finnleo's bathrobe tutorial

First of all, naturally this is a look-a-like yukata pattern.

 

I say look-a-like, and refer to it as a bathrobe, since it is not really done in the traditional fashion.

 

What we are trying to make:

 

The main difference in how I've done this, is probably the collar, there's no real big gimmick to how to do it with a sewing machine, but it just requires a little tinkering, and a extra slice of cloth to get it done.

 

Im not being mean and not supplying a print ready pattern, since the main principle of making the outfits, that I'll add later to this will have varying versions of the basic top pattern.

 

But since I am starting it with a shoulder to ankle lenght yukata (or even kimono if you think the result is posh enough), its not even possible to print on a A4 sized sheet due to its length.

 

For reference here is a picture of outfits I've looked over as a starting point for my tinkering:

 

 

Throughout I'll try and make pointers in how to tweak things the way you might like, and make it look perhaps a bit more like it should.

 

Version 1: Dollfie Dream Sized shoulder to ankle yukata.

 

Cloth usage: two sheets, top layer, and liner the size of 150x45 cm,

 

Parts:

2x main body (both materials)

1x lower back (both materials)

2x sleeves (both materials)

 

Collar (if using a 7mm allowance)

42x4,2cm collar strip (both materials)

42x1,5cm inner collar strip (liner only)

 

The strips are a bit long (happened to have readymade templates for this width at that lenght), but the excess will be cut out.

 

 

"Blueprint":

I apologize for the pencil sketch, but this happens to come a lot quicker than tinkering with photoshop.

 

explanation of the measurements, and what was used with this outfit, I am only 90% sure the overall height measurements are correct, since I never really wrote anything down as fact when I did my tinkering:

 

Youll need a ruler, and somekind of straight edge for making the pattern, personally I used lego for the edge initially.

 

None of these measurements have a sewing allowance built in! -- Personally I use a 7mm allowance, which amusingly comes straight from a one stud wide lego strip.

 

Collar allowance update

 

I forgot that my collar was pretty specific to what kind of an allowance you were using, so apologies for this.

 

The width of the strips I've supplied are made with a 7mm allowance in mind, to form a 1cm high collar.

 

The general math for the height is the following, please note that with this technique your allowance on the collar line will be the minimum height for the collar:

 

inner strip = Allowance + 8mm for attaching the collar.

Collar strips = (desired height x 2) + (Allowance x 2) + 8mm for attaching the collar.

 

 

A ( 58 cm ) - Overall length of the dress.

 

This is the length from the top of the shoulder to the ankle. In the example length there is an extra 6cm of length for making the fold at the waist.

 

If you are feeling crafty enough, you could make this fold during the joining of the top layer and liner, so that the fold is only on the outer fabric, and the liner is 6cm shorter, without the fold.

 

 

B ( 11,3 cm ) - Width of the front piece

 

The width of the main body piece. Eventhough I never took into consideration the final folding of the side, it comes up about right with this. Add more to this length if you want the edges closer to the sides of the doll.

 

 

C ( 48,7 cm ) - Height of the collar end, from the bottom of the dress

 

This is how you define how steep or shallow of a angle you want for the collar. Make this line shorter from the bottom to make the collar come down lower.

 

 

D ( 13 cm ) - Length of the waist cut line

 

This is the distance from the shoulder to where the pieces join at the back waist line. I dont see much point in tweaking, unless you want to forget the lower back piece alltogether.

 

 

D - 1cm ( 12 cm )- The setting of the collar.

Take off more from this measurement to get a much more droopy collar that goes further back from the neck (the old lady look)

 

 

E ( 5,6 cm ) - Width of the backpiece

 

This determines the width of the back of the dress.

 

 

Lower back piece explained

 

A-D ( 45 cm ) - heigth of the lower back piece.

 

This is gotten by subtracting the lenght of the waist cut line from the overall lenght of the dress.

 

2xE+alpha ( 17 cm ) width of the backpiece

 

This is a bit of a trick question.

 

At the bare minimum this needs to be two times the width of the backpiece (measurement E). But for this tutorial, and previous efforts I've added a little over 3,5 centimeters for folds to flare out the lower part of the dress.

