Jedi Robes, or “How I desire to be the best mother ever to a 5 year old boy”
Like all craft projects these days, this one started out with Pinterest, searching for awesome Star Wars themed birthday parties. Jedi training you say? We’re in.
This means that our Jedi need two things. First - Light Sabers. Those don’t deserve their own tutorial at all because they were so super simple:
1. Go to www.flashyblinkylights.com
2. Order “Cheer Sticks” in any color. Get 12 so you get the discount. Make sure they’re all the same color so you still get the discount
3. Wrap the base of them in Silver/Black Duct tape for the handles
4. Voila. Awesome light up light sabers - simple and awesome. They're durable enough to stand up to an entire party of 5 year olds whacking the heck out of everything (and everybody) without injury or damage. That's a double win in my book.
Onto the Jedi Robes...
The second thing a Jedi needs is a robe. For this reason, we kept the party small because mommy needs her sanity. But still – 10 robes for the guests wasn’t an easy feat. So I found this tutorial for making adult robes, and figured I could easily do this. Here’s how I made it happen, understanding that my goal was inexpensive but robe-like things that I could make 10 times over in two days.
• Use brown fleece. You won’t need to hem it, and it’s soft and easy to work with. I got mine at Joann Fabrics with a 50% off coupon. If your local big box store has a fabric section you can most likely get it cheaper there.
• I started with this pattern: http://www.degraeve.com/jedirobe/. Instead of folding it to be long enough for an adult (which is what the pattern seems to be primarily focused on) I just used the fold of the fabric/how it was provided. The kids didn’t really need robes any longer than that – and some were almost too long even doing it this way!
• Measure your child from wrist to wrist and either add a few inches or subtract based on the average size of the child for the party. Hopefully the bigger kids won’t be totally embarrassed by the flood they will be expecting.
o As a side note, my children were both asleep when I finally started this endeavor. I’m not ashamed to say I measured the boy while he was out cold, stretching an arm out and doing my best seamstress impression.
o This worked out pretty well, and with a variety of kid sizes most of them were spot on.
• Lay out fabric and make sure that it’s folded in half well, and that the edges are square
• Measure out the distance that you just took, and mark then cut! (or just cut if you’re brave!)
• Make sure that the fold of the fabric is on the TOP! This will be the shoulders/neckline of the robe.
• Draw line down the middle of the fabric – this will be the opening of the robe.
• Use chalk (doesn’t even have to be dressmakers or anything specific), and figure out how much of a sleeve you want them to have. You can use a measurement of 1.5 times their wrist circumference if you’re technical, or you can guestimate (which is what I did.)
o Basically the top of the fold is the shoulder. Measure down for the wrist, and then draw a line up towards the armpit. Then, draw towards the bottom hem to give it a flare at the bottom. When I did this, I made sure the bottom edge was the edge of the fabric. (see picture below for details)
o You can use the cut piece (if it’s accurate) to measure the other robes if you’re doing more than one! Yay! Your robe is cut now. You should be able to pick it up and see that it’s basically a triangle with sleeves and a flat top. Maybe more like a square with the sides cut out. Your mileage may vary.
• Sew along the cut bottom of the sleeve and down the cut side that was cut. The only part that should be ‘open’ now is the bottom of the robe.
• Cut out the collar. I made the first few bigger than they had to be. You can always recut to make them bigger, so cut shallow and small!
• Cut up the middle to make the opening of the robe.
• Turn inside out!
• Voila!
After the first one, I did these assembly style – cut them all out, then sewed them up! Total time to make 12 or so was under 4 hours from fabric to wearability!
There you go! They were a huge hit, and one mother even told me that her son slept in his that night. The best compliment one could get!
Thanks and happy crafting! xoxo-Misty
