DIY Fabric Butterfly Cape

After having changed his mind at least four times, my son has finally decided that he wants to be a butterfly for Halloween.  Luckily, it wasn't too difficult to whip up a butterfly wing cape for his costume.

I began by taking measurements of his arm span and back neckline.  I used these to draw a half wing.

Free hand your pattern.  You can see mine is very rough.

I folded 1 1/2 yards of black cotton fabric in half and then in half again. Placing the half wing on the folded edges, I cut out the pattern.  This creates two sets of wings for the cape. One set will become the outside and the other the lining. 

Next, I free handed some shapes for the wing details.

I cut four of each shape from yellow and orange cotton fabric in order to cover the outside of the cape and the lining.

The middle section was a bit bare, so I cut two wedges from the yellow fabric.

When all of the pieces were cut, I pinned them to the wings.  As much as possible, I tried to make the pattern symmetrical on each side.

To install the applique, I chose to straight stitch around all of the edges.  If you have some time, you could do a zigzag stitch, which would keep the edges from fraying. You could also glue them on with fabric glue to save time.

Oops.  Don't make the same mistake I did and sew over the edge of the wing.

Once all the orange pieces were stitched on, I stitched on the yellow.

Whew!  It did take some time (and patience) to stitch on all 22 pieces.  But the finished result looked great.  It was now time to stitch the sides together, right sides facing. Leaving the collar open, I stitched around all of the edges. 

Now you can see why I wanted to add a lining.

Because there are points and curves, I snipped the outer edges about every two inches or so to allow for some flexibility.  I was careful not to cut the seam.

Snip into each peak, making sure not to cut the seam.

Next, I turned it right side out through the open collar.

Very carefully, I pushed out the edges while I ironed them flat.  Then I stitched around the outer edges, wrong sides facing.  Again, I kept the collar open.

Stitch around outer edges.  This helps the cape to lay flat.

Now for the collar.  I stitched white bias tape around the edges, leaving about a foot and a half on each side for ties.

Open one side of bias and stitch it onto the edges of the cape.

After one side of the bias was sewn, I flipped it over the edge of the collar to the other side and stitched it down.  This split the bias in half, so I stitched down to the end on both sides to make the ties.

At the end of the cape sleeve line, I added elastic bands.  This allows my son to flap his butterfly wings, as all two year olds love to do.

I wanted these wings to look a little more butterflyish, so I added white dots and black lines with multi-surface paint.

The cape was a huge success with my son and his adorable little friend.  They took turns wearing it and "flying" around.  So precious!

I loved making my son's Halloween costume this year.  What's your all-time favorite homemade costume?