[perky, comical music]
[small clatter]
Hello, and welcome to another SnappyDragon costuming video! Many of us have been spending
much more time home in our pajamas due to coronavirus shutdowns. I mean, why bother
changing? Inspired by Willoughby and Rose’s excellent video on sewing an 18th century
“banyan”, linked onscreen, I challenged the good folk of CosTube to upgrade our pajamas
with the styles of yester-year! Check out this playlist to see what everyone else has
made. The “banyan” is pretty much a bathrobe
or dressing gown. It has a simple T-shaped construction with sleeves and body cut in
one. I first cut a cotton sateen bedsheet and some soft cotton voile lining to my length
and armspan measurements, folded them in quarters, and stacked them on top of eachother. The
pattern begins with marking half my sleeve width down from the top, carrying that line
towards the center to my desired sleeve length {image with directions onscreen}, then drawing
diagonally downwards from the underarm to the bottom outside corner. Smooth out the
underarm curve, and then you can cut out the entire banyan in one cut!
From the off-cuts, I sketched out some large pocket-bags, using a tracing of my phone to
make sure they’d be big enough before I cut them out too.
The banyan opens at center front. I laid out both layers, unfolded but on top of eachother
and pinned them in place. Then I marked and cut a straight line down center front, extending
just a little past the where the shoulder seam would be if I had one, for the neckline.
With the layers still pinned to eachother, I draped them over my shoulders as if I was
wearing the banyan, and sketched out a rough neckline placement.
Then I smoothed it out using the curve ruler, and cut accordingly.
I removed my pins . . .
separated the lining from the fashion fabric . . . and got stitching.
I’m using a machine overcasting stitch, which is kind of like serging- or overlocking-lite.
It’s good for finishing edges, although it does use a lot of thread! I sewed up the
entire sideseams of the lining, from the hem all the way around the underarm and to the
end of the sleeve.
Before I could do the same with the fashion fabric though, I had to pin in the pockets.
These would sit between the fabric and the lining layer. I matched up all the edges,
measured for where in the sideseam to place them, and then pinned one half of the pocket,
right side to right side, into the front of the banyan.
[calm, baroque-ish piano music continues]
Once I did the same with the back,
I would have a complete pocket all ready to go.
At the machine, I first stitched each pocket piece to the body,
then sewed the entire sideseam up just like the lining . . .
or I would have, if my bobbin hadn’t pitched a fit.
[small clunk]
[whirring]
After re-winding and re-threading, I could finally finish the sideseam.
[piano music continues]
This dress form doesn’t adjust small enough to be my size, but it’s still useful for
pinning an unfitted garment like this banyan. I’m creating a bagged lining, so I put the
layers right-sides together on the form, and pinned the sleeve ends. Do not actually do
this, because it is wrong— you will have to warp the fabric of space-time a little to get bagged
linings to turn nicely, as I’ll show later. Pinning the neckline and front opening was
much more straightforward.
The diagonal cut of the sideseams means I needed to level the hem, or I’d have long
corners sticking out. Using a plexi ruler, I measured the shortest part of the hem, then
marked that same length on every other area, adjusting the draping to be sure it would hang correctly.
[piano continues playing]
Then I could cut away the excess for a neat, even hem.
Back at the machine, I began sewing the lining and fashion fabric layers to eachother. Starting
near the center back hem, I stitched all the way around the hem to one side of the front
opening, around the corner, up and around the neckline curve, down the other side of
the front opening, and across the rest of the hem, leaving a 6-inch gap to turn the
banyan right-side out.
I also stitched together the ends of the sleeves,
but this was in fact a Grave Error. When I turned garment right-side out like that,
the sleeve lining was outside the sleeve instead of inside it. To get the sleeve lining to
sit inside the sleeve when the banyan is turned out, they have to be separated and stitched
together that way. I still can’t get my head around it, but this is how it works.
With the sleeve lining outside of the sleeve, I pinned the cuff seam right side to right
side and sewed it like that. It’s a bit tricky, but better than the alternative!
[more piano]
This is how the sleeves have to be sewn to turn out properly. Now when I turn the banyan
right-side out . . .
the lining goes inside the sleeve,
with the extra length on the fashion fabric layer folding back inside to create a facing.
I closed up the opening in the hem with a slip-stitch, which is a running stitch that
goes through the turned-in seam allowance of lining and fashion fabric alternately,
one stitch in each.
It sits in between the layers, so it’s invisible from the outside.
At this point, the banyan was finished . . . ?
Nope! Turns out machine-overcasting needs a bit more help on fine or fraying-prone fabrics
like these. I kept finding gaps where it hadn’t held, so I turned the banyan inside out again,
re-stitched the fraying areas, and then ran a straight stitch along behind it.
I had to do this on the lining sideseams, fashion fabric sideseams,
pockets, sleeve ends, and the seam
between lining and fabric, so it was a lot of stitching, but it’s worth it to do things
right and not have my banyan fall apart on me.
The actual last step was to take some satin ribbon with the ends treated with fray-check,
and stitch it on at the neckline opening to tie the banyan shut. I used felling stitches,
although there is probably a much prettier way to do this.
[piano music ends with a flourish]
Now, the banyan was really done.
