Project Update: Deep Frost Mage's Robe

Hello Friends and Welcome!

After a very exciting trip last week to visit my sister on the other side of the province, I'm finally home again and ready to get back to sewing!

Today, I'll be focusing on one of my newest projects, my quilted Frost Mage robe!

As mentioned in my Autumn Goals post, I'd really like to have this project to be finished by the end of October, which is quickly approaching. To help myself meet that goal, I think I need to take a step back, look at what needs to be done and what I've already accomplished, and from there I can continue!

Let's get started!

Planning the Robe

As I've already shared, this project is based on the robe worn by TangoTek's avatar in the current season of Hermitcraft. For more details about the inspiration of this project, check out my earlier October Project Update.

From the beginning, I had planned to cut the pieces of this robe entirely as squares and rectangles, then use pleating to add shaping. This decision was inspired by the linen shirt I've been working on recently, as well as the art style of the Minecraft game.

There will be one exception to this rule though; to add volume to the skirt, I will be using two triangular gore pieces. These will be made from a rectangular base piece and cut diagonally to make the two triangles, so it still follows the rule to a degree.

All together, the robe project requires the following pieces;

1 large back panel

2 front panels

2 triangular gores cut from a single rectangle

2 sleeve panels

2 under arm gussets

2 shoulder pieces

2 hood pieces

2 lapel pieces

1 collar piece

2 placket pieces

The size that each would be cut was roughly based on my measurements. I plan to make the robe large enough to be worn over a sweatshirt, so it won't be super fitted and the rough measurements will work well enough.

Fabric Requirements

With the plan drawn up, I knew I would need about 4.5m each of my exterior, lining, and interlining fabrics.

Following the colours from Tango's outfit, I wanted a navy for the exterior and a pale blue for the lining. The colour of the interlining won't matter since it won't be seen, but I opted for lighter colours so it wouldn't show through on the lining.

The quilt store didn't have as much of the printed lining fabric as I wanted, and without realizing it, I had already set my heart on a print I had seen at the store previously. I decided to use what they had and fill in the rest of the lining with white fabric in places it wouldn't be visible.

Cutting the Pieces

Once my fabric was purchased, I began cutting the pieces of the robe based on a cutting diagram I had made while calculating my fabric requirements.

Since I had purchased enough of the exterior fabric, that was very easy to cut, although the large size of some of the pieces did add a little challenge. For the lining though, I was forced to improvise a little with my cutting.

I made note of the areas where the lining would be most visible when wearing the robe - the inside of the hood, skirt, and sleeve cuffs - and focused on cutting those first. The remaining lining was cut from a solid white cotton that I already had in my stash.

The last layer to be cut was the interlining. It was an interesting puzzle since I was working with fabric remnants rather than yardage and needed to piece together multiple smaller cuts to make large enough panels of fabric.

However, sewing these pieces together would have added extra bulk along the seamlines, which I want to avoid, so I simply butted the pieces up edge to edge with as little overlap as possible. The interlining pieces will be quilted in between the other two layers, so they will be held in place quite securely.

At this point, I have cut all of the exterior and lining pieces, and some of the interlining. Since it's pieced, I decided to cut the interlining fabric as I progress with the quilting. This way, all the various bits of interlining won't get mixed up or lost along the way!

Quilting the Panels

With the cutting well underway, I'm now thoroughly into the quilting phase of this project!

Prior to quilting, I lay out the exterior, interlining, and lining fabrics on top of one another and baste them in place with thread.

Once basted, I mark my quilting lines using painters tape. The tape can be peeled off and reused multiple times before it stops sticking, so I typically only mark a few rows at a time so I can use the same four or five pieces of tape across the full width of each panel.

I decided to quilt the pieces of the robe using navy thread. It creates a very subtle grid on the exterior fabric and I think it looks great! It's a lot more visible and high contrast on the lining fabric though.

I debated using a lighter thread colour in my bobbin for lower contrast quilting on the lining, but I was worried about it showing on the exterior pieces. And now that I've finished quilting a few panels, I've decided that seeing the quilting on the lining fabric really isn't a problem for me, it really reinforces the pixelated style the project reflects!

Appliqueing the Pixels

Speaking of pixels, the next step is to applique tiny 1" squares across the skirt and sleeve pieces to create the pixelated swirl motif from Tango's robe!

Since I'll be doing all of this by hand, I expect the applique will take the longest out of every step and will be the main focus of my work this week.

I took one of the quilted gore panels on my trip to work on the applique, but didn't end up having a lot of time for sewing. Still, I managed to make quite a bit of progress cutting squares and getting some sewn on!

The applique pixels will be placed following a diagram I drew earlier in the planning process. Each pixel piece is sorted into one of six colour categories, ranging from white to dark blue, then sewn to the robe panels following the colour coding in the diagram. This gives me a wide range of blues and will create an interesting variegated effect!

I've been having a lot of fun working on the applique so far and am excited to see the motif come to life!

Assembling the Mage's Robe

Once my pieces have been quilted and appliqued, I can finally start to assemble the robe! I expect I won't be reaching this step until much later in the week, possibly not even until the weekend, but I'm very much looking forward to it!

I'll be sewing the robe together following a similar process to the one I learned while making my linen shirt. But this time, it will be done much faster by using my machine rather than sewing the whole garment by hand!

Finishing Steps

After assembly is complete, I'll have a few finishing touches to put on the robe. These include hemming, finishing interior seams, and adding buttons as a centre front closure.

Friends, it looks like I still have a lot of work ahead of me if I want to get this robe completed as planned!

You can keep up with my progress on this project throughout the coming week by visiting me on Instagram @v.a.fibre.arts. If you have any comments or suggestions that might help me with this project, please share those in the comments below! I would also love to hear about your ongoing projects; please share stories in the comments or tag me on Instagram!

I'm really looking forward to jumping back into this autumn costuming project and can't wait to see how it goes! Visit me again next week for another update on this and some of my other projects as well!

Until Next Time Friends, Keep Creating!

~VA