A Handmade Colorful Bathrobe (And My First Wearable Sewing Project!)

| Kat Carlson Design
I think I’ve made it clear that I’m a fly-by-night kind of sewer. When my sewing expert best friend was living in Boston for a few months, I made it my mission to learn how to sew from patterns from her, and I already shared my first pattern project: a Drawstring Beach Bag, which has already been in use this summer!
A Handmade Colorful Bathrobe (And My First Wearable Sewing Project!) DesignLively
Today I am sharing my newest endeavor – a bathrobe!

A Handmade Colorful Bathrobe (And My First Wearable Sewing Project!) DesignLively

This friend of mine is AMAZING at sewing clothes. I knew I had to try to make at least one clothing item with her as my guide. One night at Joann Fabrics, she showed me a fabric that reminded her of me and was, and I quote, “so ugly it’s kind of beautiful”. Of course I loved it – bright colors and chaos and all.
A Handmade Colorful Bathrobe (And My First Wearable Sewing Project!) DesignLively
A Handmade Colorful Bathrobe (And My First Wearable Sewing Project!) DesignLively
A Handmade Colorful Bathrobe (And My First Wearable Sewing Project!) DesignLively
A Handmade Colorful Bathrobe (And My First Wearable Sewing Project!) DesignLively

I made 1,395,025 mistakes, so no tutorial for you. All I will say is that a seam ripper is my best friend. I didn’t do myself any favors by making my first clothing project out of silky fabric, because it slides all over the sewing machine. But I finally finished!

The charmeuse fabric is the the Multi Brushstrokes Str. Charmeuse 54” and I used black thread and navy satin piping.

I used the McCall’s M6659 pattern, which I got on sale at Joann’s for $1.00. In a happy accident, I cut the body pieces for the “long robe” pattern and the rest for the “short robe” pattern, so I ended up making it a high-low hemline.

A Handmade Colorful Bathrobe (And My First Wearable Sewing Project!) DesignLively

Easily the most difficult part was lining all of my inside seams. Maybe there’s an easier way to do this, but I sewed a lining over all my rough seams on the inside of the robe. Love how it turned out in the end – but took just as long to do that as the whole robe took to put together!

So, how did I like sewing clothing? Well, it was certainly challenging. The shoulders and neck were the hardest part. I think they ended up looking okay, but they aren’t perfect. I don’t see myself sewing a LOT of clothing, but it’s nice to know how to do it. This pattern of fabric was challenging to work with, as I took particular pains to make sure that the robe was all navy and purples at the neck and shoulders, and all the pieces changed color in the same direction. Talk about learning to swim in the deep end. 😛
A Handmade Colorful Bathrobe (And My First Wearable Sewing Project!) DesignLively
I sewed on the entire arm inside out! #n00b
I had always thought sewing clothes was cheaper than buying clothes – not in my case. At the end of the day, I spent about $40 in supplies (and that was with getting the fabric 50% off). You can get a new satin robe at Victoria’s Secret for a similar cost – but definitely not in my awesome peacock fabric!
Any tips for learning to sew clothing? I bought a pattern for pajamas too!
I’m trying to get back into Link Parties again – I miss them! Linking this project up to:

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2 thoughts on “A Handmade Colorful Bathrobe (And My First Wearable Sewing Project!)”

  1. i just bought this fabric to make a similar robe! yours looks fantastic! much like you I really can barely sew, I’ve made pj pants and that’s about the extent. But I LOVED this fabric so I’m going to make it work!

  2. So fun! I love how mine turned out. So colorful and happy! There were a few rough moments : ) but I’m glad I stuck with it!

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