Swim Robes - Pattern review and additional tutorial

Needing some quick swim cover-ups for two of my grand-daughters, I had made some simple ones out of towelling (see this post) . However, they weren't really going to be warm enough for the coldest part of winter, what with having to change outdoors. And in timely fashion, I found a Facebook post from Laura Bolwell of Designed for Daisy, with information about a pattern and tutorial she had designed for a three-layer swim robe. Her pattern was very reasonably priced on Etsy, so I hastened off to buy it, and set about making not just two robes for those two granddaughters, but 4, for all 4 of them.

As a reviewer on Etsy pointed out, this is not a project for complete beginners, but in the course of making 4, I learned some tricks to make it easier, so I'm sharing what I learned here. Note that this review and my tutorial will only help you if you have bought Laura's pattern and tutorial.

First, I will just summarise the main points of difference in how I did it, then if you wish, you can go on to read why and how I changed or added to Laura's tutorial. I have added a lot of pictures to explain what I did.

1. For the 2 biggest sized robes, I added to the length of the larger pattern size, for taller children - I also made the side vents longer on these NOTE: This would now not be necessary, as Laura has updated the pattern to have 3 sizes.
2. For all of the robes, I made the turning gap a bit bigger
3. Because I was making several at once, I had to be very disciplined about the order in which I made them
4. I found the curves on the waterproof layer rather more difficult to 'ease to fit' than the other layers. Eventually I solved this by cutting a few nicks a tiny bit into the seam allowance on the shorter side of each curve to creare some 'give' in an otherwise inflexible fabric.
5. The most significant change I made was to attach (by tacking) the zip to the outer two layers BEFORE attaching the lining. This made it considerably easier to avoid all the layers slipping against each other or against the zip
6. I also sewed the zip parts of the seam that attached all three layers, before sewing the hood part and the bottom edges of that seam.
7. Before turning all the layers the right way out, I poked the sharp corners through.

The pattern comes in two three size ranges - small = 3-6 years, medium = 5-8 years and large 8-14 years. (These are approximate sizes, and Laura shows the fit of the small and medium on a 6 year old of 118cm.) . I was making for one child of 3 - 99cm; one of 5 (nearly 6) - 117cm, one of 6 (nearly 7), and one of 7. So in theory one or other of these sizes should have worked fine for all of them. The problem is that the two older ones are both tall for their ages, at 128cm (50 in) and 135cm (53 in), and at the time (December 2020) only the small and medium sizes were available. But as Laura had pointed out, these robes are a forgiving fit, so I just added 12.75 cm (5") to the length of the medium pattern for these two. I wanted the robes to start off pretty much ankle length and to allow for growth.

The first thing that needs to be said it that these take quite a bit of fabric, as they have 3 layers. As described by Laura, the robes are "Windproof and waterproof, with a warm stay dry layer next to the skin and an absorbent core". I spent about £100 on the  pattern, fabric, zips and notions for all 4, so you could say they worked out at about £25 each. However, given that these type of robes are well over £100 to buy, I thought this was reasonable. I'd ordered 3m of each of two colours of fleece from Minerva, and also bought the open-ended zips from them, 1 x55cm, 1 x 60cm, and 2 x 65cm. 

The other issue about the total length of fabric for all four was that I had to do all the cutting out on the floor, and diagonally across the room, with one end of it rolled up. I did a lot of crawling round on my hands and knees. The gardening kneeler mats came in handy. 

(Note that none of my pictures show the whole of the pattern, you need to buy the pattern and tutorial for this to make sense to you.)

Each robe takes about 1.5m of each of the three layers: waterproof, towelling, and fleece. Of these, the towelling was the most expensive. The first lot of towelling I'd bought on the internet was horrible, and had to go back, but I did get a refund. I managed by careful pattern placement and cutting to use only about 5 - 5.5m of each of the fabrics for all 4 robes. In the third picture you can see that I've added that extra 12.75cm to the length. It was much the easiest to cut everything out first, then I could clear the mess up off the floor! 

 

Making so many at once, two with blue fleece linings and two with cerise fleece linings, I had to be very disciplined to keep track. The first thing I did was put everything to do with one child's robe in its own labelled bag, so I could keep all the bits together.

And secondly, I kept a progress list of where I'd got to, which bits had been cut, which bits had been sewn etc. Here's the list when I'm coming to the end of the first robe. Note the coloured tick for the linings. By the end, of course, everything was ticked!

Following Laura's excellent tutorial, the first task is to put each layer together, I first sewed the bodies, then the hoods, and then the hoods to the bodies. Here's the first outer (waterproof) layer complete.

