Hello lovely clothes makers!
I have ventured out from the dark side and I need a bit of help please!
I am making very simple Nigerian style tunics for my SIL, who works for the African studies department at a university. One of her colleagues is retiring and they thought it would be nice for everyone to have matching Nigerian tops for the party.
All is going pretty well and I've just had the measurements in for the lady who is retiring, but the tops are being kept secret from her and her measurements have been taken by her husband from her clothes.
It's just occurred to me that the measurements from her clothes (and I have no info on what type of clothes/fabrics the measurements were taken from, I'm just hoping that there wasn't any stretch fabric involved!) will already have ease (is that the word? I mean a bit extra fabric to allow her to move her arms etc) added, therefore the calculations I've been using will result in an oversize garment....
It's a super simple top, basically a long rectangle for the body with a head hole cut out, and rectangular arms that go straight out at the sides, it is known as a "buba". It is sewn with 1 inch seams.
For the body section I have been adding 8 inches to the person's measurement, so am I right to assume that 4 inches of that is seam allowance and the other 4 inches is ease? So for this lady I should just add 4 inches?
And the arm width I have been adding 6 inches, made up of 2 inches seam allowance and 4 inches ease, so I should just add the 2 inches?
I got all my info on making these tops from YouTube and the lady decided not to explain why you add certain numbers, but I'm hoping I've worked it out correctly!