What's the best material for making a robe?

I am going to begin making my robe shortly, and was wondering what fabric most people use, and what it costs?

I have seen some costumes with the robe made out of thinner type materials, and I don't really like the look of them. I am looking for something that has a visible texture, and is somewhat thick.

P.S. before people get touchy and tell to search first, I couldn't find any search links, where are they?

 

Well I searched myself, I had a colour in mind and looked, cost me 30 bucks (CDN) for it all....If you want I have a nice close up I can send you

 

Check out the following sites; they all have good tutorials:

Amber's Jedi Meditation Chamber
Obi-Wan's Jedi Academy
The Padawan's Guide to Basic Jedi Garb


I've got more Jedi garb sites in my costuming links.


EDIT: I forgot to mention the most important thing: Check out the Jedi threads mentioned in the FAQs.

 

ummmm the best material that my friend found was a fabric that was nylon and something else but i will tell him to come answer your question

 

I ended up using cotton, as did my friend Ken for his Corellian Jedi costume. There are a lot of different types of cotton at the fabric store, and I just searched around until I found a huge roll of brown cotton and hung and moved just right.

The actuall robes used wool of some kind.

I would avoid synthetic materials such as Nylon or Rayon. They usually don't hang or move right and they tend to trap sweat and heat much worse then a natural material such as cotton or wool would.

 

I've made 3 robes:

first prototype was heavy cotton. That was OK in that it hung and flowed alright. That was about $4 yd.

My final robe is out of light weight wool and it is my favorite. It has huge hood, very voluminous cloak and large sleeves. You might find wool for about $7/yd. I used the Wiliqueen pattern on Amber's site. It required 7 yards and I'm only 5'2".

Right now, Phoenix textiles....
Heather brown
http://store.yahoo.com/phoenixtextiles/penblanwoolb.html
called "NW Wool", it's actually Pendleton at $10.85 per yard with is slightly less than half price for Pendleton wool. It is excellent quality but likely to be quite heavy.

The third robe I made out of heavy (7oz) linen using a commercial pattern. It looks fine, too.

 

I found some Nylon/wool fabric for only 4$/A yard It came in a light Brown, Like Obi Wan's In Episode 1. Or black. Yeah its in the Wal-mart sewing section.



M.T.F.B.W.Y.

 

According to the Official Site, the robes were made of WWII British Army surplus wool blankets. Yeah, like we're going to find that stuff. In Ep II, Obi-Wan's was too heavy for the rain-soaked fight scenes and they had to make him one out of lighter wool. I expect Anakin's Ep II cloak is out of something entirely different.

 

My robe is made out of a material called sweatshirt fleece, found at the local Jo-Ann Fabrics. It is heavy, warm, and comfortable, and flows dramatically whenever I'm striding around in it. If I remember correctly, it was something like 5$/yard. It looks to be a pretty close match to the movie version.

 

I have started looking for a good material, that is not synthetic (they are usually very flamable), and has a nice heavy feel too it, and I have yet to find anything except a bluish wool type material (why couldn't it have been in grey?). I guess it's not season for those type of fabrics yet, but I am going to keep my eye open.

 

just try finding a comprable match for Anakin's cloak fabric... i've been looking for MONTHS (in person and online) and i've found ONE fabric that looks close....some jacketing material from 1999 but they don't have anymore.... talk about FUSTRATING !!!

so the search continues.....................

NWJEDI
dave

 

If you look around your city for cheap fabric outlet stores, you can find thick wool blanket-like material for about $4-$5/yard. It looks really nice in person, but it's true that it's really hot during the summer. Some people have used wool gabardine, but I don't think that looks all that great, especially for the price usually paid. It is too thin and does not drape right, and the texture just seems off. It could look ok if somebody went for a different pattern or style of Jedi cloak than we saw in Ep 1.

I have never been overly impressed with any cloaks not made of wool, but some people will have to go with something lighter due to heat. One thing you can do to make a lightweight material drape better is to create a larger hem with a few folds of fabric. If you don't overdo it, it will give the hem weight without bulk. Also, don't skimp on the fabric, especially if it's lightweight fabric. To a certain extent, the fuller your robe, the better. Somebody mentioned she use 7 yards and she's 5'2", and that sounds about right. I'm 5'7" and I think I used 8 yards.

 

Jedi_Kai, can you post some pics of your costume? My girlfriends 5'2" and I want to know how it would look. If you could, that would be great.