Okay, after doing the research from the last post and crafting some idea of what Sokka, warrior of the Southern Water Tribe, might actually be wearing, I finally feel somewhat comfortable looking into how we, as costumers, can actually construct those garments to be worn be real people. Let’s start with a very quick summary of the ideas from the last post.

Now that we have a starting point, let’s get to work actually drafting and constructing a real set of garments out of the pieces pictured. Fortunately, each of the actual components is based on fairly simple garments that should hopefully be relatively easy to pattern out. The real trick will be in all the little touches that make something into a real, wearable piece of clothing.

Tunic

Sokka’s tunic is a relatively common type of peasant garment worn in many places and times, similar to a modern keikogi, known in the US as a “gi” or just a modern martial arts uniform, but without sleeves. Such garments can be made from almost any material, but, despite what I said about twill in the last post, I’m going with a cotton canvas. Both would serve to produce a strong, durable garment, I just happened to find some canvas in the right color.

There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel and this type of top is a very old and very popular wheel. Instead, let’s consider how we’re going to deal with certain specifics.

Firstly, how do we keep the tunic closed? Obviously, that’s partly the responsibility of the belt, but it’s an imperfect solution at best. So, I’m going to add some ties to the seams and lapels, so the tunic can hold itself closed.

Which brings us to another very important consideration: The seam finish. A lazy answer would be to use a serger or, failing that, an overlock foot and zig-zag seam. That doesn’t really give us a nice, classic design, though. The exterior will show nothing, intentionally, and the inside looks modern. That might be fine if we were making Korra’s outfit, something that might likely have been made on a machine, but Sokka will be wearing clothes made entirely by hand.

Of course, I’m not Bernadette Banner, I’m using a machine. Still, we can look for ways to achieve a similar visual effect without the time consuming methods that the Southern Water Tribe would really be restricted to during Sokka’s day.

Genuine historical garments are often left with unfinished seams if there’s no concern about fraying. When that concern exists, however, a number of finishing options are available. I’ve decided to go with a double top-stitched seam, which means pressing open each seam and top-stitching through the seam allowance and the top of the material.

For a bit more decoration, I’ve decided to use white thread for some slight contrast and a decorative overlock stitch, which produces this cross-over pattern. I’ll do the same thing on the shoulders, side-seams, hems, and armholes. The end result gives the tunic just a hint of decoration without being excessively ornamented.

Belt

The belt is the simplest component to construct, it’s just a rectangle made from the same material as the tunic collar. The finished dimension is about 2″ wide, so we want to cut the fabric at 6″ wide and fold in 2″ on either side so the result is four layers thick. Length is a bit arbitrary, it needs to wrap around the waist at least once, possibly twice, with enough extra for a knot, which could be anywhere from an extra eight inches to an extra twenty-four. This site has a belt length calculator that may prove useful.

We could also add some decorative stitching here if we wanted, maybe a light blue, but I left it plain. Unfortunately, this part of the construction is so simple that I forgot to take any pictures of it.

Breeches

The breeches should be made from a similar material to the tunic, though we need to be careful if our tunic fabric is too thick. While a tunic can be quite stiff and still be comfortable, breeches need to be loose enough to allow significant freedom of movement.

Fortunately, our old friend Mr. Regal has instructions on drafting a pair of breeches. Several sets of instructions, in fact. I’m a little vague on the practical difference between riding breeches and coachman’s breeches and golfing breeches, but it seems like at least one of them should offer a good place to start.

Oddly, the golfing breeches look like the easiest to draft and construct. So, I’ll be going with that one. With a few modifications, of course.

Regal didn’t bother with giving instructions on either of these for drafting a waistband, of course, but that’s not a really big deal to draft on our own. Because he was designing for button or hook-and-eye closures, Regal designed the tops of these breeches to accommodate a fly. Since I want to use a drawstring waistband, there won’t be a closure and the top of the legs needs to be wider just to get over the wearer’s hips. The solution is to simply square up from Z to widen the forepart.

Cutting the waistband is simple. It’s a pair of rectangles that have a 4″ height by the fore/back part width. On the front piece we add holes for the drawstring to go through, then sew the front and back together. Attach the waistband to the almost finished trousers right sides together, then close and run the drawstring through. This blog has far more detail on the process of constructing a waistband than I can put here.

I stitched along the waistband to create a channel for the drawstring itself. For the drawstring itself I used twill tape, but another option would be to use leftover of any of the fabrics we’re using in this project to make a lace. You’ll also note that I used a different fabric for the waistband, this one is a bit more flexible than the main breeches fabric I used.

While the drawstring opening needs to be reinforced, the brass eyelets are mainly an aesthetic choice. I obviously could have gone with “buttonholes” instead for the drawstring opening. While the Water Tribe shouldn’t use a large amount of metal in their clothes, I think the small reinforcements look good here. Again, buttonholes are a perfectly good way to handle this instead, if one prefers.

I just felled and tied off the drawstring, but could reasonably have added some white and blue beads to the ends for just a touch more decoration. The waist generally won’t be visible in the final garment, since the tunic will cover this, but those sorts of little touches make the result fee more real to me.

The seams here offer another opportunity to add a little personality, with the double top-stitching creating a nice color contrast on the final garment. While I don’t think Sokka would go for excessive ornamentation, I do think the white thread is an appropriate addition. Obviously, we could have gone with matching dark blue thread, or any other color, for a different effect.

I’ve given the inseam and crotch flat-felled seams, which offers some extra reinforcement on these higher stress areas.

I’ve also converted the cuffs from buttons to drawstrings and ignored the instruction to make a dart, gathering the cuff instead. Leather lace on the sides would be a good alternative to the drawstring on the cuffs. For that, the coachman’s breeches would be the better choice.

Bracers

Having decided on quilted bracers, it now becomes necessary to actually make them. Fortunately this isn’t too difficult, patterns for bracers are also fairly easy to find. A very quick search turned up a couple of promising possibilities. The RPF guide conveniently gives us quilting lines to follow and the Butterick pattern set looks like a good source for some other accessories, Sokka’s purse perhaps, but seems to be out of print.

Regardless of what design we choose, our next concern will be the proper material. While we could go with leather or faux leather, I’m going with the same sturdy canvas that I chose for the collar and belt. This is attached to white felt, which provides the necessary thickness and structure for quilting without becoming rigid. No glue was used, I just pinned the two pieces together to hold them while quilting. Another option is to do the quilting first and then cut out the piece from the quilted square. Once finished, we can either neaten up the edges with some white bias tape, or leave them raw and add a simple line of topstitching or overlock stitching around the edge.

Punch holes through for grommets. I used steel grommets, rather than the brass from before, since it suits the white material better. This is another location where one could use buttonholes instead of eyelets, if one prefers.

Finally the bracers are ready to be laced up. This is the only place on the finished costume, the cord I used is elastic. We could really commit to the philosophy of nothing Sokka wouldn’t have access to and use the twill tape from the breeches drawstring here, but I decided that lacing up and tying the bracers by yourself would be an unnecessary pain. Maybe that’s why Sokka never seems to take them off.

Conclusion

At last the garment is finished.

Mostly, anyway. As always, there’s more work that could be done. Despite some research into the topic, I never did get around to Sokka’s shin-guards, are they best accomplished as greaves or as boots?

And we’ve barely touched on any other accessories that Sokka might wear. How can we make his necklace at home? What about his grip gloves? Maybe a bag of some sort? His detective hat? How to adjust things for the Season 1 version?

There’s a lot more that can be said and done, but it will have to wait for another day.