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    Home » Blog » gifts

    Super easy Superhero Cape Tutorial

    December 17, 2010 by Amy 32 Comments

    Today’s idea is an EASY (and cheap!) almost no-sew (just one easy seam) Superhero Cape. You could make a bunch of these as gifts for friends or party-favors in an hour.
    The inspiration for this tutorial came at the beginning of November. My 6-yr-old came home from school saying he needed a cape for “Superhero Day” at school.  Because he puts up with me sewing all kinds of other “un-useful” things I figured I owed it to him to at least make a superhero cape. But since the last thing any mom wants to hear the week after Halloween is “I need a costume” I wanted to make it as simple as possible.  When it worked I figured it was worth sharing and so the Lazy Mom Superhero Cape tutorial was born.
    Because I don’t have a serger and I felt strongly opposed to the idea of lots of pressing and hemming something that would only be dragged heaven-knows-where I went with the worlds easiest fabric. Fleece. I let my boys each pick out their own color – this was the first time they have EVER been excited to go to the fabric store.  
    I used ¾ yard. (You may want to get a yard for a longer cape on a bigger child.) Because the fleece is usually 60″ wide, you will get two capes out of each peace of yardage. (I found it on sale for $3.99 a yard. That means each cape is between $1.50-$2!)
    Open up the fabric. Measure a piece of string the length of the yardage (in this case 27″) and tie the string to a marking pen. Tape the string at the center of the yardage. 
    Using the pen as a compass (or protractor or something) draw a large half circle.
    Shorten the string to 6″ and draw a similar half circle at the top for the neck line.
    Use scissors to cut on both drawn lines. Also cut on fold line (to end up with two capes. Or keep it one piece to make a cloak.) Finally, cut about 2″ off both selvage edges.
    Take a selvage edge, wrap around neck and measure for length
    (you want it to be loose.) 
    Trim unnecessary end. 
     Mark center of selvage collar and the neck end of one of the capes.
     Match centers and pin collar overlapping the neck of the cape by about ½″.
    Sew one seam to attach collar to the cape.
    Attach velcro to the ends of the collar.
    And yeah, you’re done.
    When I stop being lazy, I promised to sew a felt letter to the back of the capes, but I haven’t got that far yet. 

    In a short time, success. And I don’t worry for a half a second about what happens to this superhero accessory because I can make another one in a snap.

    Can I just say here how much I enjoy 4-year-olds? Especially this one. (He’s particularly lucky because he gets Mom all to himself most days – none of my other previous 4-year-olds had it so good.) While sharing a particularly cozy, sentimental moment in front of the Christmas tree one morning he looked up at me with those charming blue eyes and responded, “Mom. I see tiny hairs in your nose.” Not the response I was anticipating.

    I honestly wish I could freeze him this way forever.

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    Filed Under: gifts, tutorial

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Samantha

      December 17, 2010 at 5:45 pm

      Very cute!

      Reply
    2. Amy - Amy's Creative Side

      December 17, 2010 at 6:33 pm

      Cute post Amy! Nose hairs and all 🙂 My kids would love these!! On my list!

      Reply
    3. Allison

      December 17, 2010 at 7:02 pm

      thank you! my seven year old just asked me to make him a cape yesterday, and I know his brothers would love these, too.

      Reply
    4. Pam

      December 17, 2010 at 8:00 pm

      This is so cute! I wish I had this, oh, ten years ago. My boy is in high school now and I miss him being four years old so bad now. *sigh*

      Reply
    5. lifeinredshoes

      December 17, 2010 at 8:23 pm

      So {sew} cute! I have a friend whos little guy went by Fly Guy and he had a cape that had FG on it.<br />My Little Loves aren&#39;t into Super Heroes so I made them ponchos:)<br />Keep those great ideas coming!

      Reply
    6. MJ

      December 17, 2010 at 11:21 pm

      Thank you for this! I don&#39;t own a sewing machine and I&#39;ve wanted to make a superhero cape for my nephew. A red one made with your tutorial will go into a Superman lunchbox for a superhero costume kit!

      Reply
    7. Tricia - A Rosy Note

      December 18, 2010 at 12:49 am

      Oh, how fun! Mine would have to be a princess cape or a wedding train or something though, since I have a girl 🙂

      Reply
    8. Aimee - Choose To Be Better

      December 18, 2010 at 1:37 am

      WONDERFUL idea! I had my 5 year old say the same thing to me 2 weeks ago. Then she followed it up with &quot;Can I use my scissors to cut them?&quot; uh…no. 😉

      Reply
    9. angela

      December 18, 2010 at 5:53 pm

      Awesome cape!<br /><br />And I LOVE 4yr olds, too. They&#39;re so fun and funny.

      Reply
    10. maggiesquiltnthreads

      December 18, 2010 at 9:24 pm

      I love love love this idea! My son is 3 1/2 and is obsessed with superheros! I think i&#39;m going to have to make him a cape for Christmas too 🙂 Thanks for sharing!

      Reply
    11. Cathy H.

      December 19, 2010 at 11:26 am

      Thanks so much for this great idea. My twin 3 years old gransons will love it!

