Suuuper Caaapes!

Please tell me you read that in the Superman voice-over voice, because that's how it was written!

Anyhoo, about a month ago, I discover Pinterest. It is the most dangerous website on the planet, as it gives you all of this false motivation that you're actually capable of doing crafts, making adorable cupcakes, cooking gourmet meals and dressing impeccably. I've gotten sucked into the cooking, baking and crafting section. I saw a how-to on taking old t-shirts and turning them into capes, and another how-to on stenciling using freezer paper. Since I haven't the foggiest idea what freezer paper is, and I have Glad Press'n Seal (which I HATE for using on food, love for using on non-food things), I figured I'd give this a shot.

I bought 2 cheapy t-shirts at Walmart, since the boys wanted particular colors, removed the sleeves and the front, leaving just the neck hole attached to the back. Instant cape! For safety's sake, I'm going to cut the neck, glue in some velcro, so it's quick release (that's the engineer in me coming out).

To make the stencils, I went on line and found black and white versions of the logos the boys requests. Then, I just covered the logo with the Press'n Seal (from here on out PNS, cause I'm tired of typing Press'n Seal already).



Then, just cut out the logo, keeping the parts that you want to leave UNPAINTED. I know, stencils are backwards. There's a 50% chance you're going to get the negative image of what you were going for. Lie, say it was on purpose!

Now, here's the hard part. Peel the PNSoff the paper. Easy, right? HA! I ended up using the universal solvent: Mom Spit. Just wet the paper a bit, and it'll peel right off the PNS.

Attach the PNS to the shirt, adjusting as needed. With the Superman logo, I reassembled the whole logo on the cape, then attached one PNS at a time in the empty hole. Everything was pretty darn close to even.



Walmart only had spray on fabric paint, so I sprayed then used a foam brush to even it out.



Due to the dark color of the capes, I used about 4 coats (spray, brush, repeat). I let the paint dry just long enough to wash the brush, and then removed the PNS. Yippee!! It worked!



The details aren't terribly crisp around the edges, but, it came out pretty darn well.



Ok, the bat's ears are barely there, but MY batman is 4. From his point of view, I just made him something that can deflect bullets.