This stage was relatively straighforward as far as the fleece and towelling layers went. The hoods especially need a bit of 'easing to fit', which was fine for these layers which had a bit of give in them. I found the waterproof layer (above) more challenging, as the fabric was quite stiff and with no flex in it. To get the first hood to fit to the body, I actually made the seams bigger on the hood, to make it smaller, which I regretted later. I realised that would mean the waterproof layer would actually be a bit smaller round the neck than the layers that go inside it. It worked, just about, but for the subsequent ones I decided I would really just try to get them to fit without doing that. It's fiddly, but I found it helped to cut a few little nicks a tiny bit into the seam allowance on the shorter side of each curve to creare some 'give' in an otherwise inflexible fabric. (Obviously you have to be careful you don't cut right up to the seam allowance.)

I left a bigger turning gap on the lining layer compared with Laura's 15cm (c 6"). I used 8" for the small one and 10" for the medium ones.I also left longer slits for larger sizes, of 7" and 8".

Spot the deliberate (?) mistake in this hood? I only noticed right at the end that I'd sewn the centre panel inside out. See it's a bit more shiny than the sides? Oh well, too late then to worry about that. 

After sewing each layer, the next stage is to put the three layers together and insert the open-ended zip. I realised very quickly this would be the most awkward part, because with three layers, one of which is especially slippery, it would be a challenge to get the zips in without the fabrics slipping. Laura hints at this in her tutorial, by saying you need to be careful to get the sides of the zip to match. However, I found a way to add the zips which I think is even easier than the way Laura suggests in her tutorial. I took a lot of photos as I went, to try and illustrate how I did it. 

In summary, to give the zip stability, I tacked each half to the outer two layers, BEFORE attempting to sandwich between these two layers and the lining.

Laura lays down all three layers, starting with the towelling, seams down, followed by the outer (waterproof) fabric, also seams down, and then the fleece layer seams uppermost. The sleeves are all pushed through. I did the same with the first two layers, but I left the fleece layer to one side to start with. I then clipped the waterproof and towelling layers together on one side. This is the side on the left as you look at it, and which will become the left-hand side of the robe when worn. In these pictures the red waterproof layer is folded back a bit over the towelling layer.

Because each of the fabrics has a different drapeability (is that a word?), I found it easiest to clip first each end, then in the middle, and then systematically in between each of the clips. This is shown below on clipping the fleece layer to the others, but the same principle applies. If you start at one end matching as you go, you'll probably find they don't match by the other end - you'll have some left over!

Then, having got the fabrics clipped together, I clipped the zip to the two layers. This was the part of the zip with the zipper pull on it, and I clipped it face down, with the teeth pointing towards the armhole (and away from the edge). You'll note that I placed the zip a little bit away from the edge, about 2-3mm or c 1/8". And I placed it with about 3 or 4 teeth above the neckline seam.

Next, I tacked the zip to these two layers very close to the edge of the zip. If you preferred not to do hand-tacking, you could perhaps machine baste it. I chose not to, because the whole point was to avoid having the machine cause the zip to slip. Some people swear by a walking foot (though I don't know, can you use a walking foot on a zip?) but my heavy duty machine can't take a walking foot anyway. I was brought up on hand-tacking everything, so that little bit of hand-tacking doesn't bother me a bit.

I repeated this on the other side, with the other half of the zip. One further advantage of tacking the zip to the outside layers first is that you can see that you are getting the sides exactly matched up (tooth for tooth, as it were).

Here you can see the tacking from each side. I was also able to zip up the zip to try the matching before sewing the zip on the machine with all three layers.

Feeling now pretty confident my zip was going to turn out perfectly, I now set about clipping the fleece layer to the other two, right sides together with the red waterproof layer. Again, I clipped the two ends first, then the middle .....

...and finally clipped in between until the whole zip was clipped. Here's the one with the blue fleece lining clipped.

And the cerise fleece lining. Take care to match the neckline seam as well as the two ends.

I now attached the zipper foot to my machine. 

And I sewed along the zip, feeling through the layers for the zip teeth. I was able to follow my tacking stitches, sewing closer to the teeth than the tacks.

Here you can see the stitching line (dark brown) inside the tacking stitches (green).

Note that I did not, as Laura does, go round the whole robe at this stage. Just doing the zip portion enabled me to flip the layers back up to check that the zip had gone in correctly, rather than having to wait until I was able to turn the whole thing the right way out (and then find out I'd gone wrong).

I was glad I'd done this. Only once in all four robes did I find the zip fitting hadn't worked out completely perfectly first time. You can see on this one, right at the bottom of the zip, I'd veered off a bit and only just caught the edge of the lining. It was an easy job to unpick this 7.5cm (3") section and correct it before carrying on.

