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.