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
- blue pajama set or shirt and pants
- red fabric for cape and logo
- yellow fabric for logo
- Heat’n Bond Lite Iron-on Adhesive
- Velcro for the cape closure
- optional: black puffy paint
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, and ironed it onto the shirt. Finally, I finished the raw edges with stitching. on one version, I also outlined the design with some black puffy paint.
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
- Gray shirt and pants. We already had a shirt with the Batman logo, but you could make one using the same instructions as the Superman costume above.
- Black satin fabric for the cape and hood
- Black bias binding to finish the bottom of the cape
- Velcro for the cape closure
- Yellow fabric and Velcro for the belt
- Black puffy paint to do the Batman logo on the belt
- Heat’n Bond Ultra Hold Iron-On Adhesive-17″X10 Yards
- black elastic for the mask
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 a black elastic strap.
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”
Jewels at Home 