Super Charlotte

Do you ever take on a project that ends up being so much larger than you planned?

A few days ago I promised my daughter that I would make her a new super hero mask from felt.  Her much loved mask made from construction paper and painters tape was in bad shape.  Additional layers of tape were not working to hold it together.

My plan was to go to the fabric store after a doctor's appointment, buy a square or two of felt and crank out the mask before dinnertime.

Silly me.

Charlotte left the doctor's office with a Captain America sticker and quickly pointed out to me that she "had to have" the hat, shirt, gloves and boots.  I was feeling crafty so I agreed.

We didn't get the uniform made in time for dinner, but in the end it only took a few hours to put together.

My tutorial for making a super hero costume like mine without a pattern follows.

I used:

18"x36" piece of blue felt
18"x24" piece of red felt
scraps of white felt (some stiff and some soft if you have it)

My child is 3.  A costume for an older child will require more fabric (especially the blue felt).

First I made the cuffs.  I cut a template from paper and measured it against my daughter's wrists and ankles.  It was a little small so I folded the template in half and cut it on a folded piece of felt, leaving an extra inch between the fold of the fabric and the fold of the template.

Next I sewed velcro vertically along the outer edges of the cuff just before the fabric angled out (see photo below for placement).  I held the fabric up against my daughter's wrists and ankles first to determine the best place for the velcro.

I used sew on velcro instead of adhesive because I thought it would hold up better to the extreme needs of a 3 year old super hero.

Next came the helmet (mask? hat?).

My vast experience with construction paper masks has taught me that eye and nose placement are critical.  The eyes always need to be larger than you think.  I started my template by cutting a notch for the nose in the middle of the long edge of a piece of paper.

Next I held the template to my daughters face (she was very patient that day) and figured out where the eyes should be.  I cut and measured again.  Then I made the eyes larger (of course).  Finally I rounded out the top.

I cut two pieces of blue felt from this template.  The first was cut the size of the entire template (the front of the helmet).  The second was cut the size of the top 2/3 of the template stopping around where the eyes start (the back of the helmet)

I cut out little wings from a scrap of very stiff white felt.  If you don't have stiff felt you could try sewing together a couple layers of softer felt and/or using fusible interfacing.

I cut an initial from soft white felt and top stitched it onto the front of the helmet above the eyes.

I pinned the font and back front sides together.  I inserted the wings between the layers about half way up the straight part of the side. I stitched the pieces together with an 1/8" seam and turned it right side out.  Cute, right?

Finally, I made the shirt.  I wanted something that could be easily put on so I decided it should be loose and open on the sides.

First I used a tank top as a template for the front and back pieces.

I widened the neck a bit.  I cut two little rectangles for the shoulders and two little red squares because I had red thread in my machine and was too lazy to change it.

I cut a star from a scrap of soft white felt and topstitched it to the front.

I sewed the tabs between the front and back shoulders by topstitching a square on the red felt squares.

That's it!  Easy and fast!

The Empress would not pose for a proper photo so this is the best I can do for model shots.

I hope you try to make your own super hero costume.  Now that I know how quick and easy it is to sew with felt I will do it more often.

I'm linked up with:
Sew Fresh Quilts
Crazy Mom Quilts
Fort Worth Fabric Studio
Sew Can She
Funky Polkadot Giraffe