When I asked my dear friend what her soon-to-be-six-year-old son Ethan would like for his birthday she told me he would like some sort of super hero cape. “It can be really simple” she said, even though she and I both know that is something I can rarely manage. I get in the flow and half a day later I’m done.

But these are really great friends and their son was worth it. So we found a generic cape pattern in the costume pattern section of the fabric store. I decided on a reversible cape because it needed to be lined anyway I told myself. Super heros can’t fray you know. Graphic design whiz Bill developed a super hero logo for Ethan.

We printed it out on one of those sheets for doing photos on fabric (Timeless Treasures for inkjet printers) which is washable. This is important given that our super hero has to make trips to the grocery store, the library, the park, guitar lessons and Grandma’s house. We used fusible stuff (HeatBond Ultra Hold) to stick it on the cape and top stitched it to the one side before sewing it to the other.

And of course it needed a hood and Batman fabric lining for his alter ego. To prevent our hero from choking while saving the world, we nixed the tie around the neck and used Velcro tabs instead. A strip of grosgrain ribbon concealed the raw edges where the hood meets the cape.

It’s a lot of work but when you see a 6-year old boy wearing a black cape at noon on a hot, sunny day in June and loving it, you know it was worth the trouble.

Has everybody seen this but me? Did y’all know there was online treehugger TV? Well there is, and I am stoked about it. So far I’ve only watched one of their episodes, the one on sustainable style, but so far I am very impressed.

This here is Jill Danyelle who narrates the episode, leading us through the world of recycled clothing and sustainable style. Danyelle also runs a site called fiftyRX3, where the tagline reads “perusing the crossroads of style and sustainability”. Her own site, danyelle.org says this about her:

Her interest in design and environmentalism has led her to investigate methods for creating products which are sustainable without sacrificing aesthetics.

And she seems to be succeeding. Check out her featured recycled project for December:

Dudes, she made this out of old umbrella fabric. How awesome is that?