My Design Process: Robe Top

It would be an understatement to say I love outerwear. A few months ago I made a jacket, but it’s still summer and too hot to wear it, soo I made an even more lightweight, versatile, summer-approved piece of outerwear: a robe top.

I’ve had this neutral cotton fabric for a while and was inspired by Sophia Chang wearing The Neri Jacket on Instagram from her co-founded brand womn..

I will make matching shorts eventually, but I had just enough fabric for the top.

My design process was pretty short because I had this robe pattern from the 90’s that was already exactly what I had in mind– I used view C!

I followed the pattern for the most part, except of course I made a *few* adjustments.

Like I said, *just* enough fabric for the pattern.

However, I did have this empty spot of material, so I cut it out to make external pockets.

I wanted to make the pockets utilitarian style, so I went super simple– large and boxy, top edge hemmed to match how I was going to hem the rest of the top, and big enough so I could sew a seam down the middle to give it a “tool belt/apron” look.

I sewed the pocket edges into the side seams for a cleaner finish.

I wanted the front seam of the pockets to be hidden like the side seam, so I pinned it and flipped the pocket inside out to sew the right sides together.

Next, I marked where I wanted the seam to be to create to smaller pockets instead of one large one, aligning it slightly more towards the front instead of right down the center.

Voila~

I created the band around the neckline and center front edges per the pattern, and made a 1-inch hem like I did the pockets. I also top-stitched along the edge of the band for aesthetics.