Possible Breakthrough

Look it's lunch time which means it's time for me to have another ahha moment. I think I've figured out a possible solution to the apron dress. I haven't gotten to mock it up yet, but I'm excited, thus the sharing.
Ok according to pg. 39 in Medieval Garments Reconstructed: "It is remarkable that most of the longer seams are sewn together in a piece where the edge is cut on the grain, and a piece where the edge is cut on the bias. this technique causes the seam to be stable, preventing the part that is cut on the bias from getting longer"
This is something I'd read before, and mentioned in my earlier post today. Here's where it gets interesting.

Page 41 reads" Garment D10580-The silhouette of garment type 1b is relatively close-fitted in the upper part, flaring into fullness from about the waist line. The garments have center gussets in the front and back piece and have four to six side panels...In the original garment the side panel at the back is divided into two by a false seam." This is where I had my ahha. If we take this same garment, and chop off the arms/upper torso we are left with something remarkably similar to an apron dress in form.

This is the basic shape of the garment. I am purposing the removal from the bottom of the arm opening upward. This would leave a garment that is fitted to the torso to approximately the waist, and then flares outward.

This is a little more difficult to see. This is the side panel. The upper part has shaping for the arm opening. You can see that they have indicated where there is a false seam running down the middle of the garment. When the garment is made without cutting two pieces here, we meet the above mentioned idea of seam stabilization by sewing these bias cut pieces to the grain cut body. And meet it again when we cut and sew the front and back gussets as one piece.



I am suddenly very happy at this potential breakthrough, and sad because I won't have time to try it out today. I will comment tomorrow on how this concept works out. If anyone sees a flaw in my thought process, please let me know.