Felt and fleece, two of my favorite fabrics, come together with a little grosgrain ribbon to make a really easy craft! Seriously, if it is on my blog, it will be super simple to do. I am no Cintia.
Fleece will not unravel so there is no need to sew although it would certainly look neater along the edges if it were hemmed. I think it would also look great (and increase the durability) if the outline of the symbol was sewn in a contrasting color. Might even be cute to have some big stitches down the center of the letter. I just wanted something that could be done in five minutes while anxious preschoolers stood at my side asking screaming, ARE YOU DONE YET?
All you need is:
- A length of fleece fabric (for the four year olds, I made them about 24-ish in/60 cm long) just a smidge wider than the child’s shoulders
- A length of grosgrain ribbon 3-4 times the width of the child’s shoulders
- Sheets of sticky felt in two different colors
- Sharp scissors
- Cut the fleece to size. I snipped the bottom to be jagged, but you can be wavy or straight or even add a bit of shiny fabric to catch the light when they run super fast, as they will be able to run SUPER fast with a brand new cool personalized super hero cape!
- Cut out an emblem shape from one of the sticky felt colors. Clover picked a love heart and Kieran picked a triangle. I picked the yellow for both so there would be NO fighting.
- Cut out their super cool very own initial from the other color of sticky felt.
- Place the emblem with the initial attached to it at the bottom third of the cape as the draping will cause the fleece to gather from the middle on up to the neckline.
- In a line about 2 in/5 cm parallel to the top edge of the fleece you will make small holes to thread the ribbon. I cut the holes, but you could easily poke through the fleece with a hem splitter tool. I spaced them out about (roughly) 2.5 in/6-ish cm.
- Thread your ribbon through your holes and gather the cape. To hold the gather, just wrap the ribbon back through the outside holes and tie a knot in the ribbon.
- Tada. No, really. You can trip the ribbon now to however long you want it and I always tie it in a long bow so that it is not too tight.
It goes without saying that ANYTHING that goes around a child’s neck should be worn with caution. Please be careful they don’t get it caught on anything and also, don’t let them sleep in the capes. I am certain that warning can be filed under the category of “duh”, but I am including it here just in case.
Sure these can be made prettier or fancier or more complicated, but the point for me was to do something for my kids within my limited (yet GROWING!) craft skill set. To say they are thrilled with their capes would be a huge understatement. I made them for their little friends on a playdate and now the mums think I am Martha Stewart. Win/Win.
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that’s almost the same as how I made the Dangerbaby’s when he was 18months old for a party .. at 4yrs old, it’s still packing a mighty punch
Love it when you end up looking Martha like! Great little cape Rachel.
How awesome are your capes! I think you are more crafty then you lead us to believe