T-Shirt Super Hero Capes: No Sew

Every child deserves a super hero cape to live out their dreams and the good news is that now you don’t have to buy one from a high priced children’s store. Today I’m sharing a no sew super hero cape that everyone can easily find the supplies to make. This one is even easier that trying to rig some way to keep the pillow case tied around their neck like a cape.

TShirt to Super Hero Cape. It’s easy, no sewing required and cost about $6 per cape if you use new t-shirts. To make one cape you will need a t-shirt several sizes larger than what your child is currently wearing, two coordinating patterns or colors of craft felt, scissors and fabric glue. Use new t-shirts or raid your husbands closet.

I also printed out the letters that I wanted on the capes from my computer to use as a template.

You can just hold the letter in place, tape it, or pin it over the top of your flannel and just cut it out.  I also cut a diamond shape from the coordinating piece of flannel that was a little larger than the letter.

Using your fabric glue, attach the letter to the diamond shape and set to the side to dry. Now it’s time to work on the actual cape using the t-shirt.

Lay your shirt out flat on a large surface with the front facing up.  Follow the pattern show up above to cut only one layer of the shirt starting at the bottom edge and going towards the back, behind the arms, and over the shoulders.

Once you cut behind the sleeves you go up over the shoulder, around the neckline and back down the other side of the shirt in the same manner. Then you will have something that looks like this;

When you’re finished it should look something like this. (The backside of the shirt is now pointing up.) The edges of the shirt might seem a little ragged, depending on how bad your scissors are and how many times your kids have used your fancy scissors to cut their Barbie’s hair.  There’s an easy way to solve this….. wash and dry the shirt/ cape. When you wash raw edged jersey fabric, the edges get a nice little roll and you won’t see the jagged edges anymore. After you wash and dry it, it’s time to glue on the super hero symbol that is hopefully dry as well.

Wait until the glue is dry to give it to your kids or if they’ve already seen it, let them have it and keep the glue bottle handy. Then when they are dry, let them fly. (forgive me)

These capes are pretty safe since jersey stretches when pulled but as always when a child has something around their neck, it’s best to keep an eye on them. Yes, they had fun, so much fun that they had to have baths before we could leave the house! Our dog even wore one for awhile.  I really hope that your kids have fun with their new capes too. When they’re done with their superhero capes, make a Water Blob for them!