dormenightgownrobe

My daughter and I both fell for this costume. As I've mentioned before, I like long, flowing nightgowns and this one fits that nicely.

Nightgown: This gown is high-necked and long. The sleeves are possibly loose, like Padme's Coruscant nightgown, but could be made however one is most comfortable. The fabric appears to have a light ribbing to it or a striped pattern and looks to be light and 'drapey'.

Pattern: After much consideration, I decided to recycle the Simplicity 4443 pattern, view A. I' narrowed the sleeves a little, omitted the hood, belt, and zipper and made a small allowance in the neckline and collar for no zipper (not too difficult with a stretchy knit).

Fabric: I found two different ones, both knit and having a slightly textured, white on white stripe. One is very silky with almost a sheen to it and the other only soft with stripes that have a velvety feel to them. Both drape well against the body. Best of all, both were at JoAnns on their super clearance for a little over $1.00 a yard. I bought all they had of each. The fabric for the velvety stripe is on the left, the silky on the right.

Robe: This is long and loose with wide sleeves. Fabric looks like it could be textured in a check and I'm not sure of the color. Beige? Off-white? Light blue?

Pattern: I used Simplicity 5840, view B. The hood was omitted and when I worked the muslin, I eliminated the yoke as a seperate piece and reworked the shoulder area to have a shoulder seam. I also eliminated the center back seam on the last two robes, narrowed the shoulder width, angled the neckline, and shortened the pattern considerably for myself.

Fabric: I found a 53" waffle muslin, which I'd never heard of, that looks rather like the fabric in the picture. It was $4.99 a yard and I bought enough to make one robe -- approx. 7 yards. Since buying it, I've seen the fabric at Hancock Fabrics and my local JoAnns. The color is off-white. It has a nice weight to it, but the robe is still be a bit heavy with it. The second fabric was a Wal-Mart $1 a yard find and I bought the entire bolt. Being a Walmart find tells you how long ago I made this!

A picture of both robe fabrics below. Left is the first fabric, right the lighter, second.

Trim: I believe this goes up from the breast, around the neckline and back down the other side, possibly concealing a hook and eye or some such closure. The triangle at the bottom appears to repeat up by the neck. Hard to tell from pictures and the brief moments this costume is seen. I'm hypothesizing that it's mirrored on the right side. I sat down and graphed out the pattern after squinting at pictures for hours. Was about cross-eyed when done, but I came up with this pattern below on the right. The 8" pattern repeats and it matches up fairly well. The 2" wide figure on the pattern includes the side stitches.

Details: I bought 2" wide webbing in black, though navy would work as well. I got 4 yards, not just because I was making two robes, but because I rather like the trim design and wanted to have a little extra made up. Each robe used around 30" flat -- plus however many more inches were in the added triangle sections-- on the breast and up around the neckline. This was all give or take and eyeballed. I never actually measured.

For thread, I used DMC pearl cotton skeins size 5 # 729 -- Md Old Gold.

I traced the pattern with bright pink Sharpie (the only color that showed up enough to see against the black) onto Solvy clear stabilizer and pinned it into place while working. I didn't have any problem with this method and the Solvy ripped away pretty easily when finished with the section. I used a satin filling stitch.

It was great to work on while watching tv.

4-5-06: Here is a picture of the finished gown. The robe is currently cut out and waiting to be sewn together.

5-4-06: The robe is sewn. Pictures of all together will be added when the trim is completed and on the robe.

5-19-06: Both gowns are completed and both robes, plus a third robe. I ended up with both gowns (my daughter changed her mind about hers right after I finished it) and have now had a chance to wear both "sets" around the house. The first gown and robe are great for winter, both a nice weight for cold, cold weather. The second set is much lighter, almost summer weight and the drape is lovely. I believe I'll be getting much use out of these!

6-13-06: I hypothesized what the back connecting piece could look like. What would work best for the trim: make four of the trim section and five triangle pieces. Then, you don't have to cut the trim.