Super Hero Kaitlyn and her Side-“Cake” Super Boy

For a couple of months now I’ve been hearing the announcement that “Super Boy” has arrived or heard the exclamation “Super Nathan to the Rescue”.  Sometimes I hear “Here comes Super Kaitlyn" and one day I was really surprised when asked if I wanted to meet Super Girl and her Side “Cake”!!!  A few times I’ve had the request to tie a quilty around the neck of a young boy but it’s too thick and doesn’t stay on long.  I have a friend who made capes for all of her boys for Christmas and so I thought “hmmm, maybe this is worth making a cape over” so I set out on the internet to find some instructions.  I found many renditions of superhero capes but I liked this one as I could make it reversible, it had a rounded lower edge, a variety of applique patterns to choose from and most importantly it had a velcro closure for safety.  Rick discovered that I had found instructions to make a cape a couple of weeks ago and said I was “SuperMom” because he would have been stuck wearing a shower curtain, he was sure!  Yesterday was rainy and so it became a good day to think about making a super hero cape.  Nathan and Kaitlyn both picked out some fabric yesterday afternoon and we all sat around the table coloring and cutting together.  Then after they were tucked in bed last night I ducked away and went to my sewing table to finish things up.  They each had a surprise waiting for them this morning.

Introducing Super Kaitlyn and her Side-“Cake”, Super Nathan!  (The side “cake” is my favorite). 

They were out investigating the back yard and rescuing ants from certain doom.

Sandy approved of the capes and the outdoor activity!

So Nathan’s costume came entirely from a big bag of “boy fabric” a friend of mine handed me last month.  I had been asking advice on making a quilt and she showed up a week later with a big bag of fabric she had picked out that had to do with the quilt theme we’d been discussing.  My friend has all daughters and her mother in law had handed her tons of fabric including lots of boy fabric.  This was fabric she knew she wasn’t going to use and didn’t want back.  Some of the fabric had been sitting around for a long time; a stapled “Gold Circle” price tag hand written with a price of $3 and change for virtually yards of blue fabric was a clue there.  My son was thrilled to discover “bob the builder” fabric and has been asking where his bob the builder quilt is.  Kaitlyn figured she could use her cape as a light blanket in a pinch and so I’m hoping this will satisfy Nathan as well.  I still have tons of fabric left in this bag for my own boys and maybe a few others as well.

I chalked out my dimensions and cut accordingly… times 4… these are reversible capes for two children.

I used scraps to cut out the stars that both children decided they wanted appliqued onto the backs of their capes.  I have carefully avoided applique up until now but I have to say, while all four didn’t turn out 100% perfect it really wasn’t all that hard either.  I’ve tackled much tougher sewing projects than applique so maybe I will expand now that I’ve succeeded with something that was purely for fun. 

The star shaped thread sewn through on the back of this blue fabric even looked good.  I used velcro at the collar of each cape sewing each piece on the right before the cape was sewn together.  This allows for the cape to be fastened reversibly and the stitching doesn’t show through at all.

Ironing and pinning the collar and fitting the cape together to sew it up took just a few minutes.

This project, for both capes, took a total of 3 hours.  The applique really added to that time and other than that is a very simple project.  I hope the kids will enjoy these capes for a while and use those creative imaginations they have for more adventures in the coming months.
For good instructions on making a cape I went to “Make It Monday” Superhero Cape at www.thelongthread.com and several applique patterns are available to print as well.