Super Hero Dress Up Capes

At one point in time, every child has tied a blanket around their neck and pretended to wear a cape. My nieces are no exception to this childhood practice. I decided to make them capes for Christmas, with their own super-girl initials!

You can make these with or without the applique. Without the applique they are pretty simple and quick to make. 

These are a variation I made based on a She-Ra cape that I made for a friend for Halloween. You can make this cape for adults as well. I opted to use Velcro for the neck so that the cape would rip off if it ever got caught on anything. 

Supplies:

Fabric of your choice, size will vary

Matching thread

Bias tape, binding or matching/contrasting fabric for the collar (your choice)

First take measurements. I measured from the neck to the back of the knees and the around the neck.

If you are using fleece or another non-fraying material you can use the exact measurements, if you are using something that will fray, be sure to add 1" to the width and 0.5" to the length to allow for a hem.

Decide how full you want your cape to be, I took the neck measurements and doubled it (and then added a couple more inches) The neck was 11" and my width was about 24".

Cut the material for the measurements you need. Hem around the sides and bottom (if needed), you can leave the top raw.

If you are adding an applique. Add it now. 

Sew a basting stitch along the top of the cape and gather the material until it is about 1" shorter than the neck measurement. 

Collar:

You go several different directions for the collar. You can get double fold bias tape which is already folded and pressed and ready to go for you. This is wonderful stuff! if you are making this cape for an adult you can even leave several inches on each end, sew right along the edge and you have a tie closure. Like I did in this cape:

Not the greatest picture, sorry. I would suggest getting wide bias tape as I had very narrow bias tape and it was a PAIN to cram all of the gathering into the fold and make it look nice. It was my first cape, and it didn't look very pretty if you looked too close... Luckily, SheRa has long hair!

You can also use blanket binding or make your own binding like it did. I wanted the binding to match the applique on the back, so I had to make my own.

You will cut a long, narrow strip for the collar. Take the neck measurement and add 5", this will allow for overlap for the velcro. I choose to make it 5" wide to make the collar wider to allow for room to attach the velcro. This will be folded several times so the collar will only end up being about 1.5"

 Iron the strip in half, lengthwise.

 unfold it and fold each side in 1/2" and press.

Trim a tiny triangle off each corner.

Before folding it in half (lengthwise again), fold the short end over 1/4" then over again another 1/4", press.

Fold it in half and pin it closed at the end to hold all of folds in place until you sew.

 Find the middle of the gathered cape and collar. Line them up.

Put top of cape into collar, pin everything together. Start at a top corner, sew down along the short end, turn and sew along the open edge of the collar, turn and sew up the other short end.

The last thing to do is to add velcro, and you're done!

No actions shots yet because these are still wrapped, under the tree waiting for two little super heroes to open them! :)