As the youngest of three boys, I’m disappointed to confess that JJ has a lot interests that are not particularly age-appropriate for a four-year-old. So, I’m always happy to encourage him when he gets excited by something more wholesome than Power … Continue reading
Here’s a quick summary of the recent Superhero-related posts:
Our preschooler is really into Superman. I mean really. As in, he walks up to random kids at the playground and says, “Hey, boy! I’m Superman!” which should be clear from the fact that he’s almost always wearing a Superman shirt. Sometimes, one of our homemade capes also. It’s actually very sweet to see the reactions he gets from strangers big and small.
So, it was pretty obvious what he was going to be for Halloween, and his brother completed the theme as Batman. These costumes served double duty at J’s superhero birthday.
When I was little, my mom always made our costumes, and she usually made them out of things that we could wear again. Even in this age of readily – available store-bought costumes, I’m used to doing things this way.
Superman
I actually made this Superman costume back when our oldest was three, so it has seen a lot of use, and it’s still going strong. It’s made from a set of plain blue pajamas, and I added the Superman logo and made a cape. This year, I added a yellow belt, too. The pajamas have gotten lots of wear, outside of Halloween, but they’re ready for saving the world a few more times.
To make the Superman logo, I used red fabric, yellow fabric, and some Heat’n Bond Lite Iron-on Adhesive
I started by sketching a superman “S” onto the paper backing of the Heat ‘n Bond. Remember to do it backwards! If you don’t want to draw freehand, you can print out the logo and trace it onto the Heat ‘n Bond, using a lightbox or a window.
I then ironed the pattern onto the red fabric, and cut it out. (see below). I ironed the red “S” onto the yellow fabric, added Heat’n Bond
This is the finished Superman costume:
I also made extra shirts in a few colors to give us some variety, since J wants to dress like superman pretty much every day. I sewed this logo onto an older shirt, and I like the worn retro look it has.
Sweet vintage-looking Superman T made from a faded shirt.
The funniest is when he layers his hero shirts, like this day when he wore the Ninjago shirt I made for L’s Ninjago party under his red Superman shirt, so he could make a quick transformation whenever he needed.
He couldn’t decide whether to be Superman or a Ninjago today.
The cape is very simple, with a Velcro closure. I have more details on how to make the cape in this post about the party favors I made for J’s superhero birthday party.
Batman costume
L already had a Batman shirt in gray,so I bought him a pair of matching plain gray sweatpants that he can wear again. I bought some black satin to sew a cape and the hood and mask and used yellow fabric I had to make the belt.
Satin is very slippery, so it was harder to sew than I planned, but with the help of a lot of pins, it turned out alright. I cut the cape using a similar pattern to the other superhero capes, but this one is wider and the bottom edge is scalloped like bat wings. I used bias binding to finish the curves on the bottom.
The first picture below shows the basic shape of the hood. It has a couple of darts (shown with arrows in the second picture) to shape it around the head. The ears are triangles filled with batting, and I hand – sewed them to the outside of the hood. I decided to make the mask separate, so that he could wear the hood more comfortably.
The belt is a simple strap with an oval in front for the bat symbol painted in black puffy paint. The closure at the back has elastic to make it snug and Velcro to fasten the ends. The mask is made with satin fused to felt with Heat’n Bond Ultra Hold Iron-On Adhesive
And here is the finished Batman costume:
Here are our favorite heroes making appearances all about the neighborhood. We had a lot of fun!
You can definitely adapt these instructions to make any superhero, including ones you dream up yourself. Look at the variety of capes for J’s party”
“Jewels”
Here’s a quick summary of the recent Superhero-related posts:
For J’s recent superhero birthday party, I decided to make capes as party favors. I always try to make one bigger gift instead of goody bags with lots of small items.
The capes were very simple to make, though I will admit that making them for 10 kids took longer than I anticipated. It all worked out, though, and it was adorable to see all the little heroes running around our house and yard in their super capes! J and L wanted to be Superman and Batman, so I made them capes specifically for that, but the rest of the capes were a mix of fun colors and patterns.
You can make your own cape pattern that fits kids from about two to seven years old:
Materials:
Instructions:
I love the variety of each of these. I even made a little baby version for my “niece” C.
C’s baby cape is so cute!
Birthday boy, also known as Superman!
The kids have been wearing their capes all around our home and beyond.
Super baby!
You don’t have to make the capes yourself to have a fun costume party. I have found great costumes of all kinds at low prices on Zulily:
Have fun saving the world, little ones! Happy birthday, J!
“Jewels”
Jewels at Home 