I have been putting off making this announcement because I’m really sad that I’m going to be taking a break from Superhero Cape making. I have a good reason though – I’m going to have my 2nd baby in about a month! As much as I want to keep sewing – my big belly is making it harder and harder to cut fabric and sit at my machine and sew!

Right now I’m only going to be taking new orders until August 5th, 2009 and then not opening up again until sometime around the beginning of October. If you have any birthdays or celebrations coming up in August, September or October that you’d like to have a cape for – please order early so I have enough time to get them done for you! Depending on how my recovery goes I might take a longer break – so order now so I don’t accidentally miss out on getting you outfitted with an awesome Superhero cape!

Also, looking ahead to the Christmas season – if you place & pay for an order with me by my August 5th cutoff date that is for a Christmas gift (meaning it will have a guaranteed delivery date to you of December 15th, 2009) you’ll get a 10% discount on your order total. I expect to be even busier with this years Christmas gift rush than I was last year, and with a newborn in the house I might have to have an even earlier cut off date than I did last year (December 1st). If you already know you’d like a cape for a Christmas gift you could do me a big favor by placing an order early and help me plan ahead a little bit – and get 10% off in the mean time.

Thanks to all my great customers – I’ve had such a great time in the past year making hundreds of capes for your little Superheroes – and I can’t wait to be back soon with a new little Superhero of my own.

Mr. Random Generator pulled #27 – so our winner is RACHEL who said “my fam makes me happy!”

Rachel, hopefully there’s someone in your family who is a Superhero in training – because you’re the lucky recipient of my very first pre-made capes! I’ll email you! :)

Thanks to everyone that entered and made this Giveaway Day so fun, and thanks to Sew, Mama, Sew for organizing it all!

The giveaway is now closed! Thanks for all that entered – I’ll post and notify the winner tomorrow!

Thanks for visiting my little shop here on the web where I make and sell custom Superhero Capes for kids! I hand make all the capes myself from my home using only the best methods and materials. I believe every child is a Superhero and doesn’t need a cape to prove it — but has so much more fun with a colorful, rad cape flying behind them. :)

I’m taking this opportunity to debut my brand new product: Ready-to-Ship capes! I have so many orders for custom capes that keep me busy, I often have a production turnaround time of up to two weeks! This works for most people, but sometimes people need a cape that can be shipped out to them same day for a birthday party that weekend! That’s where the Ready-to-Ship capes come in. They’re still made by me with the same high level of workmanship, but they don’t come with an initial on them & you don’t get to customize the different fabrics and colors. They’re just that — premade and Ready-to-Ship!

Here’s a sneak peek, but look for more Ready-to-Ship capes being posted in the coming days. (Make sure to subscribe to my blog through your RSS feeder so you don’t miss any of my upcoming posts!)

Just leave a comment on this post stating one thing that makes you happy. That’s it! One comment per person, winner will be chosen and notified on June 1st via the random number generator. Winner gets their choice of ONE of the Ready-to-Ship capes above. International entrants welcome!

Thanks for stopping by Plum Pear Apple! Now go back to the Sew, Mama, Sew blog to enter to win more great stuff!

Things have been busy around the Plum Pear Apple Studios … we’ve got a lot of fun things in the works so stay tuned for some exciting announcements coming up in the next few weeks. Capes have been literally flying out of here … here are a few of my recent favorites. An order for twins:

One of my favorite fabric combinations:

A nice and plain red and blue:

An “M” for a Mighty cape:

It seems like all I do these days is blog about all the wonderful sites my capes are being featured on! I can’t help it – I love to give away capes. And I love even more that awesome websites want to feature my capes and have them be a part of their great giveaways and celebrations!

Today marks the one year blogging anniversary of the website “I Never Grew Up“. Vanessa’s website is one that I have been following from the start – partly because she lives about 2 miles from me (gotta support the locals!) and partly because her website is amazing! She is a great mother and has TONS of ideas for crafts, games, learning activities and outings. She puts together local Art Days and Nature Days to get kids learning about art and nature and she hosted a “Sharing is Caring” project last holiday season organizing a Sub for Santa program through the United Way. How could I not want to support this amazing woman!?

So welcome to all my new visitors from the I Never Grew Up’s Birthday Bash – I hope you find my capes as fun and inspiring and happy as I do!

Remember to go back to Plum Pear Apple’s giveaway page at I Never Grew Up to leave your comment – and visit all the other great giveaways that are a part of the celebration!

Welcome Little Window Shoppe readers!

