Nothing to see here...

Work on my hand-sewn Anglo-Saxon shift had pretty much ground to a halt week before last, when I realized that I had not cut enough gores.  I attributed it to baby brain, and cut another tube to seam together, finished the seam and cut it open (into a front gore and a side gore sewn of two pieces) when I - lo and behold - found the OTHER tube I sewed together over a month ago.  Sigh.  Of course I can salvage the fabric, but I'm also trying to figure out how to salvage the six or so hours I put into the seam by not wasting that either!  

Anyway, I made the gores really long, to accomodate my pregnant belly, but now I'm not sure that I really need them quite THAT long.  I think that most Scadians design garb for their non-pregnant bodies, not making allowances for eventually child-bearing bodies, so we often have to make maternity garb, where in period I HAVE to presume that they took such growth into account in the first place, since that is just too much blessed sewing to have to do en masse just for a few months wear.  

I also carry REALLY high, and am already really big, with three months to go, thus the really long gores, so I get lots of extra room in my abdomen.  Anyway, I was wondering how high up folks usually set their front, back and side gores?  I have what my Mom calls 'Italian hips'; ie they are like shelves, and perfect for carrying laundry baskets on, so I know I need to start the side gores at least a couple of inches higher than my hip to disguise this and create a nice line, but where to set the back gore, and trying to guess about the front gore, especially as I want to use this dress for nursing too (inverse relationship between how high I put that gore and how low I can have the keyhole for nursing access), is just boggling my hormone-addled brain.

I'm also more than a touch confused.  I was just looking for pictures that might show gore height and came upon this site : http://www.forest.gen.nz/Medieval/articles/Tunics/TUNICS.HTML   This is basically the pattern I am using, but I am sewing my pairs of side gores together on the straight instead of on the bias.  Am I evil?  Wrong?  I have always both hated that dragging on both sides look, and have been taught to *always* sew bias to straight, never to another bias edge, so it doesn't stretch all to heck.  Any thoughts on this?

Anyway, my 'needing' to sew that extra set of gores, and my futzing with the gores I AM using, along with life in general, means that it is unlikely that I'm actually going to finish this sucker for Panteria, but I NEED it for Panteria (my other shifts fit, but only JUST, and this child of mine just keeps on growing), so I have decided to cheat mercilessly.  I'm going to handsew the seams, but NOT FINISH THEM NOW.  I don't want the linen to fray, and I sort of want to field test the gore heights anyway, so I am going to handsew the rest of the gore seams seams, then cover the uncut seam allowance in double fold bias tape for the event, sewn down by machine.  That way I can wear it, test it, and cut bias tape out and finish seams at my leisure, and generally take a big load off my shoulders, all for the very small price of a little bit of lumpiness in my gore seams.  The hems, neck and arms will all be finished properly, and even if I end up cutting part of the hem off, it will be worth it to give myself this added flexibility in both time and design.