Cutting Patterns for English National Dress

Download Cutting Patterns for English Folk Dress.

For those who are going to hand make the English National Dress.

• Always wash the cloth at least a couple of times and iron it before making anything - as this will get rid of any shrinkage.
• Be generous with seam allowances - if you cut too much off you can't make the cloth any bigger.
• When you are making neck holes, start small and get bigger.
• You are not symmetrical front-to-back! The neck hole is about 1/3 to the back and 2/3 to the front of the body (I would actually make the hole and put the main panel on and get someone else to mark where the top of your shoulder is - it makes life a lot easier. Also when making trousers the back is likely to be about 2-4" (5-10cm) higher than the front.
• Its easier to make a garment from an existing set of clothes you already wear, but if not - a shirt that fits but isn't tight and a pair of jeans that you can pull on without undoing the fly are a good place to start. You can then adjust the pattern to give lengths and widths. Same with a dress.
• If you are worried about cutting your first tunic out - get some cheap cloth - for example old sheets - and make a rough version first then use this as your template.
• Make sure you have the correct equipment - a tape measure will be useful or you can use long straight edges and tape measures for working with. A long straight edge is useful.
• If you are going to fold and cut multiple pieces of cloth at the same time then pin them together. If you are going to fold a piece of cloth twice it is better to fold it in a zigzag or concertina rather than in half and half again as then all 4 pieces will be the same size.
• Use a chalk or a dress making pen or pencil for marking patterns. Ordinary blackboard chalk is pretty good and cheap. Avoid ballpoints or other marker pens, as they are hard to remove.
• Facings serve two purposes - primarily they are at places that get abraded - the neck, wrist and skirt - so that the body of the garment does not wear out. The second is to neaten up cuffs that aren't quite long enough or neck holes that aren't quite the right shape or are too big.
• Linen and light wool will fray - so make sure all internal seams are hemmed or enclosed.

Making a Pair of Men’s Trousers

Quantity of Fabric

A pair of trousers will require about 1¼ yards of 58-60" fabric if there is no gusset, or about 1½ yards if there is to be a gusset.

Length and Fit

Trousers should be long enough to tuck into the shoes. The trousers can be fairly loose on the thighs, although they should be tight fitting on the lower leg.

The two legs can be joined directly to each other, or they can have a gusset between them. If your trousers ride up then a simple elastic strap (like with ski pants) can be sewn onto the base of the trousers. If you are going to wear modern socks, then the trousers should cover these - either going into or over the trousers.

How to make a simple pair of trousers.

Fold the fabric into four as shown in the diagram.

Cut the legs of the trousers out as shown (follow the dotted line if there is to be a gusset). Make the legs slightly wider than you think they need to be because they can then be pinned to fit as tightly as possible, but make sure that you can still get your foot out! The waist band needs to be 2-3" above the waist.

Sew up the inside leg of both legs. Then join the two legs at the crotch (3a) or sew in the gusset (3b).

Turn over the waist band and stitch down to form a tube open at the centre front. You should have left enough cloth to have a high waistband. Pull the trousers on comfortably, put a belt or tie around your waist at a comfortable position and then fold the waistband over. Mark this with chalk or pin. Now you can sew the band in place. Make sure that the crotch is not too tight and that if you are going to wear modern underwear then the waistband of these should be covered. Sew belt loops around the waist, with the waist tie fed through these. If you have enough fabric then it is better to cut the leg pieces 'on the cross' or 'on the bias' diagonally across the cloth - however this normally needs a lot more fabric and a lot more skill!

Embroidery

The plate below shows the different types of embroidery using imagery from England of times past. Many have regional variation. The Wolves at the bottom – Wolverhampton. It is up to personal taste and within the bounds of appropriate English imagery.

Embroidery Patterns

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