I swear, as soon as I utter the words, "I don't feel like sewing" - BAM! I have an idea that must be executed NOW.
A few days ago I was up making my coffee, etc and about passed out from my big, fluffy fleece robe. Ah-ha! I need a summer robe! yes! That will be my next project!
I picked up M6659 recently, after it was pointed out on Sew Sorry, Sew Fat (the GOMI blog) that this was similar to the Carolyn pj's in style. I will never make a full pj shirt like that as I would never, ever sleep in that. But the shorts, pants and robe definitely caught my eye.
I begin searching through the stash to find a cut of fabric that would work for the robe. It needed to be light but opaque and breathable. I had no 3 yard cuts that would suffice and decided I would see what Hancock had to offer since they had an additional 25% off fabric coupon available.
I found this linen/rayon blend on the Spot the Bolt table for... $1.79/yd!!!!! score!!!! The additional percent off didn't play but still. I bought all 4 yards.
This was on Thursday which, I immediately took it home and washed and dried it knowing I was going to sew the robe on Friday (I am typing this in my new robe by the way!).
My fabric was only 50" wide so I used almost the entire cut. There are a few decent sized scraps that can be used for contrast facings, etc. That front pattern piece is really wide so beware when choosing fabric.
Particulars:
Size 16
Added 3" to the length of view A
Shortened the sleeves over 2"
Added belt carriers
Added in seam pockets
Added a loop for hanging
It's so cool and comfortable!!!
I "drafted" (haha!) the pocket from the existing robe and placed it based on the existing robe placement
Do you see the sleeve length?!? I removed 2 inches at the l/s line and then hemmed it 1 1/4" instead of 5/8". These sleeves are LONG! I was always pushing my robe sleeves up so that prompted my decision to shorten them.
I used hot pink ready-made piping and absolutely love it! I sewed the piping to the band and used handy wonder tape to hold the piped band and robe front together.
Also, those sleeves went in EFFORTLESSLY! YES!
The belt loops needed to be placed about 2" higher, OY! I made 6" loops and caught them in the side seam. Since they are loose, I can pull them up into place just fine...
You can see the inseam pocket as well...
I almost forgot my hanging loop!!! This was a tube that was turned out as well...
Before I had thought about it, I'd sewn to the two sides of the belt and turned them. Oops...I need to attach them to each other! I decided against 'fiddly' and just turned in about 3/8" on one side and slid the other open end into that one.
I did three lines of top stitching to secure.
hey, this is the back...and it's a robe...no one will know (or care!) :)
I did what felt like endless miles of slip stitching to secure the band. I wanted so badly to stitch in the ditch but with the piping it was so danged fiddly that it made more sense to do it by hand as suggested.
I worked on it Saturday evening while watching 27 Dresses.
Lastly, on the sleeve, I serged the end and turned up 1 1/4" and twin needle topstitched. On the bottom hem, I serged but did a double turned hem, also twin needle top stitched.
Did you notice my thread colors? Yeah, I didn't! LOL!
So a word of caution about just grabbing two of the 'same' thread spools...people put them back randomly I suppose. I'd bought these for my magenta coat but only ended up using one spool thankfully.
Verdict: LOVE!!
