"If it were socially acceptable, I would drape myself in velvet."
~George, Seinfeld
December 2006

While it might not be socially acceptable, it certainly is fun.
Or interesting. Or something. I'll get back to you, after I talk
to my sister.

So yeah. Back in Dec '06, not too long after that episode of
Seinfeld was on, and I needed a birthday gift to give/make
for my sister (bday is Jan 9th). We were going through my
closet and came across a couple yards of black (now I see that it is, in fact, dark navy blue, but only in some lights) strech velvet that I bought a year ago. I was going to make a tree skirt with it, but the velvet was way too black, so I bought some different stuff for that). ANYWAY we were fooling around and picked it up, and before the night was through Laura ended up with velvet draped all over her ;)

So I took some measurements, talked to her about some of the details, cut it all out, and that is where it stopped.


October 2007
Until now.

OK well it's not entirely my fault ... I've been fighting with some of my machines (well one of them, the other one completely died) and that caused problems. Kinda hard to make things without a working machine. I finally got them fixed (well the one is fixed. Wasn't worth it to fix the other one) and was able to get working on a whole bunch of things that I've been putting off. And I bought a rolled hem foot, which I think pretty much completes this.

So, last week (or it might have been the week before) I sat down and put it all together. The worst part was still a little bit of fighting with my machine .... I was hemming the bottom and the sleeves, and about 1/4 of the way through everything my machine decides that it doesn't like the stretch velvet. (I changed the thread, needles, and the foot MANY times, and it still didnt work) so I switched to a zigzag and finished it like that. I've also used my machine (and the rolled hem foot) since then with diff fabric, and it works just fine. Weird.

I forget what the point of that paragraph was, so yeah. The whole thing is done now, hem and all, and it's on its way to my sister in one of the most ridiculous packages of all time. I think I made the sleeves a little too long, but that can be fixed at some other point; besides, it looks pretty cool. It also just slips over the head, which was something that wasn't going to happen, but it works, and that's really all that matters.

Pics are to the side and below - they all link to their original size. I also hope to get more pics with this on my sister - should be interesting ;)




Feb 2, 2008
A Few Construction Notes.
From Whatever I Happen To Remeber.

The robe was pretty straight forward, made up of rectangles. It is all pleated along the shoulder line, and so nothing about the robe is fitted. Except around the neck. Part of the robe is lined in some dark green cotton that I had lying around. I tried to do a rolled hem on the ends of the sleeves and the robe itself, and it sort of worked.