Apron

“ If, when in the twilight she played softly to herself the old airs from home, the tune was smothered in a sob that was not for my ear, and shortly our kitchen resounded with the most tremendously energetic housekeeping on record, I did not hear. I had drunk that cup to the dregs, and I knew. I just put on a gingham apron and turned in to help her. Two can battle with a fit of homesickness much better than one, even if never a word is said about it. And it can very rarely resist a man with an apron on. ”

“ Having the fire and oven in a proper condition, you can now prepare for making bread, cake, or pastry. Of course you will have a large, clean apron, and fold, not push, your sleeves back above the elbow. A sack apron, with high neck and short sleeves, made long and full enough to cover the [Pg 362] dress, is a great convenience, for if suddenly called from your work you can throw it off easily, leaving your dress in a neat, presentable condition. A close net cap drawn over the head will prevent loose hairs falling into your work, and should be more used than is common. ”

“ Ah, how different from Pam's cooking and Pam's management, all these—and yet, under the circumstances, quite enjoyable too, as a sort of super-exalted jest. An under-sized girl in a full-sized apron, who tilts the end of a big tray at such an angle upward, in front of her, to sustain it at all, that she appears, on approach, to be walking on her knees, ministers to their needs. ”

“ The apron is an all-over apron with sleeves, and buttons up the back.
My idea is to give always what fits and what is right to each person on the spot. Give her something to take pride in and live up to. ”

“ All working-men wear an apron; it is a mark of their condition. They are no more ashamed of their apron than your scarlet-coated captain is ashamed of his uniform.
RANELAGH
Let us note the whiteness of the shirts and ruffles: a merchant will change his shirt three times a day; it is a custom of the City thus to present snow-white linen. The clerks, we see, wear wigs like their masters, but they are smaller. ”

“ A white apron is a suspicious vesture in situations where spotlessness is difficult; moreover, the industry and cleanliness which the white apron expressed were belied by the postures and gaits of the women who wore it—their knuckles being mostly on their hips (an attitude which lent them the aspect of two-handled mugs) , and their shoulders against door-posts; while there was a curious alacrity in the turn of each honest woman's head upon her neck and in the twirl of her honest eyes, at any noise resembling a masculine footfall along the lane. ”

“ Vandyke Apron.—This may be made either of silk or muslin. The edge of the apron is to be turned down, once all round, on the right side, to the depth of three-quarters of a nail; and the vandykes are formed by running from the edge of the apron to near the rough edge of the material, which is afterward to be turned in. When the vandykes are completed, they are to be turned inside out, and made as smooth as possible. A braid, or a row of tent stitch, on the right side, over the stitches, is a pretty finish. ”

“ Stitch that across your apron about four inches above the top of the lower row of pockets. Divide the strip into as [80] many pockets as you want to for hairpins and pins and neck arrangements, and so on."
"Your apron has two raw edges now," said Helen.
"Bind it on each side with tape. That will finish it and it will also fasten the edges of the pockets securely to the apron. Sew across the top a tape long enough to serve as strings."
Pullman Apron
"The idea is to roll all your toilet belongings up together in your bag, eh?" ”

“ She works gently at first, then gets mad, wrenches at it, sprains her wrist, and begins to cry, with her nose on the underside of her apron, and skins her nose on the dried pancake batter that is hidden in the folds of the apron. ”

“ It will be noted that the women in the modern pictures all wear aprons. I think this is correct as they are drawn in their everyday dress, but it will be noted that none of these portraits display an apron; nor was an apron part of any rich dress in the seventeenth century. The reign of the apron had been in the sixteenth century, and it came in again with Anne. Of course every woman in Massachusetts used aprons.
Early inventories of the effects of emigrant dames contain many an item of those housewifely garments. ”

“ A slab of bacon hanging over a can of flour, a box beside the stove filled with great chunks of wood—all told of comforts that were his for the taking. A pair of slippers, run down at the heel, and an apron thrown across the back of a chair showed that a woman’s presence had graced the room not long before. ”

“ One lady who has travelled a great deal tells me that she has found a small white apron with a pocket a great convenience in serving and eating lunches on trains, and a gentleman suggests that a short apron with a bib and strap and a pocket for the napkin would be a great convenience for those of his sex. ”