 

If going for the Kimono waistline this added lenght can become a problem, and is more suitable to make the dress flow over the tush and waist for the Yukata look. If you remove the extra three centimeters, I suggest adding width to the main body width ( B ) to compensate at the front.

 

This width doing a yukata cut:

 

This width doing a kimono cut, and the very untidy line it causes:

 

Also padding the waist for a very neat kimono line is an option, and I believe some of the japanese bloggers have done this kind of thing to avoid this result.

 

 

Sleeve - F-line is also the fold line.

 

F ( 15 cm ) - Lenght of the sleeve

 

Lenght of the sleeve from shoulder to wrist. Add more for the baggy sleeves look.

 

G ( 26 cm ) - height of the sleeve

 

This is the height of the sleeve, naturally kimono's have much more majestic sleeves, but I found this lenght to already cause a bit of a problem lateron. I dont recomend making it higher than this.

 

H ( 10,5cm ) - Width of the bottom of the sleeve

 

I wanted to add some wedge shape to my sleeve, just to get it looking a bit more dynamic. Originally this should be the same as the lenght of the sleeve (F). I center this measurement to the centerline of the top lenght of the sleeve.

 

For a more traditional look, the front of the bottom of the sleeve should be rounded as per one of my yukatas, use whatever round object you think suits best at the corner of the G and H lines.

 

 

 

 

Hard-set measurements

 

1,8 cm collar dimension.

 

This will actually vanish to become non existant when adding a sewing allowance to the collar line.

Personally I prefer not to cut into this corner, so leave the sewing allowance as is. Add more to this measurement if you wish the collar to be more loose, and wider.

 

 

6 cm sleeve attachment line

 

This is where the sleeve will attach to the main body. since the piece is folded when cut, it doubles to 12cm in total, which sounds like a lot, but if you roll out a tape measure at that distance, you'll see it'll barely fit a DD hand.

 

 

After penning in the straight lines, just add the diagonals to the ends of the lines, and we're set to continue to buildi..err.. sewing

 

 

Putting it together.

 

I had taken pictures for this ... but as it turns out after rebooting my machine the pictures on the memory card have vanished into a black hole. I've added some pictures as a roadmap where we are doing things at which point.

 

So, you'll have to settle for the mostly text only version for now.

 

Everything starts out by cutting the material.

 

I cut as much material as possible in one go, so for instance I fold my liner material and top layer material to get the two pieces of each in one cut.

 

For the sleeves if you have enough material to work with, folding the material twice so you have two folds of each material at the fold line, for the cut. Your scissors will probably hate you for doing this, though.

 

Both liner and topside sewing starts with attaching the body pieces togetheer.

 

Sew together lines ( D-1cm )

 

 

Depending on have you optioned for the folds for the yukata style, its time to make them here.

I've done the centerline by just folding the top in half, pintching the corner, and folding the edges again, and pinching the corners again to get a neat reference on where the folds need to allign to be symmetrical.

 

Now attach the lower back to the main body, by aligning the center pinch mark to the sewing line of the main body, and making the folds by using the reference set by the side pinch marks, while lining up the sides.

 

Sew together lines ( E and 2xE+a )

 

 

the seam should look like this on the good side, its up to you how you want the folds to be:

 

 

Next its time to attach the sleeves.

 

I've marked the attachment point by placing the ends of the main body together and pinching the shoulder corner.

 

same pinch method used to mark the center of the sleeve, by pinching the fold line on the hard set lenght.

 

Line up the pinchmarks, and sew 6cm to each direction of the pinch marks.

 

 

Personally I've used a pencil to mark 6cm from the pinchmark towards each direction, but if you are working on a sheer material like I was with this latest project, I taped a ruler to the sewing machine to help see how long I was going into the lines.

 

Sew up the sides of the body pieces ( A, D, and A-D), without going into the armhole that was sewn in the last step.

 

 

for a cleaner inside, sew up the inner diagonal sleeve lines, do not sew anything else on the sleeves yet.

 

 

After sewing up both the liner, and the top layer, place them with the good sides of the front main body together.

