the out-of-this-world robe

So, I completely forgot I had never posted about this! Emily and I decided that Evan needed a new robe for Xmas (believe me, he did) and we wanted to make him one. I actually had a couple of vintage patterns for men's robes and picked this one to make:



It's Simplicity 2312 from 1957 - note that it comes with a smoking jacket version! Fancy! Emily picked out a flannel at Joann's that she liked (a cool outer-space theme) and we got to work. There were a few surprises along the way - for one, I hadn't bothered to actually look at the pattern's instructions or anything (I'm lucky the pieces were all there!) and it was a lot more detailed than I realized. The sleeves are cut in two pieces and fitted at elbow and shoulder, and the belt is permanently fastened on carriers instead of threaded through loops. I didn't think that would hold up, but it's actually much nicer than the usual loop system. In general the pattern was much easier to use and better designed than I expected (or would have gotten from a modern pattern). It's almost scary how easily a truly well-drafted pattern goes together!

The bad surprise -- the fabric we picked from Joanns was not as nice as we thought -- it was narrower than it was supposed to be and shrank like crazy! I had to go back for more, and lucky for us there was some left. I also ended up interfacing and topstitching it to reinforce the fabric. As it is, I'm not sure how long it'll hold up. But so far it's doing pretty well.

And the end result made everyone happy!



I really loved making up this pattern, and unless Evan is lying, he loves the robe. Emily loved helping! A win-win all around. And maybe next year....the smoking jacket!