“ The kitchen is huge, with copper pots and kettles hanging in rows on the stone wall—the littlest casserole among them about the size of a wash boiler. Four hundred girls live in Fergussen. The chef, in a white cap and apron, fetched out twenty-two other white caps and aprons—I can't imagine where he got so many—and we all turned ourselves into cooks. ”

“ Fig. 29B. The proper way to allow for piecinginch is for seams. Place this portion of the pattern on the goods. (See portion marked piecing in Diagram 29A.)
To Make a Plain Waistline Apron.—Join the piecing to the apron with a plain seam if the edges are selvedge. However, if either of the edges is raw, make a French seam. You will remember that the making of different seams was explained in Lesson I.
The next step in finishing the apron is hemming the sides. Here is a place where you can bring your sewing machine attachment in play. A narrow hemmer will turn the edge, neatly and quickly. ”

“ She could see everything exactly as it was—smoked kitchen ceiling, uneven kitchen floor, paintless pantry shelves. She could go to the bottom of the flour barrel if she wanted to; and she did. Covered with an old apron and her sleeves rolled up, she was first in the kitchen pantry looking into every cupboard, drawer or bucket for powdered sugar ”

“ The peasant apron, which is fastened under the armpits, is pretty evenly distributed as to fullness all the way round, and in the case of a maiden falls in straight lines in the back. But the married woman makes hers with a semicircular opening a few inches below the band. ”

“ At church fairs and bazaars the apron table is always one of the most successful. It affords an opportunity to display taste and ingenuity at little cost to the giver.
For the smart, simple house dresses there is even a wider range of material. In addition to those already mentioned cotton crepes, galateas, seersuckers and other washable materials can be used most effectively. The same rules govern the choice of trimming and it is wise to remember that the smaller the article the brighter and more intense the color may be. ”

“ Dancing aprons are made out of bark cloth by both men and women, but coloured by men only. The apron, which is worn at dances by women only, is about 6 to 12 inches wide. It is worn, as shown in Plate 35, in front of the body, being passed over the abdominal belt or a cord so as to hang over it in two folds, one behind the other ”

“ The last named is worked between the two lines of braid, to fill in the stems and scallops.
APRON IN BRODERIE EN LACET.
The bottom of the apron may either have a hem below the embroidery, or be scalloped in button-hole stitch, and the edges cut out.
The colours which look best for this style of work are—cerise, crimson, blue, orange, and for mourning, a soft gray. The fancy stitches are to be done exactly like those for point lace, but they need not be so close and fine, the silk filling in without much work. ”

“ A woman in search of an apron shies from a great bunch of aprons swung from the ceiling, but is attracted by a single apron tastefully displayed. So it is with all goods.
The day has gone by in the dry goods business when a few dummies, draped with dress goods and placed upon the ledge, will suffice. Something more attractive is required. Ladies especially like to see pretty goods, and will invariably do their purchasing where goods are brought out and displayed in an attractive manner. ”

“ When in their working-dress, they wear a handkerchief shrewdly twisted round their head, a gown of common printed muslin, but cut in the most elegant form, and a little black silk apron, with a pocket on each side before, into which they put their hands to keep them warm in the winter. ”

“ Then one of the assistants left to 'set up' in Reading and I moved into the shop and wore my first white apron. I learned to tie a parcel, pack a bag of currants, grind coffee, work the bacon-slicer, carve ham, put an edge on a knife, sweep the floor, dust eggs without breaking them, pass off an inferior article as a good one, clean a window, judge a pound of cheese by eye, open a packing-case, whack a slab of butter into shape, and--what was a good deal the hardest-- remember where the stock was kept. ”

“ The apron, or breech-cloth for men, and a short petticoat, made of strips of the inner bark of the cotton-wood, for women, are the only articles of dress deemed indispensable; but many of the females have long robes, or cloaks, of fur. ”