Having checked and been satisifed with the zip matching, I then clipped and  sewed round the garment from the zip top, over the hood and back down to zip top other side. To make sure I made nice curves over the top edge of the opening above the zip, and caught in the top of the zip, I drew a curve using a washaway / fadeaway marker pen so I could follow the curve.

Then I clipped and sewed round from below the zip round the bottom and round the back and back up the front.

It was now time to turn the whole robe the right way out. Because of all the careful checking I'd been able to do along the way, I felt no further need to turn it the right way, check, and then turn it back in order to trim it. So I just trimmed. I cut off the sharp corners, and made a few little nicks on the curves, being careful not to cut the seam threads.

My last little trick to make it easier to turn the robe the right way out, was that before I started to pull it all through the turning gap, I poked all the corners in. This meant they were pointing the right way before I started turning. It's easier to get in to poke them from this side rather than through the turning hole, and it also means you have something to grab onto (i.e. the points) when pulling through. Of course you always need to be careful not to poke with something so sharp that it goes right through trhe corners. I usually use a narrow tipped chopstick. Here's one of the corners poked in before turning.

The next step (we're nearly there now!) is to sew the cuffs. Laura's tutorial explains how to pull the sleeves (only) back through the turning hole, and sew the liner to the outer two layers. She warns that it might be necessary to do each in two halves. I didn't find this so, even with the smaller size. And my heavy duty machine doesn't even have a piece that comes off to narrow the flat bed. What you do have to be careful about, is that you pull them through and check they are not twisted. I made sure that I had the underarm seams on the right side of both sleeve parts before sewing them, and it was otherwise straightforward.

Next, to sew up the turning gap. I should re-iterate that I had left a larger turning gap than Laura suggests (she says 15cm or 6"). I had at least an 8" gap on the smaller size, and 10" on the larger size. Just made the turning easier. In order to stitch it up evenly, I marked the seam allowance with little dots with washaway fabric marker, either side of the gap.This just made it easier to make sure I had turned in an equal amount each side of the seam all the way along.

The very final step is the edge stitching on the outside. With some projects, this over-stitching is optional, but for this one, it made a huge difference to the finished result. Here's the rather messy side vent before over-stitching.......

....... and the whole robe..... 

Just doesn't look professional or finished, does it? 

Just one amusing, or maybe cautionary tale. Laura suggests you make sure there is enough thread on your reel to be able to get all the way round, for the neatest result. I sometimes do play chicken a bit with the thread reel, but I thought there was (probably) enough. And there was.

Before overstitching

After overstitching

But hang on a minute - did she also say something about 'check the bobbin' as well? Yes, indeed she did. And I hadn't. Oops! 3-4cm before the end ....... oh dear!

However, the end result was well worth it. Here now is the side vent after overstitching. I'm happy with that.

First one (small size) finished

First two for  two sisters finished (1 medium, extended in length and 1 small)

All four finished for all four cousins - 1 medium, 1 small, 2 medium extended in length 

Just one final footnote. Laura was very helpful when I asked her questions via the Etsy web site. My final question was: "Have you tried washing them?" I've taken the liberty of quoting her reply in full, as it is the advice I've passed on to my daughters.

"I’ve washed them once (after one of the kids slipped in the mud), on a 30 degree gentle cycle turned inside out and they came out fine. Usually when we get back from swimming I just turn them inside out and hang over the back of a chair overnight. I usually leave them longer than is really necessary as it’s possible that although the fleece would feel dry, the towelling could still be wet underneath."

The first two being tried on, ready for trip to the pool on Boxing Day - children really excited!

Jane (6) in medium, made 5" or 12.75cm longer, and Ada (3) in size small. I should have ordered even longer zips for the ones I extended, really, but Jane is happy. It's ankle length, which is what she wanted. And below, Ada and Jane.

Rose, 5 (nearly 6) in the medium robe, and Fleur, just 7, in the medium size lengthened also by 5" or 12.75cm. Fleur is so tall for her age that I would say the sleeves are a little short on her, especially given that she is rocking it with an off-the-shoulder look. I should probably have lengthened the arms, too. But she can pull her hands inside if she's cold! (Note that the larger size now available does provide longer sleeves.)

(The latter pair of robes are not as long on the girls as the rather foreshortened photo may suggest. I'll be happy when I can get to see the girls in person and take my own photos!)

I hope to be able to provide more pictures of the robes being worn, after lockdown. In the meantime, a final link to Laura's great pattern and tutorial.