When we decided to do a superhero theme for the twins birthday party, I knew immediately that I wanted to make capes and masks for all of the kids as party favors. I mean, seriously, what three year old doesn’t want to be a superhero? I started sewing right after Christmas, and much to my surprise (thankfully) the whole prcess went pretty quickly. The key was definitely cutting all of the capes en masse and then sewing, ironing, sewing through each step also in bulk, rather than doing one cape at a time from beginning to end. *Although* I did sew the first two capes one at a time to make sure things were coming out right, and I am glad I did, since the first cape I made ended up being Lola’s cape, since it was about 7″ too short for the big kids. Oops.
The twins were little hams, modeling their capes in the weeks before their birthday party. And it cracked me up to watch them chase each other around their house with their capes flying behind them. We had a few capes leftover, plus the capes that the kids each got at their party and they still request to be a superhero and wear the capes around the house over a month later.
Keeping a dozen three year olds entertained is no small feat, so when it came time to decide on what activities to have at the party we decided to do cape and mask decorating stations. Joe and I spent several nights leading up to the party cutting out felt stickers into lightening bolts and circles and stars. Just last week I saw a bunch of felt sticker shapes at Hobby Lobby and I was kicking myself for not checking there first. I bought silver sticker letters from Michaels. The decoration stations were a huge hit with the toddler crowd.
I really loved this party, the kids were so into it. Especially Reese and Ryan. They LOVED being superheros and having superhero shirts and capes. They wore their masks for hours and it was really the cutest darn thing I have ever seen. So much work and thought goes into these parties that we throw, and that’s definitely my choice. But it is so awesome to see the kids so happy and loving their special day. It makes every crazy night crafting a million percent worth it.
A few friends asked me to post resources for making the capes and masks, so here they are.
For the capes I used a combination of this tutorial from How Does She and this this tutorial from Serving Pink Lemonade. Honestly, I liked using a plate and having a curved neckline. But the How does she tutorial was helpful in determining length. I want to say my capes were 15″ folded wide and 32″ long before I sewed them with a 1/2″ seam allowance. I used sticky velcro on the tabs to shut them and make them easy for the kids to take off and on by themselves.
Here is the template for the masks. I just printed it on regular printer paper and traced it by hand onto felt. Then I cut little snips on the edge near the eyes and strung them up with silver elastic.
I hope they are helpful, as always if you have questions leave a comment or email me directly.
