How To: Sew a Child's Cape

 We will try anything that makes these long days indoors fun, but we never need an excuse for more costumes! Any occasion will do. Capes make you jump higher, run faster, and spin more beautifully according to our in-house research.

I love seeing the girls zooming around in their capes because one of them is made with a play silk I was fond of as a kid. The stories we pretended with it beggar imagination, so it's great to know that its best years are ahead of it!

 
This cape project is super easy and fast, (20-30 minutes) and it's a good excuse to work on fine hemming tricky fabrics like I showed you in the last tutorial!

Supplies: 
fancy floating, silky, sparkly, or otherwise fun fabric 28.5"x 22.5" Poly organza is pictured here.
40" of 1" ribbon
safety pin
matching thread

Note: If these measurements seem random, it's because I was making do with what I had, but the measurements turned out to be a nice size for both my 2 and almost 4 year old. Feel free to improvise.

Directions:

1. Hem all 4 sides of the cape at 1/4".
2. Make a casing for the ribbon by folding one of the short sides down 1 1/2" and stitching.
3. Attach the end of the ribbon on the safety pin, and use the pin to push the ribbon through the casing. 
4. Even up the center of the cape to the center of the ribbon. Pin in the middle. 
5. Scrunch up the cape on the ribbon to 7 1/2" to each side of center, while the ribbon stays flat. 
6. Distribute the gathers approximately evenly and stitch down.