How To Make a Jedi Robe

Here is my experience of my first time making a Jedi robe. And a guide on how to do it.

I was making this for my brother for his birthday. It was a surprise so, I had to do a lot of measurements in secret. HAha...

I found this fabric on Ebay. It's a broadcloth polyester blend. It was cheaper from a lot of other fabric I was looking at. It's a bit thin, but it wont get as hot as a thicker fabric. There are different types of fabric you could use. The real robes from the movies are wool, it's expensive so most of us won't be using that. I might try it sometime... ^^^ In the picture above I have my fabric laid out (on my bed). I measured how long I wanted it. It's 60 inches across so it's quite long for the arms. My brother is around 5'7 so I wanted the arm length to be long. If you have 44 inch fabric you need to double it, so you have it like my fabric with an 88 inch sleeve across the top. I have the fabric folded in half and the top isn't cut. I didn't have a pattern so I found some instructions (here), but kinda did it my own way. and I learned a lot. I measured around 60 inches from the top to the bottom. And marked it off.  Next folded in half again, so it has 4 layers.⇩

I got a shirt that fit my brother and used that for a fitting guide. First I measured to 22 inches from the top (at the edge) where it is folded down. You want a long sleeve, it looks really good. After I measured the 22 inches down I went up (see pic^) at a diagonal; I went up to the arm pit. I would advise though to go a few inches across with 22 inches than go up. It would make things easier. And remember to allow for sewing a seam. With no pattern you need to make it a little bigger.

Next I went down at from the arm. I also had the fabric longer than the robe was going to be cuz the extra at the bottom is going to be for the hood. I would make the bottom with a slight curve not like I did.

Mark it where you want to cut. Next cut it out. Give it room. Make it how loose or tight you want it to fit.

Here ^ have it all cut out. After that I need to cut out the front of the robe. If you have 44 inch with you won't have to cut that. So one layer of the folded side is cut for this robe. ⇩

Above we have that cut. I pined it close so I could keep the cut in the middle.

I had a bit of a trouble with the collar spot. Now that I know, haha go three inches form the middle cut on each side and come down sparingly. If you can actually fit it to who you are making it for do that. I did it on myself. It worked out fine.

For the hood. I should have done it differently ..... but here we go; for the hood you want to use the extra fabric that you should get from the bottom of the robe. Which I cut off the robe to make it closer to 5' 5 because it drapes from the shoulders not the head keep that in mind when you measure....
So you want to cut the end in one rectangle. But I ended up having to sewing the ends together ^^^.

At one end after you fold in half you want to sew it up, do some testing on someone that you can see, so it looks like you want it to look.

With the leftover fabric from the side of the robe I used that to fold up the raw edged it also gave the sleeve more length.

Unless you want to line the robe (I didn't) You have to use some extra fabric to cover up the raw edges down the front. 

I didn't get any pictures putting the hood onto the robe, but it isn't hard, I had no problems. First you want to gather it up, someone said to gather the parts inward. So facing the middle. I pinned and sewed the gathers after I got them to match the collar length. Next I pinned and sewed the hood to the robe.

I put a hook and eye at the front so it could be closed and stay.

After hemming it together and stitching up the raw seams with a zig zag stitch, it's completely finished. "The maker and the creation," as my brother said.

I think it turned out really good. It's not perfect, and I have a lot of room for improving. A few things were quite hard. I couldn't seem to get the overlaying fabric to cover the raw edges at the front perfect. I had a time limit so I just kept sewing away instead of going back. It's okay though, this is for my brother to have fun in. It's not being judged.

Do you enjoy making costumes?

What is your favorite Star Wars clothing?

Tell me bellow.