And it's time for Part Two of Three on the making of my Banyan, based on an example from the 1760s in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. As you might guess by the title, the majority of this post is on drafting the sleeves--the cuffs and collar are both quite simple.
For a recap, this particular garment is based on the one the
LACMA provided a lovely pattern and information on. However, while they provided a pattern, they do not tell you how to draft the garment so it fits you (their scaling grid is also terrible).
The way I do sleeves is fairly simple; essentially you take the measurements of the armscye, and transfer those to your sleevehead. However, a word of warning that some parts of sleeve drafting--the hang of the arm in particular--are rather complicated, and something you will have to learn on your own (until I get good enough that I can explain it); when it comes to the lateral rotation (as swinging your arms normally) you want the top and bottom of the sleevehead to be in line with the natural hang of your arm. As such, it may not hurt to mark the low point while the body is on your victim as well.