I got new bedsheets recently which are half linen half cotton, but I prefer satin pillowcases
because they don’t frizz my hair. I’m clearly not above sewing costumes out of bedlinens,
so after unpicking one sideseam and cutting across the fold at the top, the two linen
pillowcases became two panels for making an under-petticoat! I left the decorative hem
stitch, because why not. I’m pleating using the “divide and conquer”
method, which is fast and easy but not as precise. I matched the remaining pillowcase
seam to the center of a piece of twill tape, and the edges of the panel to the tape a quarter
of the petticoat waist measurement to each side. From there, I began dividing the twill
tape in half, then each section in half again, until I had marks that looked like a good
pleat size. I did the same with the fabric, marking it in half, then each section in half
again, the same number of times.
Now I could match those marks to eachother to begin folding pleats,
without having to measure or do any math. Each pleat was secured in place by a clip.
Here’s a close-up of how I fold the pleats
to make them look as neat and even as possible. You can match the marks first and fold that
way, but I found it was easiest to lay the fabric flat over the tape until I reach the mark on the tape,
then back over itself so that the two marks line up. Adjust as needed so the pleats are visually even.
The front panel has a four-inch wide box pleat
in the center, folded before the dividing-in-half part.
[clicks and whirrs of machine turning on]
I sewed the pleats down to the tape using a zigzag stitch on the machine. This is where
pins might have been easier than clips, because my machine will sew over them. With the clips,
I have to remove each one as I go, so there is a risk of the pleats slipping
as they’re fed through the machine.
[relaxing modern piano waltz]
Having learned the proper use of machine overcasting
from the banyan, I sewed the sideseams first with an overcasting stitch . . .
and then ran a straight stitch behind. I left about 9 inches open at the top of each sideseam,
to put the petticoat on. Let me tell you, it was weird seeing the same seam treatment
on one of my historical pieces as I see on factory-made t-shirts.
After a snack break . . .
I felled the side openings down by hand. I
like to avoid visible machine-stitching on costumes where it wouldn’t be accurate,
even if I do all the construction seams by machine.
Likewise, I flipped over the waistband so the zigzag stitching was on the inside, and
tacked that down with a felling stitch too.
[music continues]
With that step complete, the under-petticoat was all done!
Remember when I said I got new bedsheets? I got two sets, so I actually had four pillowcases,
and I decided to turn the other two into a shift. I already have a video on shift construction
which I’ll link onscreen, so all I’m going to show you is how to cut the pieces out.
The sideseam and hem stitching were removed and the pillowcases laid out on top of eachother,
then I cut out the body pieces, sleeve, underarm gussets, gores for the sides, strips to bind the neckline,
and there was a tiny bit of scrap.
Since I skipped finishing the neckline and
sleeves in my other video, I will show you how I do that. I used my other shift as a
guide for the depth of the neckline, but traced out a slightly squarer shape using my curve
ruler. Then I separated the layers, keeping front and back folded down their respective
centers, so I when I cut out, the neckline would be perfectly symmetrical.
I wanted the back neckline a little higher in the hopes of covering my tattoo, so I sketched out accordingly.
With the fabric doubled up, I could cut each half of the neckline in one go.
[music continues]
Using a rotary cutter, I trimmed the binding
strips down to a good width. They already had the edges creased in from being the pillowcase
hem, so they were perfect for this.
I stitched the ends together to form one long
strip, then clipped the binding around the entire neckline right side to right side.
I cut the excess off the end, then folded it back to cover the edge.
Then the binding was sewn onto the neckline by machine, using a straight stitch.
[music]
I flipped the binding around to the wrong side, tucked the folded edge under to create a casing,
and secured the loose edge to the shift body using very small felling stitches.
I have sewn this by machine on mockups before, and trust me, it does not look good.
I also double-turned the ends of the sleeves,
and felled them down to create drawstring casings there as well.
[music is tinkly and pretty]
I have some eighth-inch twill tape cut to suitable
lengths for the neckline and each sleeve, treated with fray-check at the ends.
Using a large tapestry needle, I’m threading the tape through each casing, making sure not
to stab through the fabric anywhere. [small laugh]
It helps to knot the tape once it’s on the
needle, to stop it coming unthreaded inside the casing.
[music quiets, then ends]
With drawstrings in the neckline and both sleeves, the shift was finished!
[birds chirping]
[sprightly, cheerful piano music]
[music builds]
[music crescendoes, then ends]
I hope you enjoyed watching me upgrade my shelter-in-place wardrobe! Before I go, I
want to acknowledge the absolutely incredible civil rights movement that’s taking place
at time of filming. Black Lives Matter. They have always mattered and will always
matter. History is full of beautiful dresses, but it is also full of ugly things like racism
and it’s important for us not to gloss over that. It’s also unacceptable for it to continue.
Please direct your attention to the description box, where I have linked the channels and
Instagram accounts of some wonderfully talented Black costumers who you should be following.
This list will be continually updated, so if you would like to be on it, let me know!
I would also like to direct you to these videos linked onscreen from living history interpreters
which speak to the reality of life for many Black people during the time the clothes in
this video were in fashion. Once you’ve taken some time to listen and
learn from these folks, don’t forget to leave a like, subscribe to my channel, and
ring that notification bell to make sure you don’t miss any future videos from me. You
can also follow me on Instagram @missSnappyDragon for more stitchy business!
I’ll see you next time. Happy sewing!