Tuesday, August 31, 2010

How I made a Jedi Robe

So, my son wants to be a Jedi for Halloween.  Being the crafty gal that I am I decided to make his costume.  Now I know it isn't even September yet, but I am too OCD to wait.  Plus, in case this was a total fail I wanted to have time to find a non-fail costume.  Lucky me this robe turned out great!  Will just have to make another one for my youngest son plus the tunic things that go with them. 

I had looked all over for a good pattern but the only one I found looked more like a wizard robe than a Jedi robe.  I also found a sort of Dracula robe pattern, but it looked pretty hard (I am not that great of a seamstress).  Google to the rescue! After searching a ton of different websites,  I found some easy(and full of the awesome) instructions HERE.  

 I did things a little differently than they described, namely folding the material in half again so that I got things pretty symmetrical.  I also fashioned a pattern out of some tissue paper so that I have something to go by for future robe making.  Z wasn't home to trace so I used my smaller son as a model.  The only supplies used were 3 yards of brown cotton fabric, brown thread, and 2 sheets of tissue paper for my "pattern".

Here are some pictures:




First I folded the fabric so that the neck is on a fold and then folded again so that the middle is on a fold.  Then pinned on the pattern.  (I got scared at the last second that this would be too small so moved the pattern down and over to the right a little)

Cut it out!  To make the neck hole, I put a shirt where the neck goes (folded in half long ways) and traced it.

Viola!  I cut the bottom a little rounded on the corner. This was a little long, so before hemming cut off a couple inches.


Haha here is my sad attempt to show where you sew up the sides and hem the rough edges.  After sewing up the sides, turn it right side out so that your seams are on the inside of the robe.  Then hem the rough edges and cut the front for the robe opening and  hem those sides up too.
I was totally intimidated by the hood for some reason, but needlessly so!  It was actually pretty easy.  Take another largish piece of fabric, fold in half and cut out a square, so when you unfold it you have a nice rectangle.  I made mine 14x14 inches and it is nice and big.  (unfolded I guess that would be 28x14 inches. After sewing up the side, turn inside out and then hem the other side.  The bottom gets sewn to the robe.   In the photo I marked where you sew and hem and where the fold is. 
The finished product!!   I will add some Velcro to close the robe once I get the tunic part made.  Overall I am very happy with how this turned out and my little padawan loves it!

3 comments:

  1. Okay, I need some of your OCD-ness. Last year I was too lazy to do anything and felt bad the day of Halloween, ran to Gap and grabbed him a halloween shirt.

    Looks great girl!

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  2. I think as long as they get some candy they are happy! Thanks for commenting!!

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  3. Thank you so much for this tutorial. I read it last night and today my son has a Jedi robe! Attaching hoodie seemed a little tricky but not when I actually started doing it. Happy Halloween to you and your family.
    Tasha

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