Bleh...

Little progress was made on E's robe over the course of this past week. I cut out the fabric last Sunday. This took a lot of time because I always seem to forget just how time-consuming it is to match checks... Even if I only matched the side seams and the front edge and front facing horizontally, to avoid using even more fabric. The thing already took almost five meters and those front pieces, with their A-line and overlap were just a bit too large to cut out of folded fabric.
After that, my work-week didn't leave any time or energy for sewing in the evenings.
Today, I could finally start sewing. I started with the pockets, which I had cut carefully to match their position on the front pattern pieces.
I interfaced the pocket facings, serged the edges, stitched  the facing down and applied a bit of very thin ribbon at the front.
Then, I put the pocket in its place...

WHAT?!?! I don't think I've ever seen this before. The fabric is a woven check and all pattern pieces were cut from the same length of fabric. That kind of rules out irregularities in check itself. There could be other issues though. After cutting, I noticed there was a little bit of stretch in the fabric widthwise. That could cause some trouble, but not shrinkage. But it does prove that this fabric is not the 100% cotton it was sold as. I suspect the fabric somehow shrunk when I ironed it while shaping that pocket...
So, I tried ironing the front. That helped a little. 

Between the ironing and the stretch, I managed to apply the pockets kind of the way I had meant to. I showed it to E and he claimed the pocket edges were only visible when he looked closely. That's kind, but I know it could have looked much better yet without the shrinking.
Hopefully, I'll be able to finish the robe tomorrow.