 

Make sure that you have the collar edges square, This is more important than the bottom end matching.

 

Sew lines C, and afterwards the bottom edge (B and 2xE+a)

 

 

Flip the bag so you have the good sides of both materials right with the main body.

 

Making sure to keep the liner layer on the outside, push the top layer sleeves inside the liner's arm holes.

 

so now you should have the outfit inside out.

 

The next part, which is closing the end of the sleeve is a bit tricky to describe but bear with me.

 

 

Now we have a raw edge that needs to be sorted out.

 

We should have the good side of the liner on the outside, and the good side of the top layer on the inside, take one edge corner of the sleeve (corner of G and H), fold the edges so that you have the good sides together.

 

 

Now bring these corners with the good sides still together to your machine, and start sewing up the end of the sleeve ( Line G ). This will cause the sleeve to roll upon itself, and this will be harder to manage the higher you have made the sleeve.

 

If you had the correct corners, after getting to the end, after straightening the bun you've just made, the end of the sleeve should be a clean edge now.

 

Flatten the edge of the sleeve, and sew up the front of it to the lenght you want. I've used the same six centimeters as the armhole from the fold line.

 

Sew up the bottom of the sleeve, this will be one of the three "visible" raw edges after turning it around, but for this one, you will have to know where to look since its hidden inside the pouch. Optionally you can tidy this up with a strip of ribbon, or folded fabric.

 

Do the other sleeve, and turn the dress so that the good side is on the outside.

 

Attaching the Collar.

 

 

It pays to be neat with these strips both in cutting and sewing, as it determines how the collar will look.

 

 

Take the 15mm wide strip of liner material and place it on the edge of the collar line on the liner side of the dress.

 

Working within the sewing allowance (I use half of what I've used for an allowance), sew the strip from one edge, to the other, cut off the excess that is left of the strip.

 

take the 42mm wide strips of top material, and liner material.

 

Place the good side of the top material strip against the good side of the top side of the dress, and the liner strip on top of that. Sew according to your sewing allowance from one side to the other, and cut off the excess.

 

now take the free edges of the outside, and inside strips, and sew them together, so that the collar takes shape.

 

If you wish, clean up the raw edge of the collar strips with ribbon strip, or folded liner material.

 

If you are using a dark top material, and fear staining, you can add a folded piece of liner to this strip edge as a inner collar, or if you are feeling crafty enough, include the protective inner collar as the raw edge sealer.

 

Now to clean up the ends of the collar, and sides of the dress, first fold whatever excess you have of the collar ends at the edge of the dress. Then fold the whole edge again about 7mm and sew from top to bottom

 

 

I've used about 3mm from the edge as a guide, but anything goes as long as you tie up the end of the fold.

 

 

Finally we set up the waist fold.

 

If you've bravely gone with the option I gave in the measurements section this will probably only mean securing the inner flap of the top layer to the liner.

 

If you've decided to keep both liner and top layer the same lenght, the measurements in my examples are as follows.

 

 

Kimono cut, is 7cm from the top corner of the collar, and Yukata cut is 13cm. As stated in the measurements section, the fold is 3cm in length.

 

I've used simple stitches at the seamlines to keep it together. The trick here is naturally to only attach the top of the fold onto the liner, and make sure you dont go through the top layer.

 

 

Finishing touches -- or the Obi.

 

 

So far the Obi's i've done have been very simple affairs.

 

The one on the kimono cut is done from a 9 x 80 cm strip of fabric, thats been folded, and sewn together 1,5 cm from the side, turned inside out and flattened trying to keep the sewing line in the center of it to form a 3cm wide Obi.

 

The plain white one is was a 6 x 80cm strip sewn to 2,5 cm width and flattened with the sewing fold on one side of it.

 

The 80cm is about enough for a few turns around the waist, and making a very basic knot.

 

 

 

 

For those waiting for the Miko outfit guide, that will follow here at some point when I make another. I'll try and get a actual photoset of the building also.

Edited May 14, 2012 by Guest

Thanks for this! It looks like a great tutorial.

Thanks for the great tutorial~~~~