Dish Towel Superhero Cape

I have a pair of cute nieces who, when they come over, raid my dish towel drawer for "dress-ups." Apparently they find that dish towels make for lovely dresses, skirts, and capes! Well, when I saw some brightly-colored cotton dish towels (green, pink, and blue) at the dollar store last week, I knew immediately what they were destined to become!

What you need:

~ Two dish towels
~ small scrap of fusible webbing
~ 1 1/2" of sew-in velcro

It's simple to draft your own cape pattern. You can use a bib as a reference for the closure and neck width, as I did, and use the dish towel as a guide for length. I held the dish towel up to my daughter to check for the desired length. She is only one, so I made it shortish. As you can see, there is plenty of length to make it longer for an older child.

STEP ONE: Layer your two dish towels on top of each other and cut out your cape.

STEP TWO: Use a scrap from one of the dish towels to create a superhero logo. I found a font I really liked in Word, and printed it out to create my logo pattern. (My font is Blackoak Std, font size 240.) Trace the logo in reverse onto the paper side of your fusible webbing, fuse it to the wrong side of your fabric, then cut it out.

STEP TWO: Remove the paper backing, find a placement you like, and fuse it in place!

STEP THREE: Layer your two cape layers right sides together and pin all the way around. (I am not normally a pinning advocate unless it is necessary -- and this time it is!) If you like, mark with your pins on one straight side where you want to stop and start to leave a hole for turning.

STEP FOUR: Sew! I used a generous 1/4" seam allowance.

STEP FIVE: If you have pinking shears, now is a very happy time to use them! Pink around the curved seam allowances to allow for easier and flatter turning. If you don't have pinking shears, go ahead and clip around the curves right up close to the stitching line.

STEP SIX: Turn right side out through the hole, using a chopstick or other blunt-yet-pointy object to poke out the curves. Remember to poke the seam allowances of your turning hole inside. Press.

STEP SEVEN: Topstitch all around the edges. Lengthen your stitch for this part -- I increased mine to 4.

STEP EIGHT: Topstitch around the edges of your logo applique. (You could do this before sewing the two layers together if you prefer!)

STEP NINE: Attach the velcro.

DONE!

Your little superhero will be flying around and fighting crime...

...or emptying the fridge?...

...in no time!