My ODC Robe Upcycle

(by Sherezzah Bint al-Waha)

Early in 2024, while trying to clean out some things from my closet, I came across a "spa robe" (pic at left) that I'd been gifted many years earlier. I had almost no use for it. The only place I really have need for a robe is at Oasis when it's at a dorm-type facility with the washrooms down the hall. And I'd brought it there once, but it was made of thin white t-shirt type fabric that was almost see-thru, so it didn't really work well for me. So, it had to go... but perhaps I could upcycle it somehow?

Meanwhile, I still had a surplus of Oasis t-shirts, mostly from Rachel and Katina's dance estates. We'd made a t-shirt quilt out of some (gifted it to Saida), and were able to sell some, but there were still quite a few left. It occurred to me that if I could cover the robe with a patchwork of t-shirt pieces, it would no longer be see-thru, which would make it usable for Camp. Plus, it would help get rid of some of those surplus shirts!

I got really enthusiastic about doing it, but I had a couple of other sewing projects I really needed to get done first, so it wasn't until May that I was able to actually get to work. In the meanwhile, though, I still thought a lot about the project, including remembering some other t-shirts I had that might be useful for cannibalizing, as well as some initial thoughts on how to arrange them. For example, I remembered the early ODC 5-year nightshirt, that was white so you could collect autographs from all the campers. I had stopped wearing mine some years ago, when it had been washed so much that the fabric started getting thin and most of the autographs had faded. But I figured it would be perfect for the upper center back, with its classic big-O Oasis design. And even if the 2 layers of thin fabric were still kinda see-thru, it wouldn't really matter there. Plus, any individual autographs that were still visible could be useful for filling in small spots in the patchwork that might need covering. Another one I knew I'd want to use was what I call the "Saturn and Salome" design from 2001 ("A Dance Odyssey"), because I had at least 3 t-shirts with that design. I liked it because it was my own design idea, but the printed result hadn't turned out as nice as I imagined it. (Joani, who had assisted me by doing the color separations for the design, said the problem was that the printer had used a wrong separation (i.e. one made to print on a light-colored shirt, even though the shirt was navy blue).) So that shirt wasn't popular with the other campers, and I was able to get a couple extras at a discount. I figured this one would work well on the lower edge of the center back, because the dark color would definitely hide my butt, and I was not so enamoured of the design that I'd mind sitting on it. I also decided that I really needed to have some animal print somewhere on this thing, of course, because it's the Camp Color.

So the first step, after I was able to start working on this project, was to collect all the potential shirts and see what I had. I started by sorting them into basic categories: classic "big O" designs, specialty designs, and miscellaneous. I separated out a few that had nudity (temple/harem scenes); I might prefer not to use those. I had no idea how many shirts I would need to cover the whole robe.

I noticed, as I was sorting the shirts, some that I definitely would like to use. One was the Khaleegy lady; she'd be good for one side top front. Also, there were other shirts that one could call "my design" (I had found old sheet music with drawings that looked like they'd make good ODC shirts, sent them to Saida, and she decided to use them). There were 3 of those, and I decided they'd be great along the bottom edge of the robe along with "Saturn and Salome", because it should be easy to keep their whole designs intact there. I also had one shirt that had "rhinestones" on it, so of course I had to use that. That one was the 30-year anniversary shirt, so I checked and I also had the 25-year and 20-year shirts, so I thought I might put those together on the other front side. I figured I had a pretty good start with those, so tried arranging them on top of the robe as a sanity check (pic at right). You may note that the white 5-year autograph nightshirt is NOT at the top center where I'd been planning to use it. Turned out that, when put next to the other shirts, it did not look good. It just wasn't in good enough condition for this project. So I changed it out for the scarab, which not only looked great there, but was also Joani's design, for which I had an extra personal connection because I made up the word "Scarabian" (rhymes with "Arabian") that she was using for her business, Scarabian Designs, where she used a scarab logo.

It looked like my arrangement ideas would work, so it was time to actually start sewing some of the pieces in place. My process was: cut the graphic I wanted from the shirt (as in the pic at left); use 505 spray glue to position it on the robe where I wanted it; hand-baste to secure it in place (because 505 is only temporary); machine stitch where necessary (which was generally all the edges unless I was planning to overlap it with another piece); then trim any extraneous edges as needed. I soon realized I had some decisions to make that I hadn't really thought about:

• I was not going to patchwork the sleeves; they were gonna be too hard to cover unless I opened up the seam and I didn't want to do that.
• I also would not cover the ribbing that ran around the neck and the front opening. I figured it would look neater left white.
• I'd let the patches reach all the way to the bottom of the robe, but I'd stitch them above the actual hemline. I just thought this would make for easier sewing.
• I wasn't going to try to patchwork over the tie wrap; if I decided I wanted one that looked like that, it'd be easier to make a whole new one.

I started with the center back, with the scarab at the top and "Saturn and Salome" at the bottom, then did the other 4 that formed the bottom edge (the 3 I "designed" and the 20th anniversary). 2 of "my" designs were yellow, and at first I was planning to put them at the 2 corners, for balance. But that put the 20th too separated from the other 2 anniversary ones, so I switched the 20th to a corner.

Then I continued with the front sections. The pic at right shows the other anniversary ones being positioned on the right front. I was having to go off-square to fit around the armscye and the lapel area, so I started with the 30th positioned as high as I could get it without losing part of the graphic. But I still had problems trying to fit the 25th there without losing parts of the graphics. I had to play around a bit shaping the edges so I could keep the parts of the graphics that I felt were important.

I don't have an interim pic for it, but the left front went similarly. I positioned the Khaleegy lady as high up as I could. Alas, that cut out part of the word "Oasis" at the armscye, but I fixed that by cutting the word off and inserting a non-graphic piece of the same t-shirt. I put the word back in a new spot over her head later. Unless you look close enough to see the stitching, it looks like it was always that way. The Khaleegy lady was a fairly large patch, so that left a rather narrow strip (maybe 1-2"?) of uncovered robe left between her and the Oasis sheet music patch below. One of the ways I'd thought about to fill in small areas like this was to use just text pieces cut from the shirts, like "Oasis Dance Camp" either as the full phrase or as individual words. Not all the shirts have suitable text for this, but it turns out a couple of the ones with the nudity did, and one of them worked out just perfect for this spot.

As I worked on the front sections, it became apparent that the area around the top of the shoulder (both front and back) was going to be difficult to put a t-shirt piece on. They were smallish, somewhat irregular areas... and which way should a design even face? I decided those would be perfect for animal print pieces, which I'd put on last, after the back was done.

The back still had several smallish areas to be filled. I collected some assorted bits and pieces that I thought would be useful. There were still a few things that I really wanted to include, specifically the "Bad grrrls" shirt that they sold at ODC one year, the shirt with the hamsas, the sleeve of a shirt I'd had made that said "Sherezzah" (I'd worn it at Oasis a few times, but otherwise got almost zero use from it because it was long-sleeved), and at least one camel (I had several scrap pieces of fabric with camels on them).

So after playing around with various placements of the bits and pieces into the remaining spaces, I decided I liked this:

Then it was just a matter of finishing it. It had been pretty easy and fast putting on all the initial large rectangular pieces, but as the empty spaces got smaller and more oddly-shaped, it required more planning and fiddling. But eventually it all came together and I was really happy with the result. Especially since it was finished in time for me to bring to Oasis Dance Camp 2024 in Indiana, where it worked out well as a jacket as well as a robe. Here I am meeting up with friends at the airport:

First, me modeling it, showing both sides of the front and the back:

And also, it laid out flat, showing the front sides and the back side:

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