Sewing: Capes and Crowns

I have heard friends talk of the craziness of May with all of its end-of-school-year activities but I haven't experienced it myself until now. We've got art gallery exhibits to hang and view, a kindergarten opera to costume and a birthday party in the midst of it, on top of the regular busy routine. So I've had to prioritize according to deadline and crank out some sewing. The past 24 hours have been about capes and crowns!

These striped crowns and polka-dot capes are to costume the boys in the kindergarten class for an opera they've written based on the book, Miss Mouse's Day. It has such cute, colorful illustrations with lots of bold patterns. I remembered the polka dot fleece at Joann from my fleece hunt for no-sew blankets and I had some IKEA striped fabric on hand I thought would be perfect with the polka dots. Such a lucky break because I really didn't have time to go to the fabric store!

To make the crowns I used the Juicy Bits template I have used in the past to make birthday crowns but simplified. I sandwiched together the striped fabric and some felt using Heat n Bond and then top-stitched around the edges. Then I stitched on a piece of elastic. Simple but bold. I'm excited to think what the boys think. Who doesn't love to wear a crown?

I'm sure there are lots of great tutorials online for making capes but I was too busy to look for one! One of my faults--I bulldoze into something instead of taking the time to do a bit of research that could potentially shorten my production time. But it worked. This is a super-hero style cape, off-the-shoulders, rather than a magician style full cape with collar. I just cut a shape that is shoulder width at the top and flares out to the bottom and hits a kindergarten child about mid-calf. Then I sewed a 4 inch tab on one side of the top edge of the cape and attached some squares of velcro to the tab and then other edge of the cape.  Seemed the easiest solution to get the capes on and off do-it-yourself style and hopefully it will hold up in the production. It's my first time at this kindergarten rodeo.

My real fear is that Audrey will be sorely disappointed that she doesn't get to wear the capes and crowns. Maybe I should have volunteered to do the tutus...