Have you all heard of the Little Window Shoppe? It’s a GREAT website highlighting all the different little boutiques & businesses out there. But they do so much more than that … they’ve got a blog where they highlight great recipes, crafts and projects, they’ve got hook up’s for super discounts, and they host the BEST giveaways!

Today they’re having a contest where you can enter to win TWO of my Superhero capes! You win one for your own little Superhero and then you also get to custom design one for your little Superhero’s partner in crime — whether that be a best friend, sibling, cousin or even just another deserving child you know of.

Thanks for visiting my site – I hope you have a look around and like the capes that you see – and even more than that, I hope you visit Little Window Shoppe’s giveaway and win! I’d love to help you design a cape for your Superhero!

Can you believe that we made it through December? I can barely believe it! Here’s Mason helping me get ready for one of the last trips to the post office to mail capes for Christmas delivery — there were about 30 packages in this trip alone — most with multiples capes!

I can’t complain though – I am flattered that my capes are so well-loved and are adorning the necks of more and more little Superheroes out there.

I think I am caught up on all my emails, too, so if you are expecting a reply from me and haven’t gotten one – PLEASE forgive me and email me again – it might have gotten lost in the Bermuda Spam Triangle or been mistakenly marked “read” by me. I tend to do my emailing late at night and sometimes I am a little too tired for my own good.

Cape production is back to 7-10 days – and I’m working on getting a bunch of new fabrics photographed and posted in the fabric gallery. Thanks to all my great customers who blog about and tell their friends about my Superhero capes – I couldn’t do it without you!

A post here is long overdue! What can I say, I’ve been INCREDIBLY busy sewing. I absolutely LOVE making these capes for all the little Superheroes out there – but whew! It’s a busy life. Now I know how Edna Mode must feel (get it – Edna Mode, the Superhero outfit maker on the Incredibles!)

I’ve decided to extend my holiday cut off date until DECEMBER 1ST, 2008. This means, if I get your order by midnight, December 1st, I’ll fulfill your order and have it to you no later than December 20th, 2008. If you’re thinking about ordering a cape for Christmas – please order early. That will help me out tons in getting fabric and knowing how much more sewing I have to do.

Here’s another example of a custom cape I did – it’s got 2 emblems on it. I love the way these turn out, the double layer (triple if you count the letters) really makes the emblem thick and sturdy.

Also – if you’re waiting on an email from me – it’s coming, I promise! My inbox is overflowing and I’m trying to weed through them and get them all sorted and answered.

I always wish I had the time to take a picture of every single cape I make – but it’s just not possible. But this one was just too cute to not document! I love the Rainbow Hearts and Stars fabric and it just goes so cute with the turquoise. This just proves that girls don’t need pastels and soft colors – bright, punchy colors look awesome for them, too!

That’s how the first email I received about the “Obama Cape” started — “A Very Special Cape”. And was it ever!

A few weeks ago I got an email asking if I could do a custom cape for one of the members of Senator Obama’s field campaign in Florida. The email went on to explain that most of the staff members had been putting in 16-18 hour days for months … and that at the beginning of the campaign, she had said that all the field organizers (for both campaigns) should feel like Superheroes because of all the hard work they had been putting in.

So a bunch of her co-workers wanted to surprise her on Election Day and present her with a handmade, custom, beautiful Superhero Cape … and they wanted ME to make it! They gave me a rough sketch of what they wanted the logo to look like and the wording to say … but above and beyond that they basically gave me artistic freedom to create it however I wanted.

I was THRILLED they had found and asked me. I was TERRIFIED – I had never made an adult size cape, let alone one that was as intricate and detailed as this one. But most of all I was ENERGIZED – what an awesome way I could put my own little mark on this historic election and donate a little of my time to such a great cause.

It turned out to truly be a group effort. I had my mother in law helping me come up with a pattern for an adult cape, my mom cutting the intricate tiny little letters, my brother in law modeling the mock-up we made for sizing, my sister in law pinning and cutting, my husband encouraging me and staying up to talk to me and let me bounce ideas off him … but it was all worth it. It turned out so great!

“Botts” is the nickname of the staff member who is now a TRUE Superhero. “Team Florida” is to represent her wonderful team she works with. The 27 is to represent the 27 electoral votes Florida has. And of course, the Barack Obama campaign logo we’re all so familiar with.

I am so happy that I had the chance to work on this special project. Angela, if you read this, I hope that this Superhero Cape brings you much joy – I know your coworkers were excited to make this a reality for you – you can tell they really appreciate you!

Here’s to the end of an exciting Presidential campaign and a new President of the United States of America!