Jedi Robe Tutorial

I, like every other good nerd, am more than a little excited for The Force Awakens this December!!! Naturally I will be going on opening night in costume.  But as I always seem to procrastinate on my costumes, I'm getting a jump on this one!  Perhaps I can wear it for Halloween as well.  So without further ado, the first part of my Jedi costume, the robe.

(Just four pieces, really)

To begin with I looked up what other people had done to make their Jedi robes and just about everything I found claimed that you needed between 7 and 10 yards of fabric.  That right there was inspiration enough to do my own thing because hello, I cannot afford 10 yards of fabric.  I did mine with about 4.5 yards.  Although, I must say if you want it to flow a bit more and do ginormous sleeves, you will need more fabric.  Mine is still pretty large on me, but the sleeves and such could be bigger, but being poor trumped bigger sleeves.  Apparently Simplicity used to make a really cool Jedi costume pattern but not it's obsolete and you can only buy it on ebay for $120.  Which just made me laugh hysterically.  So let's start!  Get yourself some lunch (very important) and put on the Star Wars soundtrack or a movie on in the background.  No prequels.

(Close up of my material)

Fabric: I used a cotton gauze type material that I found on sale at Joann's in a dark brown.
Alterations: Since I started with nothing I suppose the whole thing is an alteration...

Measurements

First, we do lots of measurements of yourself!  As someone who has been fit in a costume shop many times, I used my memories of what numbers they had taken to craft a basic pattern.  I recommend writing it down on a diagram so you recall which number was which.

(longest piece being the left half of the front of the robe, we'll call it figure 1, the parallelogram being the sleeve, let's call it figure 2, and the last one is the hood, or figure 3)

The diagram shows what number corresponds to each measurement and what you'll need it for.

(For reference sake, with my measurements added on)

1. Measure from where the top of you shoulder meets the base of your neck to the floor, or a bit below where you'd like the robe to end.
2. Measure from just below your armpit (Or where you'd like the bottom of the armhole to be) to the floor or the same place as the above measurement.
3. Measure the length of your shoulder from the neck to the edge of your arm.  (This one should be easy if you're wearing a shirt when you're measuring. No judgement either way.)
4. Measure around your arm from the edge of the shoulder/arm, under the armpit and back to the shoulder.  Cut this measurement in half.
5. Measure your arm from the end of the shoulder seam to just past where you'd like the sleeve to end. Longer for a Jedi sleeve than a normal robe sleeve.
6. Measure from your armpit to the same place as the last measurement.
7. Measure loosely around your neck and divide by 4.
8. Measure from the base of your neck over your head to the other base of your neck.
Whew! Done!  Lots of measurements, but I promise it makes life easier.

Base of the Robe

For the base of the robe without sleeves or a hood start with measurement 1.  This is length you want for your robe.  Take that length and double it for the length of fabric.  Take that rather long piece of fabric and fold it in half so you have you measurement of 1.

(Note the fold)

Because I was not entirely sure I'd have the right amount of fabric (I did!), I pinned the whole outline before cutting anything out.  Now, to transfer figure 1, the half of the front of the rob onto the fabric. Find the dead center of the fabric along the fold and mark this.  Mark a straight line from dead center along the fold to dead center on the bottom.  I made the line with pins.  This is NOT measurement 1.  1 is merely a guide and does not need to be pinned out.  Now, using center along the fold as a guide, pin out measurement 7, or what will be the neck hole.  From the top edge of the neck hole, mark out measurement 3, or the shoulder seam.  Then make your curved line which will be the arm hole using measurement 4.  Lastly, from the bottom of the line made by 4, take an angled line down to the edge of the fabric using measurement 2.

(Since I wanted my robe as wide as possible, I pinned the line (measurement 2) to the very left corner of my fabric even if the number of inches wasn't exact.)

Okay! Done with the pinning for now!

(You should have the exact outline that you drew on paper with your measurements)

Then along the dead center line that you marked, fold the fabric in half.  You should then have 4 layers of fabric on top of each other.  Cut along the pinned edges that are not on the folds except the neck hole, do cut that out.

(You should end up with something that looks like this!)

Take out all the pins and you'll have an ugly brown shroud attached at the shoulders so you can put it over your head.  Pretty ugly so far.  Put it on and admire it in a mirror.  Now sew up the sides.  You should now have a very ugly jumper of sorts.  Also put that on just to check.  And now onto the sleeves!

Sleeves

The sleeves are a bit harder and I did break my "I don't need no pattern!" frame of mind a little bit. Because sleeves are a bit of a pain, I dug out one of my old patterns and used the "upper sleeve" piece as a guide.  I know, I know.  Honestly you really don't need to, but I wanted to get the shape right.  

(my pattern on the fabric)

Double your fabric over for a start so that you are making two sleeves, one on top of the other and they are the exact same size.

Whether you are using a pattern or making it up as you go, measurements are back!  If you're not using a pattern, you'll need to freehand that nice pleasing arc that my has.  Make sure that the arc is equal to measurement 4, which you will recall, is the arm hole, but adding in a little for seam allowance.  My pattern piece was a little to short so I added about half an inch on each side of the edge of the curve. Now for the length of the sleeve.  Take measurement 5 and draw a line straight down from the top of your curve and mark the end of that line with a pin.  Boom, half done.  Now you'll need two measurements to work together and here you can change things if you want.  First take measurement 6 and pin that line on both sides of the sleeve from the edge of the curved top of the sleeve in an angled out line down the fabric.  (See figure below)  Take your measuring tape and make a loop around your arm in the size that you think you'd like your sleeve.  If that happens to be the length between your two angled lines, you're golden.  If not, play around with how wide you truly want you sleeve and make a curve between the two angled lines.

(My angled lines go as far as the fabric allows)

Now cut out both layers so that you have two almost sleeves!

(Never leave your scissors on the floor)

Now hem up what will be the edge of the sleeves.  Then sew up the angled lines so that you new do indeed have sleeves!  Right sides together, pin and sew the curved edge side to the armholes of the weird looking jumper/not quite a robe.  Now you're left with a very large looking dress.

(Just a shroud at the moment)

I now suggest putting it on to decide which way you want to be the front.  Once you have determined, cut a slit up the front from bottom center to top center.  Hem the front slit and all the way around the bottom.  It's finally a robe!

Hood

Almost there, I promise!  To make the hood, start with a piece of fabric folded in half so that the fold is at the top.  First take the measurement number 8 and double check that this is the size of the hood you want.  Keep in mind that Jedi hoods are ginormous.  In hindsight I wish I'd made mine a bit bigger.  When you've for certain decided on your hood length, measure out that number from the top of the fold down the left side of the fabric.  I just pinned mine for a marking place.  Now double check what the measurement is for the neck hole.  That measurement plus seam allowance is the length of the bottom of the hood.  Perpendicular from the line you just made, pin that line straight across the fabric.  It should be parallel to the fold of the fabric.  The last line you have to make is not measured per say.  It should be a curved line starting at the back of the hood and going up towards the fold and then joining the fold.  This makes it so that your hood does not have a seam going all the way to the front.  Pin this in as well.  See image below.

(Hood opening to the left, hood back to the right, hood edge to be sewed to the neck opening, on the bottom edge)

Cut out along the bottom pin line and the curved pin line.  Sew along the curved pin line and open up your hood!  Now hem along the front edge of the hood and try it on for size.

Lastly, right sides together, pin the non hemmed edge of the hood to the neck opening and sew that sucker up.  Now put it on, grab your lightsaber, and frolic about your house!  A picture of my frolicking can be seen below.

(Not a complete costume, but I'm getting there!)