Prom dress --> Superhero cape

Saturday we were planning on going to the Blessingway at Natural Baby and I thought while we were in town we'd visit the Goodwill clearance center and see what they had in the way of wool sweaters. I liked the clearance center, but the problem is that the clothing doesn't hang on racks. It's all wadded up in big bins and you have to dig through it to find what you want, which is exhausting. This is the stuff that wouldn't even sell for 50 cents in the store, so some (at least half?) of it is junk like holey t-shirts, but there's good stuff mixed in and they sell it for $1.19 a pound. I was surprised at the number of people there, and I wonder what they were all looking for. There were so many bins to dig through that I totally lost track of time, and Jordan did too. By the time we got lunch and were able to park and walk to the shop, we were over half an hour late to the Blessingway. Ooops.

Anyway, we spent about $15 at the Goodwill clearance center and left with about 12 wool sweaters and a bunch of other things I thought might make a fun craft project. My favorite was this wrinkled up prom dress in Suzi's favorite color, green.

Once we were home and the girls were asleep, I wanted to make something to prove to myself that I wasn't just aimlessly hoarding. I was really going to use this stuff. Or at least some of it. So I did what I had decided to do with the prom dress earlier, and made a superhero cape out of it for Suzi. I wanted to try the dress on before I cut it, just for fun, but I'm 30 weeks pregnant. It wasn't happening. I felt a little naughty chopping off the front panel of the skirt, which was already shaped vaguely like a cape. I just rounded it up a bit and put a little dip in the top for the neck. If I had it to do over, I'd dip a little deeper. Oh, and I ironed it. I was a little worried the fabric wouldn't like being ironed, but it didn't mind.

To get another piece the same size, I had to cut from the middle of two of the remaining skirt panels. It wasn't a big deal; it just means there's a seam running up the middle of the inside of the cape. I pinned and sewed right sides together, and then turned it right side out and top stitched around the edge. Then I used some snaps I had to fasten it at the neck. I think snaps (or velcro) are a safer choice than a tie around a child's neck if the cape gets caught on something.

So there it is! Not very hard to do, and a cheap shiny prom dress is the perfect material for it. I didn't add any lightning bolts, stars, hearts, or other superhero emblem on the cape. Suzi doesn't like to be labeled. If she asks me to add something to it later, I might, but until then it'll be an open-ended cape. I just hope she doesn't think it looks like something a princess would wear, because then she'll never touch the thing.

I think I'll hang it on her doorknob and see if she notices it in the morning. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the rest of that dress. Let me know if you think of anything.

ETA Sunday morning: