How to Create a Superhero Backdrop

By now I hope you have seen my other ideas for hosting a superhero party. I will provide links at the end of this post just in case you haven’t seen these yet. They should help you in all of your superhero pursuits. The next post I bring you in my superhero party tutorials contains my ideas about how to create a superhero backdrop.

The superhero food table is what I will show you first. The components are the hanging background and tablecloth. I can tell you that my sewing skills are really basic. I am self-taught and often just make things up as I go along. I also look up directions for things I don’t know how to do. My point is, even with just elementary skills you can create this look. The table cloth was made for a standard 6 foot, plastic, folding buffet table. The wall hanging was 88 inches long.

How much fabric do you need? I needed the same amount of fabric for the blue and red. The table cloth rectangle (for blue and red) was 34.5″L x 51″H. This accounts for the overhang. The wall section (for blue and red) was 32″L x 60″H, which accounts for it being a bit longer than the table on either side. The black cloth was a different size than the other because I didn’t have to account for the overhang on either side. I did add an inch for seam allowance. Therefore, the black for the tablecloth was 25″L x 50″H. The black cloth for the Wall was 25″L  x 60″H. I’m not that familiar with fabric, so I just went into the fabric store and said I wanted the most inexpensive fabric for a tablecloth. I’m sure your store can point you in the right direction and help you figure out yardage based on the dimensions I’m providing today.

Here are the drawings of the dimensions (not drawn to scale). I am sorry for the chicken scratch-type drawings that might make no sense to you. It was just me trying to figure everything out, and I thought it might be helpful for you if you decide to create this backdrop.

Once I had the fabric all cut, I sewed the pieces together where the colors would meet. Where the seams join can look really wrinkled and pull weird. The best way to handle this is to flip the fabric over, open the seam so that the seam color folds over onto its own color and iron down the center. You’ll have a nice flat finish.

I then double folded (I believe it was a 1/4″ seam allowance…I don’t know what is typical) around the outer edge of the entire tablecloth or wall hanging and sewed the edge. I ironed the whole piece so it would lay flat. 

The final step was to add the ribbon. I lined up the ribbon, pinned it in place and then just did one stitch down the center with black thread. It looked fine, but I probably would have liked it better if I had done two stitches down the outer side of the ribbon. 

There you have the final product. The wall and table cloth will look the same but be different dimensions, as indicated above. 

The next part of creating the backdrop included using a projector that my husband borrowed from his office. You can do your best to draw it or have a printing company print things out in large format to your desired size. I projected the image of the spiderman, batman symbol and superman symbol to the correct size. For the spiderman, I used Sharpie to mark the lines of the spider web.

Then, I used yarn and fabric glue to attach the web to the guidelines i had drawn.

My husband and I actually worked together to make this happen. I’m sure he thinks my ideas are a little crazy, but he is a wonderfully supportive man who comes alongside to help make my big ideas come to reality.

Here’s the final look of the web. Again, if you don’t have a projector, you can make a spiderweb by cutting out yarn of the same length and then make a pizza shape by criss-crossing right in the center. Use u-shaped curves starting out the center and working out to the final circle edge.  

I projected the spider image onto black felt and traced it with white chalk. I then cut it out and used fabric glue to glue it to the center of the web. I repeated the process of projection, cutting out and gluing down for the Spiderman and Batman symbols as well.

Here’s the final look once everything is glued down. It created a great backdrop for our Spiderman party.

EVA Foam Handicraft Sheets (80 Pack – 8.25 x 6 inches) Assorted Colorful Crafting Sponge for DIY Projects, Classroom, Parties and More by My Toy House | Thick and Soft Paper, 10 Colors 8 Pieces EachRed Fun Foam Sheet 9Craft Foam Sheets-12 x 18 Inches – Yellow – 5 Sheets-2 MM ThickDarice 2mm Foamie Roll, 36-Inch by 60-Inch, BlackFoamies Foam Sheet: Royal Blue, 2mm thick, 9 x 12 inchesCraft And Party, 54Craft And Party, 54Craft And Party, 54Creative Ideas Solid Grosgrain Ribbon, 1-1/2-Inch by 50-Yard, Canary YellowRed Heart Yarn Super Saver Yarn 312 Black, TealBulk Buy: Darice DIY Crafts Stiff Felt Sheet Black 12 x 18 inches (5-Pack) FLT-0332Beacon Fabri-Tac Permanent Adhesive, 4-Ounce (FT4D)CPE Decorator Felt, 36 x 36 in, YellowNu-Source Inc. 100% ACRYLIC FELT-1062, 72

The other backdrop I created was a lot less involved than the first. In fact, it’s really easy and doesn’t cost very much. I bought foam rectangles at Michael’s craft store. These were $0.99 each, I believe. You can find these on Amazon too for even cheaper. I also used black felt, but you could easily use foam as well. That would be probably be better.

I bought foam rectangles at Michael’s craft store. These were $0.99 each, I believe You can find these on Amazon too for even cheaper. I used black felt for the windows, but you could easily use foam as well. It would be probably better that way, but I do like how the thinner felt fit well as shadows behind the other colorful buildings.

The next step is to just cut out the shapes of your buildings from the foam. 

I just made up the shapes and silhouettes based on other images I saw as I searched for superhero cityscape on Google images. 

I made a variety of building shapes in the blue, yellow and red colors.

The final step was to cut out all of the felt fabric windows to glue down to the foam with fabric glue. I also cut out black rectangles to create the shadows of other buildings behind the colorful ones. I hung these all on the wall with painter’s tape.

This backdrop became the background for our eating table, but you could easily use this behind your own food table too. I hope you have found this helpful – whether you are going to go the more involved route or the easy as pie route (I never early understood that term…is pie that easy to make?).

For More Posts on our Superhero Party:

Superhero Party Invitations

Superhero Party Food

Superhero Party Ideas

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