“ The dishes were cleared away and the red table-cloth replaced. "No use in Jerusha's being bothered," the wise Martha reasoned, as she replaced the white linen in the drawer. Then she unbuttoned the big gingham apron she had put on over the white one, and felt inclined to send the white apron after the table-cloth. But something kept her from doing this. "It's Easter anyhow." ”

“ The strings of the apron are often passed through a loop which is attached underneath the point of the handkerchief, crossed behind and tied before, not being too wide to allow the coloured petticoat to be seen at the sides. ”

“ If the pupils are very inexperienced and find the sewing difficult, it may be advisable to omit the bib and straps and to make the simple full-skirted apron. If a machine is not at hand to use for the long seams, the limited time may make the simpler apron necessary. ”

“ A cooking apron.”
“How interesting! Ladies ought not to make such things. They should do things that want lots of bundles of silks of all sorts of colors. This isn’t sufficiently decorative.”
“You mean fancy-work!” exclaimed Mabin with an expression of horror. “I hate fancy-work!”
“Girls who do fancy-work can always give a fellow things they have made themselves to remember them by. I have a heap of tobacco pouches, all very pretty and too good to use. Now you couldn’t give a fellow a cooking apron, to remember you by, could you?” ”

“ I have given it a place here because I feel sure that many of my young readers will remember having seen the apron in question, and will like to read its full history. It was very kindly loaned to me, during the New Orleans Exposition, by Major McDonald, and was on exhibition at my tent ("The Soldiers' Best") , among many other Confederate relics, where it never ceased to be an object of profound interest and veneration. Hundreds of people handled it. Veterans gazed upon it with moistened eyes. Women bedewed it with tears, and often pressed kisses upon it. ”

“ The little conveyance was a small, very old-fashioned gig, and though in its far-off youth it may have possessed a smart appearance, it was now decidedly more useful than ornamental. The varnish was worn and scratched, the cushions had been re-covered with cheap American cloth, the waterproof apron was threadbare, and one of the splash-boards was split. ”

“ Silver, knives, glass, cold plates, water bottles, cheese, butter, bread, dessert, finger glasses, &c., ought all to be prepared, and put into the dining room before commencing to lay the cloth. Either in laying a table or in cleaning a room, a well-bred servant ought to shut herself up in the room in which she is busy, surrounded with all her tools.
Before beginning to lay a cloth, a large clean apron ought to be tied on, whether it be a man or a woman servant, so that the dress does not soil the cloth. The thicker the under-cloth the better the white cloth looks. ”

“ Making Beds, &c.—When you have taken orders about dinner, you should go up into the bed-rooms, to assist the house-maid in making the beds—having already washed your hands, and put on your clean bed-apron. It is very proper to keep a bed-apron entirely for this purpose, one that will wrap quite round you, and tie together behind ”

“ That one in front is called the “jackal,” because it is generally made of a piece of jackal skin or similar fur. The second apron, if it may be so named, is not universally worn, though a Hottentot of taste does not consider himself dressed without it. It is simply a triangular flap of leather, barely a foot in length, two inches in width at the top, where it joins the girdle, and widening to four inches at the bottom. This curious appendage is ornamented with bits of metal, steel, beads, and other decorations, and the owner seems to take a great pride in this odd article of dress. ”

“ In the case of the lower classes, aprons were—as they still often are—provided with bibs. The old name for them was barme-cloth, and under this title Chaucer refers to the apron of Carpenter’s wife as being as white as the morning milk. ”

“ The apron is provided with a scarlet bib, and the sleeveless corsage is filled in with a white [123] chemisette, with puffed elbow-sleeves terminating in black velvet bands and frills of lace. About the neck is a deep filigree silver collar, from which hang two enormous silver pendants, one resting on the bust at either side.
THE AUSTRIAN PEASANT-BRIDE IN BLACK.
The typical Roman peasant woman makes a picturesque figure in a skirt of some dark material and an apron brightly trimmed with two broadish bands of embroidery, one appearing immediately below the hips and the other at the knees. ”

“ The beads they weave into aprons about a quarter of an ell long, and of the same breadth; working them very prettily in flowers of several colors; which apron they wear just before 'em, as Adam and Eve did the fig-leaves; the men wearing a long stripe of linen, which they deal with us for. ”