The Super-Secret Christmas Robe from 1951

A couple of years ago, I found an amazing vintage Mens' robe pattern on Etsy and fell in love. I snapped it up, ordered some amazing rayon fabric and some ultra-soft micro fleece to line it with. When the pattern arrived  I was so excited... and then somehow I never made it. You know how it is, projects pile up, work gets too busy and then before you know it, it's two years later - no robe.

Vogue 8753

So this year I was determined to sew it for my husband for Christmas, and I was determined that he wouldn't even know I was sewing something for him. In the middle of finals project and a really busy month at Mrs. Depew Vintage I was sewing this robe like a crazy person. And let me tell you, lining rayon with micro fleece is about as easy as getting a puppy to hold still during a cat parade.

I sewed between assignments and studying, before and after work, at midnight while he was working night shifts and every time my husband rode his motorcycle into the driveway I madly dashed to stash everything into my studio closet and delint the threads from my clothes to hide any evidence of my undertaking.

The flat felled seams with the added bulk of a lining fabric, no matter how much I graded, were insanely hard and I ended up hand binding all of my seams inside just to keep everything clean. I was determined to use every skill in my playbook to make this robe the nicest thing my husband ever owned.
2/3 of the sewing was by hand to get everything just right and after about 70 hours of work, it was finished with just one day to spare! I even had time to embroider his initials on the cuff before wrapping it.

The rayon had two beautiful sides to it so I made the cuffs, pockets, sash, carriers and lapels with the lighter, contrasting side.

The black micro fleece lining looks really sharp in contrast to the grey and is so soft and warm that I have to resist stealing the robe for myself every morning when I let the dog out at 6 a.m.

The rayon has just the slightest metallic sheen to it on one side.

Of course it's about 4 sizes too big for Lusty Lulu (love her new name!) but it looks great on the man himself. (I don't make him pose for blog photos, he's shy.)

I also finished the inside with a hilarious "This took Forever" label by Sublime Stitching that makes my day every time I catch a glimpse of it.

And now I'm quite relieved to be done working on this giant project and back to sewing for myself. This week I'm making myself a few bras using this pattern.

How about you? Did you make any of your gifts by hand this year?

Name the Dress Form Contest Winner!

Well it took the judges and I a bit longer than expected to deliberate! We loved the many names that you clever readers came up with but only one could win. The choices were so good that even the judges couldn't land on the same one! In the end I took the top 6, tossed them in a bowl and picked one at random. So, the new girl has a name! Meet Lusty Lulu!
Which means that our gift certificate winner is Emily! Emily also happens to write a great vintage-style blog, well worth checking out!
(Emily, I'll shoot you an email to work out the details.)

A special thanks goes to our guest judges: Brittany of Va-Voom Vintage Blog, Tilly of Tilly and the Buttons and my best friend, Becky!

In other news, a few days ago I finished my last final for the classes I was taking at my local community college. Boy, was it a relief! I loved the classes, my professor was brilliant, and my classmates were hilarious (ever seen the show Community? Spot on.) but I was exhausted from too much work, puppy, super-secret Christmas sewing (he doesn't even know I've been sewing anything!) and homework.

I especially loved my Fashion Illustration course. I went from basically drawing stick figures to a pretty decent grasp of the industry standard "10 head (tall) fashion figure".
For my final project I drew illustrations of my corset and long line bra from the Ohhh La La Pin-up Sew-Along and while they're not perfect, I had so much fun creating them in Photoshop!

If you have some free time next month, try a class at your local community college and learn something new! It's a blast!
I'll share more of the super-secret sewing project after Christmas so I don't let any cats out of bags but right now, I'm off to walk a German Shepherd pup who is sick of chilling calmly in my studio all day.

Happy Holidays!