A Makeover: Blue Split-Front Apron Dress

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In 2015 when I was in the process of spiffing up my entire Viking wardrobe, I created this dress:

Isn't it neat?  It's wrong in so many ways. I did a really good job based on my knowledge at the time;  it's just that that knowledge was incomplete, and based mostly on what I saw other people doing instead of on actual solid research.  And so we had this dress:  split down the front, which is incorrect for the accepted understanding of how apron dresses work; the wrong type of straps - flat straps, not loops; embroidered to the eyeteeth, and apron dresses weren't covered in decorative embroidery; and with a front trim band and skirt guarding in a contrasting color, which was an idea I copied from someone but has no basis in historical anything.  

So, I decided to tear this dress apart and make it over completely into something that is actually correct and which I can wear to events without looking like a bad example.  So, to start with,  I removed all the embroidery, the straps, and the orange trim. 

I also removed both of the remaining blue front panels - they were too narrow to simply sew closed into a single front piece - it made the dress way too small, and it would have placed a seam directly down the front of the dress, which would have looked horrible.  I needed to create a whole new front panel to insert into the dress. Thankfully, Fabric-store.com still sells the same exact color (Bluebonnet), so I was able to order a single yard so that I could make a new front panel. 

Once I'd closed the dress with the new front panel, I also cut a new top facing to replace the one I'd removed in the front.   Then I removed the embroidery from the flat straps and took them apart, and made two new loop straps out of them, as well as front loops.  After that all I had left to do construction-wise was to hem the whole dress, since I'd removed the skirt guarding from the bottom, leaving a raw edge.  

To finish the dress, instead of all that incorrect embroidery I opted for a trick we know the Vikings used on their apron dresses:  I stitched a length of blue ribbon around the top of the dress.  In period this would be a strip of silk fabric or ribbon, or a tablet-woven band. 

In my case, it's a rayon faux-silk seam binding ribbon, and it looks perfect at the top of the dress.  It's almost exactly the color of the fabric, just a bit darker.  It is awfully plain, especially since it's supposed to be simulating "fine imported silk";  I may replace it with something a little fancier at some point in the future if I come across anything that will work. For now, I like it just fine.  

So there's a piece of fantasy made over into something with a little more fact woven in.  The best part is that now I have a "new" dress I can wear, for only about $11 (the cost of a new front panel).  I needed an extra outfit to wear to BAM in a few weeks, and this goes a long way to fixing that hole in my wardrobe.  

What's Next? 

Now that this dress is fixed, the question is, do I launch into a quest to re-do all of my apron dresses to make them more correct, or do I leave the rest alone?  I hate to take out all the work on the orange and brown dresses just yet - I did a really great job on both of them and I love the way they look.  My black dress, however, is covered with some very amateurish needle work and is glaringly incorrect, so I think I will make that one over next.