I wasn’t going to make my kids anything for christmas (what a horrible mother!) but then dammit, all my friends were making these beautiful robes for their kids. Basically I am 33 and was peer pressured into this sewing project.

Of course I’m glad I did sew them, because my kids look pretty adorable in their cozy flannel robes. The robe pattern came from Sewing For Boys, which I reviewed here.  The pattern comes together very quickly. Leave off the pockets and you could have one finished in a few hours. Make your own fiddly pocket pattern with contrast piping and it will take you a lot longer.

There is one mistake in the book. You must connect the two front pattern pieces before you cut your fabric, but that important step is missing from the directions .  I only realized this after I cut out all my pieces from the PLAID FABRIC! Oh, what’s that, you can’t tell? That is because I’m the master-plaid-matcher!

The fit of the robe is straight up old man robe. So sizes don’t matter all that much. I made the size 6/7 both for my 6 year old daughter and almost 5 year old son.  The fit is great on both. For their 2 1/2 year old brother I made the 2/3 size, but I should have gone a size up. His robe did get a little shorter because of the plaid matching I had to do, but a bigger robe would have fit him better and for longer too.

A few other things I would do to the pattern if I make it again:

• shorten the sleeves a bit.  They are meant to roll up, which is why they are so long, but they roll up a little too much for my taste.
• make the ties a least a foot longer. Makes it easier for little hands to tie (around those big bellies).
• lengthen the pattern a bit–especially for the smaller sizes.

A couple things I did right the first time:

• I made a hang-y up-y loop that I sewed inside each robe. It makes clean up time a tiny bit better.
• I skipped the belt loops and just sewed the tie to the back of the robe in one spot. That way the belt cannot be used as a leash or a jump rope or weapon.
• I read the fabric requirements. Each robe, each one, takes about 4 yards of fabric!