Superhero Towel Cape: A Tutorial

A few weeks (months?!) ago I posted this post before we headed off to Florida...with a small teaser on a few projects to come. Here is one of them!

My 3 year old nephew loves superheros. When his Mom first told him about our trip to Disney, his biggest concern was which superhero costume was he going to wear! I think in his little head he believes he is one. Which is awesome because who doesn't want their kiddo to have the confidence of a superhero?

I had originally wanted to make him a superhero cape, but I decided a new beach towel would be a fun and sunny Florida idea. Then I thought...why not do both?

(I am by no means claiming to have invented the hooded towel! This is just how it made sense to me, and how I embellished it to be Superhero worthy.)

For this project I used a bath towel, hand towel, and wash cloth. 

Any sized towels would do, but mine were 30x54, 16x28, and 12x12.

Start with the hand towel. Fold it in half lengthwise, right sides together.

You're going to cut a curved shape out of the towel from the finished edge to the folded edge. This will be the hood of the towel.

The size you choose to cut really depends on the size of your child. (This towel seemed to be just the right size for a 3T wearing kiddo) I just eyeballed this...but my measurements were about 9 inches up from the botton on the finished edge side, and 7 inches up from the bottom on the folded edge side. The highest part of the curve was about 10 inches from the bottom. The picture is easier to see what I'm talking about:

Ok, now sew the hood closed along the line that you just cut out. I used a regular straight stitch, then went over the edges with a zig zag to help stop any fraying.

Turn the hood right side out. Fold in half so outer side edges meet. Mark the center of the back with a pin.

Next, grab your bath towel. Fold in half, lengthwise. Mark the center with a pin.

Lay the bath towel with right side facing up. Match up the center pin on your bath towel with the center pin on the back of your hood. Your hood should be "open side" up. Pin together.

Sew the hood to the bath towel. Both edges are already finished from the original towels, so this seam wont fray. (Ie, no need to zig zag stitch...woohoo!)

Hooray, your hooded towel is done! But we are going to SUPERHERO this up and embelish a bit further.

Grab a yellow wash cloth. Iron on some iron-on-adhesive onto one side. The washcloth is thick, so I found it worked best to iron on the paper side of the adhesive, instead of on the back side of the washcloth. This goes against what the directions say, but trust me. It worked fine.

I printed a Batman symbol off the web, and used it as a stencil. Trace your stencil onto the adhesive paper backing.

Cut it out and peel off the paper backing.

Place the batman symbol, adhesive side down onto the back of the towel. I let the hood hang down on the back of the towel, and placed the batman symbol under it - to be sure you can still see it when the hood is down. The hood will also help you figure out where the middle of the towel is.

Iron on. I used HIGH heat and pressed down really hard. The terry cloth is thick and so you'll need lots of pressure to get that adhesive to work.

The adhesive is really just a temporary fix, to hold the symbol in place while you're sewing it on. You will need to sew around the edge to secure permanently. Zig zag stitch all along the whole edge of the symbol. Since the terry cloth frays quite a bit, I set my stitch length to the widest setting, to ensure that the stitches would grasp the terry cloth firmly.

Finally, I wanted this to be able to be warn as a cape as well. (It is for a superhero, afterall.) I took a short length of black 1/4" elastic and sewed it to the edge of the towel, just under the hood, making a loop. Just use a straight stitch, and go back and forth over it a couple times.

Next, on the opposite edge, I sewed a large button. I made a quick fabric covered button out of some scrap yellow fabric, but you can use any button you have on hand. (Sorry...forgot to take pics of these last two steps...but luckily they are easy peasy!)

Now you have a way for your little guy to keep the towel securely around his shoulders.

Now your little superhero can save the universe! All while staying toasty & dry.

Don't let the straight-face fool you. Being Batman is a very serious job. 

I promise he liked it! (And your little superhero will too!)

Linking up to:

"Blog-cation"

Disney, here we come! The hubby and I are headed to Florida for some fun in the sun with family! And we come bearing gifts.

If you remember, I had already made this Minnie Mouse dress for our niece Alexa for our trip to Disney...

Here's a sneak peak of what I whipped up for Alexa's older sister Ally...

And I couldn't leave out their little brother Bryce...

There'll be more on the last two projects soon to follow...promise!

But until then...I'll be soaking up the sun, the warmth, and the magic of Disneyworld. 

{Did I mention it will be my very first trip to Disney?!!}

Check back soon! I can't stay gone for long. :)

Gingerbread Extravaganza!

Every year my amazing mother hosts a gingerbread decorating day. She spends hours and hours baking, cutting out, and putting together a gingerbread house (or in many cases, something other than a house) for everyone, and we all decorate them together. Kids and adults big kids alike! It's one of my favorite days of the year, and I was so lucky to have been "home" for it this year!

This year she let everyone choose their "structure," so we had a big variety. And we aren't talking tiny houses here people. Let's just say my mother has a problem with the scale of these structures. (Note: a castle so large my niece could have probably climbed inside if she wanted.) 

What I love most about this day, is the creativity & imagination the kids display. It's refreshing & fun to watch them create with such concentration & concern.

the transformation...

is always magnificent!

A barn...

a farmhouse...

an 18 wheeler...

a train...

and a castle fit for a princess...

A day full of family, candy, & Christmasy fun...doesn't get much better than that!

Superheros

Over a month ago, my sis in law asked me if I  would want to make Halloween costumes for her two girls. I love them to pieces, so of course I was thrilled to oblige. And I never blogged about it. But since it IS Halloween weekend, I figured I still could.

Their little brother is obsessed with superheroes. Not to be outdone, the girls chose their costumes accordingly. Wonderwoman & Pink Batgirl. Fabulous choices. Expensive choices if you are buying them. So my goal was to make them for less than $10 each. Here are their costumes of choice:

Images found here and here. (Superheroes obviously not to size.)

So here is what I came up with. 

There were a lot of little parts and pieces to each one. 

(And yes, I did add "fall" to some of the pictures...bare white was just not screaming Halloween!) 

 

(My first try at a t-shirt...was easier than I thought!)

And every super girl needs accessories...

Anyway...there you have it. I didn't use any patterns, so I kind of just made it all up as I went along. Apparently they were a hit. The day they arrived in the mail, batgirl refused to take hers off so she wore it to Walmart & received lots of compliments.

As for the price - almost all of the fabric I found on sale, or used coupons. I ended up spending less than $20 for both costumes! Not a bad deal.


I even had enough fabric left over to make matching trick or treat bags for them & their little brother...who is of course, also a superhero.

Have fun tomorrow, kids! 

Hopefully you wont be too busy saving the universe to pose for some pictures for me. 

Monogrammed Appliqué

I love appliqué! I don't think I have tried it since maybe I was 10 years old? My niece & nephew are turning 5 & 6 next week, so I thought I'd make them some monogrammed tee's to mail to them. It was SO easy that I now want to appliqué everything in sight!

A for Annabelle & a matching flowered skirt & ruffled headband. I added some silver sequins because what little girl doesn't like a little sparkle? I didn't make the tee or skirt, but they were $5 each at target, so still a win for me! She's getting some cute orange leggings too.

Z is for Zackary in a skull pattern & a little skull on the sleeve. He's also getting some sweats with his, but not exciting enough for a picture.

Happy Birthday to my favorite kiddos!!

High Flier

Some pics of Uncle Ben throwing Zack into the deep end. He was certainly the best at it, as you can see from the amount of air he got! And had to throw in the pic on top of Zack losing his shorts...too cute!