Nisan wearing the Capucine robe made with FS Olive Branch midweight linen

Summer of 2012. I’m on vacation with my family in Bodrum, Turkey. We take a stroll in one of the night markets after dinner, walking by piles and piles of beautiful traditional Turkish towels – peshtemals. We come across one particular shop where the owner’s wife takes your peshtemals of choice and crafts them into beautiful bathrobes and we get one made each. I choose a stripy dark blue towel, and I’m mesmerised by the fact that she sews three bathrobes all within the span of an hour. Upon first use I am immediately converted into the peshtemal-bathrobe life – it dries so much more quickly than classic terry cloth bathrobes, it packs down to be smaller, and it feels so lovely and soft against the skin. Fast forward 13 years full of daily use, and my beloved bathrobe is finally getting a few tears in it. It’s also on the smaller, more slim fitting side of things which doesn’t exactly feel luxurious.

Nisan wearing the Capucine robe made with FS Olive Branch midweight linen

Enter, the linen Capucine bathrobe. This pattern truly found me at the perfect moment! It’s a roomy, shawl collar, drop shoulder bathrobe with two slits at the side seams. I made mine in a straight size 2 with no adjustments, knowing and anticipating that it was going to be a bit looser than intended. For reference, my measurements are currently 31.5” / 30” / 23” / 34.5” (HB/FB/W/H) and I’m 5’4” (163 cm) tall. I absolutely love the final fit, it feels so luxurious to wrap up in it after a shower.

Nisan wearing the Capucine robe made with FS Olive Branch midweight linen

Perhaps my favourite thing about the pattern is how much thought was given to the seam finishes for this pattern. All the seams are either flat felled or turned under and stitched down, resulting in a beautifully finished, sturdy garment that looks incredible inside and out. The only two modifications I made were to skip the interfacing at the facings and the belt to keep the robe extra soft and fluid, and to skip the bias bound edge of the facing – instead, I turned the raw edge under and topstitched it down, so that the facing wouldn’t flip around.

Nisan wearing the Capucine robe made with FS Olive Branch midweight linen

If I were to make this robe again, the only thing I would consider changing is how shaped the sleeve heads are for such a dropped shoulder. I found the sleeve head to be quite high, which resulted in the tops of the sleeves jutting out in an awkward way immediately after sewing them – this problem pretty much solved itself after I gave it a wash and I think it looks great now, but this is something I would consider adjusting to follow my preferred fit when it comes to dropped shoulders. I also found that the facing had some extra length at the hem that I needed to trim down to match the front edge of the robe, but apart from that the pattern was perfectly drafted and the instructions were crystal clear with lots of thoughtful details. This shawl collar is on the trickier side of things, pushing this project into an intermediate level, but the instruction booklet was really easy to follow making it a much more approachable project.

Nisan wearing the Capucine robe made with FS Olive Branch midweight linen

For the fabric I chose perhaps my favourite colour ever, the IL019 All-purpose Olive Branch Fs Signature Finish linen. Words truly cannot express how soft and luxurious this fabric feels, I honestly have a hard time taking this robe off after a shower! As usual, it was a pleasure to sew with, and it is an even greater pleasure to wear.

I’m so glad that after 13 years I finally got to upgrade my bathrobe game, and what an upgrade this has been! Thank you, old peshtemal bathrobe, for your service, and welcome home, Capucine. Can’t wait to spend the next couple of decades with you!