hanndmade wardrobe // family holiday robes

pattern: Simplicity 9021 , also available at your local Joann store

mint sweatshirt fleece: Cali Fabrics

grey sweatshirt fleece: Fabric Mart Fabrics

buffalo check flannel: Joann Fabrics

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Two of my favorite things are handmade gifts and matching with my mini. Even better? When we get Daddy involved!

If you’re trying to figure out what to gift someone this holiday, I’m here to tell you that everyone loves cozy pajamas and loungewear! Especially handmade cozywear. Whether you make them to gift to other people, or for you and your own family to match as you sit around the Christmas tree - can anyone really resist some matching pajamas? Even if you’re a beginner, you can find some super easy-to-sew patterns from Simplicity or McCall’s. Think - some fun basic drawstring pajama pants in a quirky holiday print- super easy and a great beginner project! Or maybe you want to step it up a notch and try some fun matching zip-up onesies. Or you could go the route I did and go for matching robes!

So about these robes. I loooooooooove how these came out. And yes, the pattern is considered an easy-to-sew pattern. It can be a bit intimidating just because it does take a lot of fabric to make a robe, especially a family of robes, but the construction is simple and easy. I would still recommend it to someone at a beginner level. And it is double layered/reversible, so you don’t have to worry about seam finishing and making the inside look pretty because everything is enclosed and hidden! The only thing i would suggest, because it is two layers of fabric, is to choose one thicker cozy fabric, and one lighter-weight fabric. I originally was going to go with two contrasting thick fuzzy fleeces, but I think that would’ve been a loooot of fabric. I’m glad I went with the sweatshirt fleece on one side and lighter flannel on the other. It’s a good balance! I cut and XS for me (my usual size), a S for Zach, and the smallest size for P, which I think is closer to a size 5. Yes, I technically could’ve graded the pattern down to a size 3. But I figured - its a robe, its supposed to be big and comfy. Plus, she’ll get a lot more wear out of it if I kept it a bit bigger. So all I did is take off a couple inches off the bottom hem so it wasn’t too long, and about an inch off the sleeve hem. It’s actually perfect! I’ve had these finished for about 5 days now, and at least one of us has been wearing ours every time we are at home lounging. I have a feeling that they will be getting a lot of wear and love this winter.

Now let’s talk about another aspect of this kind of gift - customization! While I love being matchy matchy, I also having little details to make each piece specific to each person. So for ours, I decided to embroider ‘mama’ ‘daddy’ and ‘Penny’ on each of our robes? And guess what? Even this shouldn’t be intimidating for a beginner. I have actually never hand embroidered before this - this was my first time! I decided to just go for it and try, and honestly it was a lot easier than I thought and turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. I’m pretty proud of them!

Now scroll down to see just how cute a three year old looks on her own custom bathrobe. I’m telling you, it is next level cute.

handmade wardrobe // family Hudson pants

all three sweatpants: Hudson pants, men’s Hudson pants, and mini Hudson Pants by True Bias, in a navy blue terry velour from Style Maker Fabrics

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Zach has been bugging me to make something for him for awhile now. I mean, I am always sewing for me and P, it’s about time I incuded something for him. And of course, I couldn’t make something for just him - I had to take the opportunity for all of us to match! The Hudson Pants were the perfect project for this since it comes in sizes for the whole family.

I’ve made one pair for me before, so I knew the sizing was perfect for me in the women’s. Zach fell in between sizing in the men’s, so I went with the bigger of the two sizes, thinking that it was better for sweatpants to be a a little loose rather than a little tight. He says he likes the fit, but they seem just a tad bit baggy to me, so next time I might try one size down for him. I also think I will make the pocket bags bigger for him next time. He always carries his phone in his pocket, and they are just a tad bit too small - his phone falls out in these ones. And lastly - Penny’s is pretty much perfect in the size 3! I just need to cut a smaller piece of elastic next time for her little waist. I really relied on the drawstring for these ones, tying them extra tight to keep the pants up on her. But the length and fit were perfect!

In general, this was a succesful project! I still have quite a bit of this terry velour left, so I’m going to make us all matchig sweatshirts too, so we have full sweat sets haha. And I see more Hudson pants in our future. We are a lounge-y family, after all.