Traditional Chinese Clothing -- Ma Gua

Painting of a man wearing Ma Gua

        The man in the picture is wearing a 'Ma Gua', it's a typical menswear in ancient China.

Ma Gua can be translated into english as 'Mandarin Jacket', it's a jacket that worn over the gown. In Chinese name 'Ma Gua' means 'Hours Gown', because Manchu males were wearing it when they were riding a horse. In the modern world, most well-known Chinese clothes is Tangzhuang (also known as Tang suit), and Tangzhuang is evolved from Ma Gua.

        Traditional Ma Gua has simple cutting pattern, the sleeves and the body cut as one piece. But Tangzhuang's cutting patter is more like normal suit, the sleeves and the body had cut separately then sewing together. 

Traditional Ma Gua

        Im trying to imitate this for my boyfriend, this is the first time for me to make real clothes, I used to make small dresses for dolls or simple skirts for myself, and I also know nothing about cutting. I tried to draw a cutting pattern by myself, then did roughly measure on his body, took some note and labeled my cutting pattern. What I need to do next is to get some cheep fabric and try my cutting pattern to see if it can work. When first time doing anything is always like an experiment, and I'm exciting about it.

My rough drawing cutting pattern