Fly-by-night Lancer's Tunic: Drafting

My latest harebrained scheme--a steampunk jacket in the form of a late Victorian Lancer's Tunic.  Now, there isn't much of a difference from drafting a body coat of the same system, but there are some.  Therefore, I decided to throw together a rough tutorial (images probably won't be the best) of the cutting system.

As mentioned, the tutorial is somewhat rough, and missing a few steps for the pictures--apologies for that.  But since the project is now finished, I decided I should probably publish what I have.

The system is roughly the same as that for my Frock Coat drafting tutorial--same author and company, but for military tunics.  I do recommend reading the Frock Coat Tutorial first, before continuing.--just for clarity.


You don't need that many measures, since it is a proportional system.  It is important to remember that when the chest measure is mentioned in the instructions, the 1/2 chest measure is meant; ditto for all the other horizontal measures.

• Chest (1/2):
• Waist (1/2):
• Front chest: (1/2) 
• Back shoulder width (1/2)
• Arm length:
• To Elbow
• Vertical measures
• Halfway down armscye:
• Armscye:
• Waist:

Draft a vertical line, marking points at 1/2 Scye +1/2", at the Scye measurement, and at the Natural waist.

Measure across at the 1/2 scye mark, by 1/2 your back shoulder width (minus 1").

At the top of the line, measure up by 1 inch, and over by 1/6 Neck.  Curve a line.

Draw a line from the 1/2 Scye mark to 1" in at the natural waist.

Mark from the natural waist point, to the back shoulder (the dashed red line).

1/4" (or seam allowance) down from the natural waist, mark over by 1.5 inches to give the back width.

Even with the armscye mark, measure over by about 2" (towards the back) from the red dashed line.  Curve a line through this to the waist.

A total of 5 inches of ease is specified over the breast measure.  Measure over by your half breast (plus the 2.5 inches of ease) at the bottom of the armscye (I marked a red dashed line at this point).  Mark another point at 2/3 of the half breast, which becomes the front of the armscye.  Then over by the full half breast measure.

At the sidebody line, take out 1.5 inches.  1" to the back, and 1/2" to the front.  Draw your lines with a slight 'S' curve.

Take out another 1.5 inches out at the back sidebody and draw the line somewhat like so.  Make the sidebody 1" longer than the back waist (which gets eased and shrunk into the back seam)

For the back shoulder, measure up from the 1/2 scye by 1/6th chest + 1/2".  Mark out by 1 inch (it should be about 1/2" wider than 1/2 of your back shoulder measurement).  Draw a curved line; remembering that the sidebody curves out 1/4" further than the back.

At the waist level, measure out to the half waist measure.  Note that there should be little to no ease there.  When measuring across, you should not include the portions removed at the sidebody and side seams.  If needed, you may need to reduce the amount taken out at these points.

Approximately halfway between the 1/2 and 2/3 breast measures, measure across (even with the point of the back shoulder) by 1/2 your front shoulder width measurement.  Curve the front edge from here, though the chest measure, and to the waist measurement.

The neck measurement should be equal to 1/6th chest, in both depth and width.  The depth should be split between the top and bottom of the imaginary shoulder line.

Front shoulder should be 1/2 inch shorter than the front shoulder. As you can see, my shoulder seam will slant slightly towards the back.  The angle was decided mostly by my personal shoulder slope measure, where I split the difference between front and back shoulder.

Unlike the frock coat draft, the shoulder seam is roughly on top of the shoulder, rather than slanting heavily towards the back.  So if you know your shoulder slope measure, you can average it out using the back shoulder measure.

Curve the armscye.  From the center chest, this should be the same as the front chest measurement (which measures between these two seams), plus a little ease.

Sleeves (blue dots and lines):

Mark the top of your line, 1.5" below it, down by the width of your scye, elbow, and full sleeve measure. 

Measure around from the locations of the front seam to the back seam of the armscye.

Using a flexible ruler or French ruler, measure that curve on the lines even with the first and third points and ending on the middle line to find the topsleeve width.  Divide the width of your top-sleeve by four [9.75/4 = 2.43].  Mark off your quarters.

And draw, with the highest point being 3/4th of the way over on the top line.

At the elbow mark, measure in by 1", then across by about 1/3 of the half chest measure--it will probably need to be modified to fit, but it is better to cut larger than too small.  Now draw the curve of your front sleeve seam.

Square across by 1/2 your fist measurement, and to taste.  Because it is squared across, there will be a slight slant.

Back to the top. 
Now draw the under-sleeve line, which will be 3/4 the width of the top-sleeve; this will dip slightly below the line at quarter one, and curve up to quarter 3.

Now draw the hind-arm seams.  When you cut, remember to add seam allowance to all edges; I also recommend adding in another 1" for inlays, just in case you need to make it a bit larger.

Fit was pretty much correct, and the sleevehead fit perfectly.  I did have to narrow the sleeve slightly at the elbow, but as said...that's simple.


Hope this helped.  I procrastinated for over a year on finishing and publishing the article, for some reason.

© John Frey, 2017. The Author of this work retains full copyright for this material. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial private research or educational purposes provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.