You’ve made it this far! Today is our PENULTIMATE POST!
Let’s recap. First, we talked a bit about supplies and our pattern; next, we found our fabrics. Then, we cut and marked our fabrics. Last entry, we joined up our main robe pieces, including the pockets.
Today we’re doing a lot of sewing on long seams. It is important to keep stability in mind. We want to pin while the whole robe is supported – for instance, on a table. We want to fold hems accurately and pin while nothing is being distorted. While sewing, sew slowly. Sewing slowly is a sewing “hack” that is underrated, but will get you far!
We’re first sewing the very, very long seam affixing our joined facings, to the robe front. We will be sewing from the short, folded edge of the facing, around the bottom corner of the robe placket, up around the robe front edge and collar, and down through the other side. So we areo going to set up this seam, so the start and finish of this long seam crosses the hem at the foldline (second picture below). Below, you can see I’ve pinned right at the center seam of the shawl collar:
Here you are looking at the bottom of the robe, with the facing on top. I have turned the facing long edge here:
Go ahead and knot and hide these thread tails; then trim. Press gently. You can see my stitching line is about 1 1/8″ from the raw edge. That will be my foldline for the robe hem.
Continuing trimming, before I turn the facing and robe right-side out, I grade the entire long seam:
Press open this seam, then turn the facing to the inside of the robe. Now, supporting the entire robe, fold that facing seam allowance under. Pin, pin, and pin! Below you see the only tricky bit – where the shawl collar joins up at the shoulder:
Similarly, go ahead and turn the hem under as well, pinning while the robe is well-supported:
You have a few options here. For one, you can hand-work the finishing. This means you carefully slip-stitch these folded edges (the facing, and the hem) making sure to grab only the smallest amount of the robe shell and “floating” the thread along this seam. Shown below are the hand-finished results from the first robe I made with this pattern. Even after washing and wearing, you can’t see these stitches from the public side of the garment:
Keep in mind, too, that the only way to get a perfect finish at that back neckline, is to hand-finish. Otherwise no matter how well you pin, your back neckline topstitch might not line up perfectly with the seam. Keep in mind – this seam will never be visible to anyone. Just a heads-up though, if you’re a perfectionist!
So for this stew-along, I’m going to demonstrate machine-finishing. Here, I am starting a slow zig zag, removing pins as I go, all around the folded hem and facing edge. I used about a 2.0mm by 3.0mm stitch:
The left “swing” of my stitch caught the very edge of the fold:
From the right side. Notice that before pressing, it looks a little rumply:
Here you can see my nice little turn, at the hem and bottom edge of the facing. You can also see the difference a nice pressing makes:
Remember that back neckline topstitch I mentioned? Here you can see the topstitch wandering a bit, to 1/8″ distance from the seam. Again, this seam will always be covered by the collar:
After a press, this facing topstitch looks fabulous:
Complete the same exact process for your sleeve hems – and you’re finished for the day.
For our final entry, we’ll make up our sash and crotchet some belt holders!
So – how is your robe going? Any trouble? You can contact me through comments, through email, or on Facebook!
See you soon!