Holy Moly, Elijah's Been in School 100 Days!

How in the WORLD is my little super hero over half way through kindergarten?  It doesn't seem possible.  Well, being a teacher I know what a BIG deal the 100th day of school is during the primary grades.  I want Elijah to have a great first experience. So we've been planning this for a while.

 I can sew.  I really can.  I learned at Grandma Stringfield's house wearing a tiny little thimble called my "sew finger".  But... there is no way I am going to sew 100 buttons or ribbons on a t-shirt.  Thankfully Elijah wasn't going for that idea anyway.  I almost had him talked into glueing 100 feathers on a Native American Vest (made from crinkled up paper grocery sack).

BUT

The note his teacher sent home said T-SHIRT; therefore, he was fairly adamant that whatever we did must be on an an actual t-shirt.  I sure they wouldn't have minded the paper vest.  But alas, it was an argument I couldn't win.    

I saw my dreams of a wonderful 100th day of school going up in smoke.  

Then this flew by.

Was it a bird, a plane?  No, It was Elijah in his t-shirt cape.  What did I say "t-shirt cape"?

Ding, Ding, Ding.....  We have a winner.

In my first few weeks on pinterest I found a tutorial on how to create a cape from old t-shirts. (As soon as I find the blog I'll link it in!)   We have made a TON of these t-shirt capes.  I find them laying around everywhere.  Do you have any idea how many secret lairs I have in my house?  You'd be surprised.  Trust me.   

Because Elijah's capes are made from his Daddy old shirts, they are very long.  So on our last trip to Walmart we picked up a tank top that was on the clearance rack.  On that same trip Elijah also decided that sticker glitter stars were a great addition to his cape.  I encouraged this because it did not require me threading a needle or ironing 100 times.  

Here's how we made the cape.  

The front of the tank.  This will be cut off.  So, it doesn't matter what it looks like. 

Here's the back of the tank.  My little super hero picked this one out because he said it looked like the "old batman" on Netflix.  

Cut up one arm-hole towards the neck.  Then cut around the neck.  You want to leave the neck in place so your super hero can slip the cape over his/her head. 

After you cut around the neck (it is flipped up in this picture), cut down the seam of the shirt.  

So, you'll be left with something that looks like this.  Then you just cut down the other seam of the shirt.  

Finally, you'll be left with this.  A cape and a scrap.  

Then my little super hero diligently counted out 100 stars............

Then he checked his counting with a calculator (iPhone).

And put them on his cape.  I suggested an array model of 10 x 10.  Trying to toss a little number sense in there.  He wanted to do abstract random design.  

We went with abstract random.  I think he was right.  It looks more like a super hero.  

There was one problem.  We had a bit of a blank space.  But never fear...  We had a plan.  Remember when I said Elijah chose that cape because it looked like Batman's?  He helped me pick out this image that we printed on Avery's iron transfer paper and ironed onto his cape. 

Holy Moly, Elijah!  You've been in school 100 days!

*Two quick notes about image transfer... Be sure to reverse the image (I did this in powerpoint) and take all of the water out of the iron out before you try to iron the image on.  

More pics of the happy super hero!  

Whew.... I don't know about you but I'm worn out.