How to make a superhero cape

My mum told me about www.iamsupercapes.co.uk, who are making super hero capes for sick and disadvantaged children in the UK and the rest of the World. So I thought I would make one too, and show you how to do it, so you can make them at home as well.

I cut the fabric out using this pattern that my mum made, you can use the shape in the picture to make your own from newspaper.

I put the paper on the fabric, pinned it onto the fabric and cut it out. The black rod is an iron paper weight in case you were wondering. I cut out two pieces of fabric, one for the outside and one for the inside of my cape.

Once I cut them out, my mum embroidered a dragon on her embroidery machine. You could stitch on a piece of felt or fleece with a design instead, like a lightening bolt and things like that. You can download lots of templates on the internet to use or copy one from a book.

Lay the fabric pieces together, good side to good side, pin them together like shown, and then stitch together, leaving a 10cm gap to turn it the right way around. Once you have stitched, zig zag both layers together on the edges, so that it doesn’t fray in the wash (remember to leave a 10cm gap with the zig zag as well).

Turn it the right way around and press the edges flat with an iron and some steam. Turn the edges of the opening in and pin it together. Increase the length of your straight stitch on your machine to 3.5 and topstich all the way round the edge of the cape, staying 0.5mm away from the edge. I topstitched to stop the lining from sliding around and it looks nice too!

After this I had to make a button hole using the button hole foot. If you don’t have one, you can use velcro instead, or  sew on a hook and eye. Then stitch on the button, on the other side. If you want to use your cape on both sides, then sew a button on both sides to make it look nice.

Here is my finished cape, I loved it so much, I made another one for me to keep in blue!