How to Sew an Apron: A Selection of Aprons for Work and Play - A Dressmaker's Guide

By Valentine C. Florence

“How to Sew an Apron” is a classic guide to making a variety of traditional women's aprons, with chapters on hat making. Written at a time when women would commonly wear aprons for housework and cooking, this volume will appeal to those with an interest in hand crafting vintage clothing and needlework in general. Contents include: “Dressmaking and Tailoring”, “Aprons”, “Simple Aprons”, “Apron Frocks”, “Play Aprons”, “An Apron”, and “Aprons Three”. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new introduction on dressmaking and tailoring.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Apr 26, 2013
• ISBN: 9781473383494

Book preview

APRONS

The designing of an apron furnishes another definite application of fundamental principles of art to simplified forms. Once more we have a problem in proportion and fine spacing, not only in determining the shape of the apron, but in making good space divisions in relation to the whole and in securing suitability of line to the particular figure which is to wear it. Here, too, a stout person should avoid curves and horizontal lines, while the slender person must discard severe vertical divisions.

The purpose of the apron determines the choice of materials and influences the character of the design. There are many kinds of aprons from which to choose, each one giving a wide range for expression in well-proportioned designs and excellent workmanship. Among the various kinds only two that are representative need to be mentioned here,—the small utility apron made of a combination of natural and colored linen with ample pockets which form part of the structural design, and the fancy apron made of organdies and fine lawns with insertions of lace or embroidery which form the design. The purpose of the apron regulates the size. The length of the apron for a person of normal size ranges usually from sixteen to twenty-two inches and the width varies according to the contour and design of the apron. The waist line is usually fourteen inches. Each type of apron is capable of limitless variations, and furnishes opportunity for beautiful space divisions and artistic arrangement.

All plans for aprons are based upon three constructive lines representing the horizontal waist line, a vertical line expressing the greatest length of the apron, and a second horizontal line at the place of greatest breadth, as in A, Plate V. The joining of the ends of these lines by means of straight or curved lines gives one the foundation for all simple aprons and the basic form for more complex styles, as indicated in Plate V, the dotted lines representing the construction lines, and the continuous lines the outlines or general shape of the apron. The contour will vary according to the length of the second horizontal and the position which it occupies upon the vertical, and the nature and direction of the curve or straight line connecting the extremities of these two determining factors. Many variations in angles or curves in the outline at the bottom of the apron may be secured by raising or lowering and by extending or shortening the second horizontal.

The next step in designing an apron is the breaking of the area of the shape into beautiful space divisions, by means of lines representing insertion or different materials or pockets, as in the case of the utility apron. The possibility of infinite variation in arrangement of such spaces makes it unnecessary for any two aprons to be exactly alike. When insertion is used, the variation may be secured by placing the insertion parallel to any part or to all of the outline; by the use of insertion to break a vertical division into unequal spaces, as