      Reply
    12. Alida B.

      January 14, 2011 at 2:02 pm

      I just HAD to Thank you for this super, super easy tutorial. My little guy wants a cape so bad and I just HAVE NOT had the time to make one. This is super duper easy and I can have it done in no time. Plus I&#39;m SEW lazy. Thanks again.I found you through google.

      Reply
    13. Summer Ryan Doyle

      March 24, 2011 at 7:48 pm

      Thank you for the great tutorial! I made 20 of them as party favors for my son&#39;s birthday.<br /><br />http://summerdoyle.blogspot.com/2011/03/superhero-capes.html<br /><br />It really was easy!

      Reply
    14. cookyousomenoodles

      March 28, 2011 at 8:51 am

      Super easy tute alright! But oh so super smart. I&#39;ve just finished one for my 3.5 y.o. son<br /><br />http://cookyousomenoodles.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/superhero-cape/<br /><br />Thank you for sharing this lovely tutorial.

      Reply
    15. susanna internicola

      June 08, 2011 at 6:50 am

      i just made this! it was super easy and quick! thankyou so much!! my nephews are going to love it!! i made mine out of an old bed sheet….had to hem it but it still turned out great!!

      Reply
    16. Jaimee

      October 01, 2011 at 10:07 am

      Great tutorial!! I&#39;m including this in a mega Homemade Halloween Costume round up post on my blog this week : )<br />Jaimee @ craft-interrupted.blogspot.com

      Reply
    17. tjp

      November 02, 2011 at 2:56 pm

      I loved your super easy tute. Thanks much! Here&#39;s a link to a couple I recently made:<br />http://redthreadlove.blogspot.com/2011/11/making-of-superhero.html

      Reply
    18. Mo Mom

      August 26, 2012 at 9:59 am

      Made three yesterday so easy. I embrodered my little super heros name on them. So, insted of Bat Man, and SuperMan I had Bat Zane and Super Zane. The birthday boy loved them

      Reply
    19. futuredoll

      November 29, 2012 at 6:51 am

      Love this-re-posted the link on my FB Fan page. Hope you get more followers! Check it out at https://www.facebook.com/collegesavingsdolls<br /><br />Sarah

      Reply
    20. Barb- NICUGypsy

      December 25, 2012 at 3:14 pm

      Hey, so adorable! Didn&#39;t know if you had seen this font- logos for all the superheros. Just enlarge, print and take it from there. For another day when you are inspired to add a logo! Thanks again.<br /><br />http://www.dafont.com/hall-of-heroes.font<br /><br />barb

      Reply
      • amy smart

        December 25, 2012 at 10:17 pm

        That is so perfect! I still need to add logos to the back of these capes…

        Reply
    21. Brandi Wolf

      June 26, 2013 at 10:37 pm

      This is perfect! Not only am I the not-so-crafty type, I wanted to make 25 of these for my twin girls&#39; 7th birthday party next month…definitely am not going to have time to sew that many! This is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you &quot;sew&quot; much for sharing your &quot;lazy day&quot; genius!

      Reply
    22. Andrea Schlickbernd

      November 29, 2013 at 12:09 pm

      Awesome and easy tutorial. Great blog as well. Thanks for sharing! I&#39;m making one for my 4 year old grandson for Christmas. 🙂 And, yes, 4 year olds are amazing and I promise, it gets even better when they are your grandchildren!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! http://www.etsy.com/shop/embellishbyandrea

      Reply
    23. Leah Noonan

      December 25, 2013 at 7:18 pm

      I&#39;m not making a super hero cape but I am going to adapt this tutorial to make my 3&amp;1/2 year grand daughter a princess cape. Then I&#39;ll start making capes for my preschool classroom. I have the best job ever. I get to spend everyday with 4 year olds!

      Reply
    24. Aaron

      January 17, 2014 at 2:28 pm

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Reply
    25. Caroline

      January 17, 2014 at 2:30 pm

      Love these! They look so much cozier than the silky ones and I don&#39;t have to worry about my son getting a pick or a run in this one either. Any way to adjust this for someone who doesn&#39;t own a sewing machine? My son is having a superhero party and I wanted to make some of these for party favors.

      Reply
      • amy smart

        January 20, 2014 at 4:52 pm

        You could try fabric glue, and it might work well with the fleece – since you are only attaching the collar and the velcro, I think it would hold.

        Reply
    26. Maria Palito

      June 03, 2014 at 12:58 pm

      Hi Amy, <br /><br />I am MariaPalito. I just wanted to let you know that your amazing Superhero Cape DIY Tutorial was included in my post this week. I made a post called 10 {Amazing} DIY SUPERHERO PROJECTS . I hope you like it ! <br /><br />Here is a link to my post: http://blog.mariapalitousa.com/2014/06/02/10-amazing-diy-superhero-projects/<br /><br />I hope you my post bring more visitors and

      Reply
    27. birdiep

      September 06, 2016 at 11:13 am

      Thank you for this tutorial. I made a cape for my 21 month old girl for a superhero party. She loved it and I even got round to putting her initial on the back. Perfect.

      Reply

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