Sewing adventures: Super hero – top and leggings

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Super hero top and leggings

Pattern:  drafted using old clothes

Fabric:

Stretch Lame Knit in Turqouise and Fuschia

Metallic Spandex knit Gold

/ all from Fabric.com

If you like us on Facebook you already know the sewing of the birthday outfit has begun :) Today I’m showing you the simpler parts of it, the top and the leggings.

Instead of a pattern, I used the little one’s clothes to cut out the patterns. This post on drafting your own pattern from Schwin & Schwin helped.

Leggings were super simple, I used an old pair of hers to trace them and it worked like a charm. Important thing when working with spandex: make sure you cut so the stretch is where you need it to be. I had to re-cut the leggings because the first time around I cut with the stretch length wise, instead of width wise.

Because of her non-existent waist I didn’t even need to run an elastic in the waistband, I just hemmed it. Main reason I love these type of fabrics is that I didn’t have to hem the bottoms of the leggings, a clean straight cut was fine and there is no fraying going on.

For the top I used a sleeveless top to trace and I added about an inch all around, as well as about 3 inches to the length because I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t be too short. It fits her perfectly and as you can see I didn’t hem any edges on it either.

The straps are there for the cape. Cut a strip of fabric and sew it in a tube. Flip the tubes over so they are the right side out,  when sewing the top include the straps between the two sides and voila- you have a way of tying the cape without complaints about it being tight around the little one’s throat!

Do not try to sew the spandex on it’s right side, trust me you will regret it. It’s too sticky to allow the sewing foot to glide over the fabric. Or maybe that’s just my machine, if so please let me know in the comments :)

For this reason I almost gave up on attaching the star and initial but then I remembered I have  sticky hemming tape, the iron on kind. The star and the letter were made in Illustrator, so I could have the perfect shape pattern.

Very important! Do not iron spandex directly, I didn’t have a gauze type of fabric so I used a sheet of  tissue paper. Place your pieces of hemming tape in place, cover with tissue paper and iron. Do not steam it and do not keep the iron on it long because it will start melting even through the paper. I did about two star tips at a time, and for the letter it was each line separately.

I love how these came out, please share your own super hero outfits in the comments.

Next up: the cape and the skirt :)