I made Elijah’s robe first for two reasons:

1) With all of the crafting for my winter birthday kids (as in, everyone but him), I felt like I hadn’t worked on anything for him for a while.

2) His light colored outer fabric made it out of the wash just as I was sitting down to sew (where as the darker counterparts did not possess such excellent sense of timing).

KWIK SEW 2705
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I purchased the cotton velour for lining these robes ages ago, when I found it at a good price through a co-op. The little kids Christmas pj’s from last year were made of cotton velour and the older set were covetous of “fuzzy fabric-ed” garments of their own.

Now, the problem with buying the lining so far in advance was that I was them committed to finding a fabric to coordinate with it.

There is a part of this shopping trip that I didn’t mention. The hour or so that I spent pacing up and down the flannel aisle, tiny fabric swatches in hand, muttering about horrible shades of red that outright clash with everything. The kind ladies working that day took pity on me and tried to help, but all the same, by the time Steve got back to pick me up I had the crazy-eyed look of a women on the verge of a break down.

And right then and there is where I did some letting go of my own and the kids learned about their robes.

The next level of letting go came with the fabric choices. I had something very particular in mind. For months on end, I had been picturing some very classic looking Christmas pajamas. Maybe something in plaid or pinstripes, perhaps some paisley, maybe, just maybe, some discrete and tastefully done snowflakes; none of which I could find to match this red.

What I did find to match it was several different overly bright, overly loud and, dare I say, overly tacky fabrics.

And I found this:
With snowflakes and polar bears and tress and (this was the clincher) red cardinals that matched the velour exactly. It wasn’t at all what I had in mind, and yet it was very, very Elijah (especially the cardinals). When I showed it to him and he hugged the bolt, I figured it was the way to go.