Home made superhero fleece poncho-cape.

Sounds a bit odd doesn't it?

These were one of the presents that I made for my girls this Christmas. They are pretty into the whole superhero thing. They have Batman and Superman PJs and wanted capes, so I thought it would be a nice idea if they had capes that could double up as cold weather ponchos.

I used one yard of blue fleece for the superman poncho and one yard of black fleece for the Batman one. I got the little bits of yellow and red fleece from the remnants section, so they were pennies. I also used two 16" chunky zippers and two nice big buttons. I thought the kids would find it easier to do up and undo if I sewed in a hair bobble to close the button, rather than sew button holes (easier for me too, let's be honest).

The fleece appliques on the backs were done by hand.

Here's how I cut the shape of the cape to sew up. I used a piece of chalk and some string to make a big compass, so that I could cut out a big semi circle from the yard of fleece. I cut out a smaller semi circle for the start of the neck part of the pattern. Oooh, look at my grotty kitchen floor and seventies crockery!

From here on out you get a faux tutorial using paper instead of the actual cape, because it was all done at stupid O'clock at night with pants lighting and I didn't think you'd be able to make out anything of the black and blue fleece. so here's the semi circle with the little semi circle cut out in paper. You get the idea. It's far from rocket science, but as i was typing out what I did it started to sound more confusing than it should be if that makes any sense.

Then I folded the two sides in to meet in the middle, so that I had a quarter circle (as though looking at the poncho head on, flat on the ground) From here I cut the curves of the shoulders.

Next I openned the cape back up and folded it so that it was in half (as though you were looking at it side on, flat on the ground. From here I cut out a lower neckline for the front of the poncho. All cutting done.

Sew up the shoulder seams and hem all around to give it a bit more structure and stop the bottom of the cape stretching over time. Sew in the zipper and then you just have the collar to put on. I just cut a length of fleece from the left over, folded it in half to have double thickness and about one and a half inches height for the collar and sewed in the hairbobble while I was at it.

They worked out a great fit for my nearly four year old and just turned five year old. The length on them was good too, because it allowed them to crouch down without the poncho dragging on the floor.

The capes also had a lot of good movement to them when charging around being superheroey. I was going to cut arm hole slits in them, but as it turned out the capes were short enough that the kids didn't need them to be able to get their hands out

If I'd had more time and appropriate fabric then it would have been really cool to put a silky/satiny yellow material as a lining for them. I'll probably make more as gifts though, so I'll try that at some point in the future. I also want to make a very small wonder woman one with a felt wonder woman crown for a specific wee lass.

Here are some pictures of my two galavanting around on the hillside on Christmas day afternoon, rocking the cape/ponchos. Big filth wizard liked hers zipped up and little filth wizard opted for the open cape style.

Sewing isn't exactly my forte. I'm much more comfortable hand sewing than machine sewing (I'm hoping to change that in the future though), so if I can manage this then I think just about anyone can. I do have a fair bit of the yard left over, so if I can manage it then I'd like to make some indoor slippers that look like knee high superhero boots to go with the capes.