wow! awesome job! I’m making a much anticipated super hero party for my almost 3 year old and had no idea how I was going to make the capes for all the kiddies to decorate at the party- great idea! Thanks!
This is the most AWESOME and simple idea! Thank You!
BEST IDEA EVER and a lifesaver for an event i have in just two days. thanks so much for sharing!!
oh my word- there are so many parallels between your 3 1/2 yr old and mine- but the need for a cape and not pants cinches it 🙂 Thanks – I’ll be using the mask directions as part of our ‘ninja turtle’ costume….
This is amazing.. thank you so much!
Luv this idea. It’s a bonus that they can slip it over the head. No more mommy can you tie this every 2 seconds.
Love it! Thank you!
[…] found the idea for t-shirt capes here and got the printable logos here. We had the kids glue on their chosen felt super hero logo to […]