DIY Jedi robes. Reversible, in case you want to join the Dark Side!

It’s the Easter holidays so I’m behind on making stuff. I will be relatively quiet here until the week after next. It’s amazing how having an extra child at home creates so much more work. There has been a birthday too, which has made me busy.

Mini birthday chocolate muffins. I guess you could argue that the star decorations were part of a Star Wars birthday theme but I didn’t twig until just this second that there was a connection.

Anyway, on to what I’m here for. I made a Star Wars costume for a three year old. For a bit of diversity I decided to make it reversible. This gave the boy a choice of whether he wanted to be a Jedi or give in to temptation and join the Dark side.  I think it is safe to say that he has joined the Dark side. I knew he would, which is why his big brother models the Jedi version. Not sure I’ve got my priorites right by buying him Kylo Ren’s lightsaber but whatever, he loves it.

The robes were actually really easy to sew. I’ve made a dolls dress before and Coraline’s coat, both of which follow the same basic pattern. I used this tutorial and made two (without hemming): one in brown and one in black. With right sides together, I sewed them together, leaving a gap in the bottom so I could turn the whole thing the right way round. Initially you ignore the sleeves, tucking them in whilst you stitch around everything else. Once it has all been pressed (don’t melt your cheap fabric like I did), the sleeves can be tucked into each other and their hems both folded to the inside, where they won’t be seen. A little bit of top stitching sews them together. Top stitching around everything else also tidies it all up and stitches closed the hole at the bottom.

Because it is just a fancy dress costume I wasn’t particularly careful about how it all went together, I’m pretty shocked that it worked out. I cut out the black fabric first and used it as a template for the brown so they’d both be the same size. I had some minor unpicking to do at the beginning where I messed up the shoulders. And I had some mighty gathering to do on the hood because it was so much bigger than the neck bit (it is supposed to be big though).  I think it’ll get too short very quickly and the sleeves are too long. Other than that it all kind of worked. Three year old stomped around the house in Vader style and had a great time (there was even hands on hips and heavy duty breathing).

Both boys got right into the spirit of it, which I loved, especially as my eldest hates dressing up and will usually refuse. My efforts rewarded, phew!

Oh and I forgot to take pictures as I made it, so I can’t show a step by step thing. It’s not so important with the robes as I’ve linked to the other tutorial. The top was really easy. I had two rectangles and I snipped in a v neck. I sloped the shoulders slightly (downward towards the outside) then stitched them together. I quickly (and shoddily) hemmed all raw edges and left it open at the sides. It is tied down with a belt, which is a strip of leftover brown fabric that I folded in half lengthways (with raw edges tucked in) and top stitched.

Then, after Star Wars shenanigans, they did “art” or, in other words, they painted themselves…

Such a mess.

So yeah, that’s it really…. Back soon. x

FYI, I bought a metre of the cheap linen type stuff and used half (it was 60″wide) and three metres of each of brown and black, which about the right amount. I wouldn’t get any less than this. It was 45″ wide. I got it all from Amazon as I only needed cheap stuff. I usually only get fabric online if I don’t care much about the quality.