African-Inspired Modern Recycled Robe

This modern robe, made from recycled clothing, was inspired by a good friend who went on an African safari.  She had the time of her life, and brought back some amazing photos of herds of zebra.  I went looking for vintage clothing with African prints, and I stumbled upon a black-and-white cotton skirt with a geometric design reminiscent of kuba cloth; this served as the focus fabric for the robe. Altogether, four different items of gently used clothing were cut up and pieced together: the black-and-white skirt, a black floral print skirt, a white lace sun dress, and a red-and-white dress with heart motifs.

 A strip of pleated white cotton from the sun dress was used as an insert across the bodice.  For the collar, I fussy-cut a line of hearts.  One of the heart motifs was used to decorate the inside neckline, and can be seen peeking out from behind the hanging loop in the photo below.

All of the fabrics were high-quality cotton voiles. One of the fun challenges was to cut up the clothing items in such a way as to center the large-scale design,  shown on the back of the robe, below. 

The sash was pieced together from different parts of the red-and-white dress.  The red heart motifs were placed at the ends of the sash.

I must say that this is one of my favorite recycled robes so far. It is as light as a feather, thanks to the tissue-weight vintage cottons.

Art Deco: Robe from reclaimed clothing

I have started making robes from vintage clothing.  I have titled this one "Art Deco" because of the fabulous art deco fabric, which I found at a thrift store.  This robe was created by deconstructing two vintage 100% cotton skirts: a turquoise Indian cotton skirt with gold trim, and the art deco print in blue and green.  Although it was a stretch to create a robe from only two items of clothing, I love the way it turned out.

Every inch of the reclaimed clothing was used; the sash was constructed with strips of the art deco print, along with the white cotton lining.  The gold trim, which was taken from the hem of the turquoise skirt, was used to decorate the sleeves.

The back of the robe might be my favorite part.  The stylized, art deco print resembles peacock feathers. I fell in love with the aqua blue and aqua green colors and design.

As you can see, I pieced the skirt fabric in the back to create one long panel.  This project was challenging and fun.  I'm now making another robe from recycled clothing in a totally different style... stay tuned for more photos from the studio !

p.s.  By request, we've added a tab at the top of the page which shows where to find our patterns.  For questions, email Marina at modernrobe@gmail.com