Time Travel Garm

Cutting out clothing in the most fabric conscious way possible is good practice not only for historical accuracy, but also for your wallet. Less fabric wastage means you can squeeze a tunic out of less and less fabric. ‘Piecing is period’ is a phrase thrown around re-enactment circles and while it certainly is, you should always try to piece in the right places. For example, in the Bocksten piecing is seen on the gores and arms, showing someone was trying their best to create a whole garment from limited fabric but ran out when cutting a sleeve.

Unless absolutely necessary you should avoid having panels which are pieced of several different direction fabrics, as this will make it fall strangely as the weave pulls on itself differently. However if you are re-enacting the super poor and are reusing or repairing clothes it’s definitely possible to have a tunic of nothing but pieced panels. Such as the insane Francis of Assisi tunic.

To start cutting out your gores, I would advise a single strip measuring roughly around the chest wide and from hip to hem long. If you cannot spare enough fabric to make whole one strip, two will work. If you cannot spare for two strips only one small one will also work. The smaller single strip will produce two gores rather than 4.

If you can only make a half strip, ignore step 2 and only fold once.

This method will create 3 whole triangles and 1 pieced triangle. (or 2 whole and 2 pieced if using two parts) This is a great system if you need a riding split as you have the gore already halved. If you do not want a riding split then sew up your pieced triangle and place it wherever you like on the garment. I personally prefer to place it at the back so the front view looks best.
You can also omit two of the gores, only placing them at the side. This is inline with the narrower garments we see on poorer folk.