How to Sew a Play Cape for a Child
Making a child's play cape is a simple sewing project that will cost you a fraction of the cost of buying a cape. Personalize your homemade cape by choosing the color of fabric and by designing logos or symbols to attach to the cape. You could also use old scraps of fabric to decorate the cape.
Things You'll Need
- Felt
- Fabric scissors
- Sewing machine
- Thread
- Pins
- Bias tape
- 1-inch wide ribbon
Instructions
-
-
1
Choose a color of felt for your cape.
-
2
Cut a square of felt that is twice as long as you want the finished cape to be. For example, if you want a 25-inch cape, cut a 50-inch square.
-
-
3
Fold this felt square in half along the length of the fabric, then again along the width of the fabric. You now have a smaller folded square.
-
4
Measure your child's neck. Divide this measurement by 3.14. Divide that result in half to find the radius of your child's neck. For example, if the neck measurement was 12 inches, the radius would be approximately 2 inches.
-
5
Use this radius measurement to measure from the folded corner of the felt along the top and side of the square. Mark these two measurements. Draw an arc or semicircle between these two points. Place this felt square on your work surface with the drawn-on folded corner top left.
-
6
Draw a second arc between the bottom left-hand corner and the top right-hand corner.
-
7
Cut along both arcs through all the layers of fabric. Cut down one folded side of the square. Be careful to only cut through one layer of fabric. You will now have a basic cape shape with a neck hole and an opening down the front center of the cape.
-
8
Cut a length of bias tape which is the same as your child's neck measurement plus 1 inch. Iron the bias tape in half. Pin around the neck hole of the cape, sandwiching the cape fabric between the two sides of the bias tape leaving 1/2 inch on each end of the neck hole.
-
9
Tuck the ends of the bias tape onto the wrong side of the cape. Sew along the inner edge of the bias tape to hold it in place.
-
10
Cut two 11-inch pieces of ribbon. Pin them onto the wrong side of the cape on each side of the neck hole. Make sure that an inch of each ribbon overlaps with the fabric of the cape. Sew the ribbon in place.
-
1
