Over the summer I bought the Suki Robe pattern by Helen’s Closet, printed and assembled, cut two versions, and sewed them up in about a month. (ETA Helen has removed this pattern from the Helen’s Closet roster, so I can’t link you to it. Helen suggests the Lahja Dressing Gown from Named Clothing as an alternative.)
It’s one of the only things I actually finished on my Summer Sewing list.
As I mentioned, I made two. One that’s actually a dressing robe and one that’s more pretty and decorative.
Both were made from stash fabrics, though the dressing gown has sleeves made from rayon leftover from a dress that I cut out at the same time. The decorative one is made out of a delicate silk (I think, at least), and the dressing gown was produced from a polyester that has just a bit of grip to it.
Cutting them out went smoothly, except for not having quite enough fabric for either one. Darn stash fabric. So the dressing robe got contrasting sleeves, and the decorative robe got a slimmed down front panel that just has the neckband, and not the corner detail, like it mentioned in this hack post.
The dressing robe was sewn on a machine with French seams in about 4 hours, and it was awesome. Quick, everything lined up, etc. I did have trouble with the inset corner dealio, but the steps were well laid out, I just got a little cocky. And didn’t follow them well.
After finishing it, I put it on for pretty much the rest of the day, and it was fun swooshing around the apartment. And up until winter hit, I wore it most mornings…
The second one, the decorative one, was slower. The fabric was so delicate that I wanted to sew it by hand. Each seam was sewn with a backstitch, then I roll “hemmed” the seam allowance down to finish the seam. The neckband was only slightly difficult, as I had to match the rolling a couple times that didn’t quite match up. Every edge that was not a seam was rolled as well, except for the hem where I used the selvedge.
So that was the summer. And these robes are great!
But then it got cold… So I bought some fuzzy fleece and some minky (Yay 50% off at Joann’s!) and got to work. (You know… About a month after actually buying the fleece.)
I cut out the full pattern as designed this time, but didn’t look up the instructions because I was honestly too cold to waste the time… I keep my apartment cool in the winter to save energy and money, but it does mean that I’m wearing a blanket while doing pretty much anything… Let’s not talk about how I got powdered sugar on my blanket wrap on Thanksgiving… So I needed this robe asap! I also didn’t press any seams, mostly because I was lazy, but also I gave myself the excuse that I didn’t know if I’d melt anything or lose the pile on the minky.
And I’ve almost never taken off the robe since… Okay. I’ve gone to work. But once I get home, the robe is first step… Maybe second after slippers.
Now let me find my vacuum so I can get rid of all the minky fuzz…