Black Adam likes to fight!

My nephew turns 3 today. How time flies! I feel like he was just born, yet here we are celebrating his birthday. What a spunky kid, and so funny. Just this past weekend, he was telling me that he is trying to grow a beard. Okay three year old!

Trying on a pipe cleaner moustache

One thing my nephew loves is super heroes. He has a collection of "his guys" that he just adores. Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, and a ninja turtle. But lately, he is obsessed with Black Adam. I know what you're thinking.... Who?! 

Black Adam is a villain that likes to fight. This picture of him is from a book my nephew has, and I guess it just resonated with him! And it seems like he is not very well known. So of course my nephew likes him. His previous favourite person was Roy Orbison. He has very esoteric tastes for a 3 year old! Since he is a rather obscure character, it isn't possible to find a Black Adam version of "his guys."  So, in typical Auntie Laura fashion, I made him one!

I used his Superman guy as the basis to design and make a pattern for Black Adam. 

Superman has the tiniest waist

Using black, yellow, and cream colours of fleece, I cut out all my pieces. 

A whole heck of a lot of fleece!

The fleece was very thick, and I had a hard time seeing through it to trace the face for embroidery. But I had a brainstorm to take it to work and use one of our old xray viewers as a light box, and it worked great! The face I embroidered is very similar to Superman's face. The eyebrows are more evil though. 

I tried very hard to be generous with my seam allowances this time around. I find I so often don't allow for enough space around the face, and it looks squashed when I sew it all together. 

Black Adam looks a little like Spock...

I put everything all together in a similar fashion to how I made my other dolls, which was a mistake in hindsight. After I had constructed the arms and legs separately, I realized that the Superman guy was made by making a front and a back and sewing them together. Ah well, it just meant a little more handsewing than I was hoping to do, but in the end, I think he turned out great! 

Full length view

Close up on those quilted cuffs

Black Adam likes to Fight!

I was going to make my nephew a Black Adam tshirt with the leftover yellow fleece, but apparently it is impossible to find plain black toddler tshirts. I did manage to find some more Black Adam pants for him (aka black sweatpants), so at least he can rotate through a few pairs while the others are in the wash. 

So Happy Birthday to a great little guy! Let's hope this year brings as much fun and laughs as the last two did!