dress or party robe

[Jan-Qui Coran]

I'm in process of sort of creating a "party/Holiday" Jedi costume. I'm working on the outer tunic now & hopefully it will be ready for Dragon Con.

What I'm wondering is what kind of fabric would anybody have as an idea for a dress robe:
I'm thinking along the lines of something kind of shimmery, but not sure.
I might even just make a shimmer robe to go over 1 of my other robes to accent it--the robe is all in just the idea stage.

I've sort of gotten the idea from seeing Disney on Ice & a few other places, when they use the shiney fabrics.

I'm open to ideas.

[JediKai]

I've always thought it would be very fancy to make Jedi "dress" garb out of dupioni silk. However, that would be expensive. It's a very crisp, shiny silk. I've made a rather structured Harry Potter robe out of it so I think it might be OK for the Jedi over-robe, too.

Phoenix textiles has it for $17/yd. Yikes. I paid $7/yd for mine in the LA garment district.
www.fabric.com/apparel-fashion-fabric-silk-fabric-reorderable-colors-of-dupioni-silk-fabric.aspx
"promotionally priced", it's $11/yd
www.fabric.com/apparel-fashion-fabric-silk-fabric-promotionally-priced-dupioni-silk-fabric-dupioni-silk-fabric-taupes-browns.aspx

Other than silk, any "shiney" fabric is going to be largely synthetic and therefore hot

[Jan-Qui Coran]

Thank you that sounds interesting. I'm thinking that I would make an over robe for my lightwgt robe to dress it up. Something for me to meditate on.

[Jauhzmynn Enz]

Eventually, I'll do a 'dress robe' too, but of some heavy weight silk that's non-shiney.

[Jan-Qui Coran]

well I won't have a dress robe for Dragon Con but if I can get the tunics done, they will be there.

[Jauhzmynn Enz]

Cool


I think if I do the over robe in silk, it'd be some Dharma trading company's heaviest weighted silk. It's a smooth fabric drapes nice, has a 'heavy hand'. I guess that means it holds up well. It comes natural colour which I cna dye. (I'll need a bigger pot.). I'd probably have to use french seams. so it doesn't fray.

[Ari C'rona]

Hendel D'bu used wool suit fabric. It drapes and billows beautifully. We got it at a fabric store in Portland, OR. You can see it in her profile pic.

a-c

[Jan-Qui Coran]

I'd love to get some silk burnt sienna as mentioned in one of the EU books that Obi-Wan wore for diplomatic functions but that's just going to have to wait.
.

[Ani-Chay Pinn]

Someone at CIV had a robe made of silk noil. That is a much more affordable type of coarse silk, and comfortable to wear. It looks similar to the wool robes, but has a drape like a lighter fabric. It doesn't look fancy, but it does look nice.

[JediKai]

I've made a robe out of silk noil for a local member. It is lightweight but flows well. I don't think it looks particularly "dressy"....more like the standard wool robe.

[Jan-Qui Coran]

Thank you.silk noire? I'll have to look at that. It's not the raw silk noire is it? because if it is it doesn't keep the dark color well. I did a tunic in raw silk & it lost it's deep chocolate brown. I have 1 Jedi tunic made out raw silk which is ok.

[Jauhzmynn Enz]

Maybe if you get their book Jan-Qui you may find a fabric you like the feel of. It's $18.50 for a swatchbook with 77 fabric peices, no tax ,free shipping. It has swatches of ALL their fabrics. Even has notes with suggestions on what each fabric type is best used for, how well "X" fabric takes dyes etc.

About the silk Noil, it will bleed a lot if the wrong dyes is used or if the chemcials or water temp is off.(IE not hot enough or cold if cold dying). It has to be pre-treated, dyed and post treatment w/ certain chemicals to 'set' it. The final washing gets rid of excess.

My fiance's brown silk noil tunic does have a little bleed but not catestrophic. so I wash it with all my brown clothing(Brown under tunics, brown pants, over robe,). When it bleeds it only enchances the other clothing's colours and its.. It makes it look more like a garment a jedi'd wear and use. It looks lived in and well loved, but not torn up.(unless he asks me to do a CLone Wars battle mashed outfit.;-).)

[JediKai]

Silk noil is sort of raw silk. People use the terms interchangably but it's not really correct.