Making a simple T-square robe

You will need:

• 3 metres of material (it's up to you what colour and type of material but natural fabrics and colours are recommended)
• tape measure
• scissors
• thread — preferably the same colour as the fabric
• needles
• pins
• dress making chalk (of a colour to show up on your fabric)

Pattern (not to scale)

To make:

Step 1

Mark the fabric as shown in the diagram. You can choose the width of the sleeves yourself but make sure you have enough room for movement. If you want them to be about 9" deep then cut the sleeves at about 20" wide — i.e. cut the sleeves to be twice the depth you want them to be plus a bit more for seams.

Step 2

Before cutting out the pieces check that something about 28" wide will go round you comfortably. The width of the sections can be altered if necessary, the pattern is only a guide (e.g. my robe is 32" wide and my sleeves are 15" long but 9" deep). Once happy with sizes cut out the pieces. It's better not to cut things too tightly as it's easier to trim something that's too long or wide than it is to stitch bits together if it's too small!

Step 3

Fold piece A in half and cut a T-shaped neck hole big enough to fit your head through in the middle (see diagram below). You might not want the full 3 metre length for the body section but remember you will want enough fabric to hem. You should also bear in mind that if you wear a belt of some kind that will shorten the robe a bit too.

Step 4

Fold pieces B and C in half, pin along the long edge. These make the sleeves.

Step 5

Pin sleeves in place on body and pin sides together. Tack loosely together and remove the pins very carefully.

Step 6

Try the robe on carefully before sewing anything so you can make adjustments if needed!

Step 7

Remove sleeves from body and sew the sleeves up along the long edge as pinned/tacked in step 4 (if your fabric is patterned or has an obvious inner side remember to sew on the inside so when you turn it the right way round the seam is on the inside).

Step 8

Replace sleeves in body of robe and sew up sides removing pins as you go. Do not remove tacking until you are quite sure that your robe fits.

Step 9

Try on robe inside out. If possible get help to set length of sleeves and bottom, pin to required length and carefully take off robe.

Step 10

Sew hems to required length. Hem round the neck hole if needed — this will be dependent on the type of fabric you use.

Step 11

Turn robe the right way round and press seams and hems.

Step 12

Decorate as desired.

Hood (optional)

If you are making a hood, take the remaining section of fabric, fold it in half, check size and cut down if required. Pin down one side then pin it into the neck hole, if happy with result unpin from neck hole, sew the pinned side of the rectangle of fabric, pin back into neck hole and sew up. Always working so seams and hems will be on inside. Hem and decorate as desired.