I made my way to the land of potatoes to visit my dear friend M this past weekend. It was a delightful weekend spent with her family- super cool husband K (who is really good at SongPop) and three super cool kiddos who made me giggle with their wacky antics and witty banter. (Thanks for a great vacation, friends!)
Before heading out west, I wanted to make a few little items for the boys...it was my first time hanging out with them and I wanted to ensure they would be my best friends right away and forever...bribery seemed to be a logical way to accomplish this mission.
So with a little inside scoop from their mama, I found out that older brother is in love with all things police, middle brother thinks he is Batman, and baby brother is just very, very cute:
He is...isn't he! I got him a few board books to help in the development of his little baby mind....books about Minnesota in hopes to woo his parents to move closer to me with some sneaky subliminal advertising...
Moving on to the big boys....I had some fun sewing plans in mind for their gifts.
For Mr. Batman...a cape! There are many cape patterns out there and I found one that was simple and easy to work with: Batman Cape Pattern
I used felt which needs no finishing of the edges (awesome for us beginners in the world of sewing). I cut out the pattern and taped it together, then folded the black felt in half and placed the pattern on top:
Then onto the logo:Batman Logo
I first cut the oval, then the bat and sewed the bat to the oval. Easy peesey:
Took the newly sewn oval + bat and sewed to the cape. The pattern had a rounded bottom edge so I cut out 'Batman-y' peaks to make it look more 'Batty'. Added some Velcro to close at the neck and we had a cape. I am pretty sure he liked it:
For the officer, an official vest. Again, lots of patterns out there online but I found this one - Kid Vest.
I could see the potential to embellish it to my own needs and got to work.
I first had to modify a bit since the pattern was fit for 2-4 year olds. I got a size 6 tshirt from a friend and used it as a guide to make sure it would fit his size. I traced a new pattern (just a little bigger than the original) to work from and started cutting (again, this was all made with felt):
The vest body consists of 3 parts...one full back piece and 2 front flaps.
The tutorial I was working from said you could line the edges with another color and to do this before sewing the pieces together. I highly recommend this is done...cleaner finish. I cut 1 inch (approximately..I kind of just eyeballed it) pieces to fit each edge and pinned them into place before sewing:
Once completed, I then sewed the large pieces together (from the inside) with a small seam allowance (1/4 inch) to finish it off:
Now for the embellishments. I won a cool patch on ebay (A real County Sheriff badge from their home town...score! Blotted out in the photo to protect the privacy of the kids/family) and sewed it to the front lapel, added a pocket to the other side for all of his police accessories and used iron on letters on the back to let everyone know that he is an official officer:
Oh, and Velcro closures on the front:
And I'm pretty sure he liked it:
It was such fun to put these together and to especially see the kids get so excited to use them...Batman flying around the park and Mr. Officer 'stopping cars' as we crossed the street because 'they saw that I'm a real officer'! Imaginations run wild, kids...enjoy:)
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