What is Agbada?
“AGBADA’ is the Yoruba name for a type of flowing wide sleeved robe, usually decorated with embroidery at the neckline, which is worn throughout most of Nigeria by important men, such as kings and chiefs, and on ceremonial occasions like weddings and funerals. The Hausa name for the robes is “Riga”.

It usually consists of an inner outfit and then an outer flowing robe

And it is worn for special events and occasions.

However, in recent times, both men and women now wear such outfits for weddings, casual or event wears
Requirement:
1. Fabric or material of 7 or 8 yards.
2. Scissors
3. Pen/pencil/marker
4. Body statistics: The body statistics needed are:
• Neck-to-hand: Place your measuring tape at your neck and measure to your hands
• Chest/bust: Place your measuring tape round your chest or bust
• Neck to elbow: Place your measuring tape at your neck and measure to your elbow joint
• Shoulder to leg/feet: Place your measuring tape at your shoulder and measure from your shoulder to anywhere beyond your knees.
5. Measuring tape and ruler
6. Tracing wheel
Procedures:
To make a pattern for an Agbada or robe, you’ll begin by (a) Making the front neckline (b) Making the backline (c) Adjusting for the flow.
1. Making the Front neckline: Because Agbada is a type of robe wore over the head instead, it does not have a demarcation at the shoulders. Meaning, it does not have a front and back piece(s). Thus to make an Agbada without making a front and back pieces, fold your pattern paper into ‘two’ equal halves, with the two folded areas facing upwards, and the one solid folded area, facing right.

Let the dotted lines indicate folding
- Faint dotted lines= two folded areas
- Bold dotted lines=Solid folded area
Your pattern should be “neck-to-hand” wide and “neck to leg” long(See requirement.)

Next, place your measuring tape at the point of intersection (that is, where the foldings meet), measure your neck circumference which is usually dependent on the size of the chest/bust.
Let use 34 inches as the chest/bust size, the neck width is 2¾ inches. From the P.O.T(point of intersection), measure this value and mark, as shown in the photo below.

Then from the bold dotted lines, measure 3 inches downwards and mark. This is a standard length of a neckline. However, you can choose to make it longer.

Draw an arc from the new point at the folded line to the neck width, as shown in the photo below.

You can choose to leave your neck line like this or make a keyhole with it.
To make a keyhole neckline, measure out the chest/bust level from the shoulder. This is usually 8 inches from the shoulder.

Draw an horizontal line from the folded area to the non-folded area
Then from the bottom of the arc at the neckline, draw a slant line to meet the horizontal line.

2. Making the back neckline: To make the back neckline, measure one inch from the POT,and mark, then replicate your front neckline, as shown in the photo below.

When done your back neck line will look like this.

Next, cut out your back neckline as shown in the photo below.

Then open up your pattern. However, leave it to be folded once with the back side up and the front piece down. See photos below:

This way will be able to cut out the front neckline without cutting out more of the back neckline.
Cut the front neckline.

When done, place the front of your pattern on top the back, and your Agbada pattern will look like this.

3. Adjusting for bottom: Now we have to indicate where the bottom of the agbada will be closed. Without this, the front and back sides of the Agbada can not be joined together when sewing. Therefore, to do this, fold your Agbada back into ‘two’ equal halves and measure out your ‘neck-to elbow’ measure and mark. With your ruler, trace this mark to the bottom of the Agbada and mark.

With your tracing wheel, trace this mark to the other side and nip both points.


When you open up your agbada,it will look like this

And your agbada pattern is done
How to Sew the Agbada
Sewing an Agbada gets easy from here. Simply following the steps below:
Step 1: Trace your pattern on your fabric of choice. Cut out what you have traced. Then, fold all the edges either once using a Serger or overlocking machine to lock the ends first and then stitching or twice by folding the ends twice and stitching.
Step 2: You can choose to design the neckline of your agbada by using an embroidery machine. If you do not have an embroidery sewing machine, then simply take your Agbada not yet stitched together to people that do and can make embroideries.
Step 3: At the bottom of the Agbada, where you have snipped, stitch 5 inches upwards to join both sides of the Agbada together and then to the sides. Snip off the excess.
And you Are done.
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