DIY $12 Ritual Robe & Pattern
Introducing the $12 druid robe. This one took me two hours with fabric chalk, a rotary cloth cutter, and an old sewing machine. The secret to making a decent robe on a budget is to find a nice long tablecloth. Yup, I’m wearing a big tablecloth. This one happens to be a Better Homes & Gardens 60″ x 102″ tablecloth. It’s machine washable and 80% cotton, 20% polyester.
Please note that I only stand 5′7″ in my shoes, so if you’re 5′10″ or taller, this might be too short as a robe, but for anyone who is my height or shorter, this is a great option! Now the packaging stated that this tablecloth is 60″ across, but when I measured it at home, I found it’s really only 57″ across, so the sleeves aren’t exactly full length for me, but hey it only cost me $12. This one does not have a hood, but there may be enough leftover material to patch one together.
The option for taller folk is to buy two table cloths and sew them together instead of folding one in half. You’d have to sew a seam across the shoulders, but the easy part would be that you might not need to cut a hole for the head. Furthermore, if you’re buying two to piece together, you can save a little by getting shorter tablecloths.
Marking chalk or grease pencil
Yard stick and soft tape measure
A rotary fabric cutter (pizza cutter style) (and I recommend a cutting mat!) (scissors are okay but much less efficient)
Sewing machine (or needle & thread by hand the way your ancestors did it. Have fun!)
Maybe some Fray Check if that’s how you roll
Fold it in half — the fold becomes the shoulders
Think in terms of the garment being “inside out,” it will be inverted once complete
Mark the vertical midpoint line (throat to sternum)
Mark the sleeves and side-seams
Measure your bust, divide that in half and add 3″ — that’s the measurement between the underarms. Use the vertical midpoint line to center the bust measurement.
Sew the sleeves & side seams with the longest stitch your machine will make (if it doesn’t fit, long stitches are easier to remove for starting over)
Cut the neck hole. Don’t make it too big right away, it’s easy to overestimate. You can always make the hole bigger.
Leave the robe inside out and put it on. Don’t cut the excess cloth away yet, this is to make sure it fits you comfortably. If you cut the excess now, it will fray a lot, possibly to the seams you just made. If it’s too tight, rip out the stitches, adjust the measurements, and start over.
If it fits, now cut a long strip up to 3" wide of the finished edge that will be cut away from the excess fabric (see red text in diagram below). This will be like a “bias tape” to prevent the neck from fraying and needs to be slightly longer than the neck opening circumference.
The cut edge of this makeshift bias tape will need to be tucked under itself so that it too does not fray. If you have actual bias tape, you might simply want to use that.
Once the neck opening is reinforced, put the robe on again to make sure it is still comfortable. You don’t have to try it on again so soon, but you want to, so do it.
Cut away one side of the excess fabric up to a half inch from the stitches. You can cut both sides of the robe if you want to, but this fabric frays quickly and frays a lot.
Roll the freshly cut edge under itself so that it cannot fray, and sew it down. I think this is what is called a Baby Seam. We are basically sewing over the first stitch at the same time. Use a shorter stitch length because we’re reinforcing the heck out of it. If you have a serger, use that instead… I’m jealous. If there is a different method of seam you prefer, by all means use it.
The corner of the underarms is hard to roll over itself. So in addition to trying anyway, sew back and forward in a three inch zone several times to really tell that seam who’s the boss! The garment receives the most long-term stress at the underarms.
Once you’re done sewing both sides of the robe, remember it’s still inside-out, so tie off the threads, invert the robe, and try it on, because it’s done!
When in doubt, wing it! I learned by trial & error. I hand-stitched my first robe in 2007. It only took a couple of days (with trim and a hood) and I still have it.
Supplemental Detailed Images:
Above is an example of makeshift bias tape made from discarded edge of cloth. This bias tape was sewn over the fraying edges of the neck hole.
Above is how I reinforce my seams with a Baby Seam. The black thread is the first stitch sewn before cutting the fabric. After the excess fabric is cut away, the red thread denotes the reinforcing stitch, where the fraying edges of the fabric are tucked under. The white thread is just the bobbin thread from the machine.
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