And More Aprons

as advertised, Apron Fest continues

This is a vintage (not reproduction) apron pattern, Simplicity 4492, I'm guessing from the early to mid 1960's.  It is definitely pre-1967, since there is no zip code in the address on the pattern.

It originally had 3 sizes (S-M-L), interestingly all on separate paper pieces rather than the combination of sizes on one piece that we see today.  And of course the large had to be missing, because that is the size I need. 

When I drafted the new pattern I also made it longer as well as wider.   The first attempt was the one in green shown above, and it was too large at the neck so I put in some neck darts.  Other than that the fit was fine, which is surprising given the fact that it was a re-draft of a vintage pattern, but I guess aprons are pretty forgiving as to fit.  Of course mine does not look much like the pattern envelope, probably because I don't have a 17 inch waist!

This was a fun pattern to sew.  The ties are attached by encasing them within the front darts, which meant that it was easy to adjust them to my waist position.  The pockets are humongous, and there are three of them.  Jean at Quilted Cupcake talked about having aprons for different purposes, and this is a good house-cleaning apron because you can stow cleaning supplies in one pocket, stuff to be moved to another room in the next pocket, and trash to be discarded in the third.


Having perfected the pattern, it was time to road test it again to make sure the pattern was just right.  You might think that with hundreds of yards of fabric in my stash it would be easy to pull out some great apron fabric.  But I learned on the first apron to avoid light colors and although the bottom of this apron looks like a straight line it is actually curved, which ruled out geometrics.  And I needed 2-1/4 yards.  And it needed to be a somewhat substantial cotton.  There probably is something suitable in the stash, but I couldn't find it.




I did however dig out a dragon bed cover and put it to work.  A dragon apron is perfect for the studio, natch.












And look how nicely the edges of the cover worked on the back panels.

Good thing Bob is used to living with a Dragon Lady.  He's not scared of dragons!