The banyan was an important and stylish piece of 18th and early 19th century leisure-wear. Much like dressing gowns, robes, and smoking jackets to come, this loose fitting garment was often worn while relaxing in one's home and garden, but it was also worn to receive guests casually, and in extremes of heat and cold. 

Consisting of straight and curved lines & seams and several different stitches (basting stitch, running stitch, back stitch, whip stitch) this class is a good fit for those students with a small amount of hand sewing experience who wants to work on a serious project! If your student dreams of making reproduction garments, this class is a great place to start.

In this class, students will learn to draft, cut, and sew their own banyan by hand.

Week 1 - We will take measurements, draft patterns.
(cut fabric using pattern as homework)
Week 2 - We will cut out the pieces from fabric, and begin sewing.
(solo sewing homework between classes)
Week 3 - We will work on sewing the banyan together.
(solo sewing homework between classes)
Week 4 - We will finish the banyan, and students will show off their work!

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When we think of historic 18th century costuming, it is easy to immediately find ourselves drawn to the beautiful formal garments worn by the upper class Europeans and wealthy colonial settlers, and those made for very special occasions...

But what about the real life items people wore in the privacy of their homes? How did they dress for comfort and practicality?  
 
In this class students will learn a brief history of leisure garments and their construction as they craft their way through creating a historically accurate banyan from the late 1700 through early 1800s.

The class will be casual, conversational, and very hands on - with room for lots of discussion and sharing. 

The style and instructions will be historically accurate in nature, but students will be given encouragement to draw from a variety of sources to create a garment unique to their own personality, if so desired. 

I'll walk students through the process, step by step, and in the end they will have created an amazing hand sewn piece AND mastered some important historical garment making skills.
 
We will hand sew the banyans, starting each step in class and finishing the steps as homework. 

Students do not *need* to have any prior sewing knowledge or skills (just some fine motor control with a needle & thread and the ability to use scissors) but a little basic experience is helpful, as there is a *lot* of sewing involved in this project.

The project will not require use of a sewing machine.

This class is listed as an "Arts" course, but it will obviously feature history and social studies in our discussion topics as we will discus dress for gender roles, social status, and the influence of global dress on the fashions of the colonizing nations of the world (and vice versa).