Floral Vintage Apron

This apron is my entry for Tie One On's Floral Fun theme aprons. I used the Comfortable Apron pattern from the book Vintage Notions (see my review of the book here and photo of pattern below). I love wearing aprons and made a couple of aprons using patterns by Mary Brooks Picken before.

The apron took about two and a half hours to make from start to finish. The instructions are the originals published in 1926 and there are not many illustrations. The instructions are written in paragraph form rather than step by step so you have to read rather carefully. I highly recommend looking at the notes in the back of the book as well.

The fabric is from a roll of vintage cotton that I inherited from my grandmother (used as a lining in this project). The lace trim is from a bulk bundle that I purchased at Michael Levine downtown.
One thing I really enjoy about the vintage patterns is the instructions on making the pattern. You simply tear a length of fabric, draw lines between certain points and cut. It's so simple. I love it. Above is the fabric cut away to form the bib and skirt of the apron.

The hardest part for me to figure out was how to attach the side belt to the bib. Here are some notes on how I did it.

Hem the sides of the bib and the skirt. Baste top edge of skirt (from "e to d") and lightly gather. Pin folded strap over gathered top edge of skirt as above. Fold edge of bib on top of strap, making a pleat and covering the end of the strap. See above for right side photo. Below is the wrong side.

Next, I top stitched the strap in place. The instructions say to use a blanket stitch to finish but in the interest of time, I skipped it.

The straps were not long enough to tie so I adhered to the instructions and made a buttonhole as a closure. In fact, I made three buttonholes so that I could tighten or loosen the apron as needed (see above). 

 

It's a pretty apron in the end but the hip gathers are not all that flattering. It was fun to make and it would be fun to try the blanket stitch finish sometime.