a superhero cape

Ashley is the sister of one of my friends (Lauren), and she is going to be a camp counselor. I don't know what camp she goes to, but it is superhero themed. How awesome! She needed a costume fast, and since Lauren knows I sew...I was the go-to girl to whip up a costume. They dropped the fabric off at my door on Sunday, and today my sewing room was super-heroic! :)

Here is what they dropped off:

I was so excited that they remembered the thread! I feel like whenever people have projects, they get so excited about the fabric and then completely forget about the thread. Anyway, Ashley wanted a red cape with a yellow lightning bolt. I googled a few images for lightning bolts, and then went about making my own.

The first one was too small, so I just added a 1/2 inch all around, and it was perfect!

I laid it on the fabric and liked what I saw, so I cut out the yellow fabric,

and then ironed on a little lightweight fusing to make it sturdier.

Ashley wanted her cape to be about 17 " wide at the neck, so I figured that with gathering, I wanted to make it double that width. The fabric comes 44/45" wide, so I cut off 10" with my trusty rotary cutter (it's not just for quilting!).

I had the perfect size, so I found the middle of the fabric and laid the bold where I wanted it. I put in a few pins

and then sewed it in place with a straight stitch.

I then went over the straight stitch with a satin stitch, or a really closely spaced zigzag stitch.

Here is a close-up:

Once the bolt was in place, I pinned the right sides together and sewed up the side seams.

Then I trimmed the corners so that when I turned the cape right side out the corners would lie flat and not be all bunchy.

Next, I sewed up the top of the cape (the final opening), leaving a 3-4" opening to turn everything right side out.

Ashley wanted her cape to be about 17" across the shoulders, and I happened to have about 200 feet of blue elastic (random, I know). I cut off an 18" piece, and although I'm sure there are a million easier ways to do this, I decided to stitch down a 1/2" in each side of the cape...

and turn it right-side out.

Because I did that, I pinned the elastic to the top seam, and stitched as close to the elastic as possible, without sewing through it, to make a casing.

Remember, my opening was 34", my elastic only 17", so I could only stitch so far, when I had to stop, gather the fabric, re-pin the elastic, and then keep making the casing (like I said, way more complicated than it needed to be).

It did work, though! Here I closed off the final opening. I just folded the ends in and stitched as close to the edge as possible.

After that, I finished the casing. Then I cut the ribbon they gave me in half, and just stitched a piece down on each side of the cape.
Mission accomplished!

Sorry it's so wrinkly...should have ironed better! (Have I mentioned I hate ironing? I do it because it's necessary and things look way better when you actually do it, but I still hate it.)

And the front. Please admire all of my husbands posters hanging over our son's crib.

I hope Ashley has fun at camp!