I love these old Herrschner Art Needlework catalogs from the 1920s; the aprons and children’s wear items are my favorites. The style of these aprons is appealing to me because they are simple to make, have good coverage (I am a messy cook), and the embroidered details are so sweet. For my two aprons, I cut a couple of one-yard pieces from my bolt of vintage Irish linen produced by Belfast Mills.
The first apron is a surprise for my friend, Patty (at Petalier), who loves to cook — a small token of my appreciation for all her gifts of vintage fabric and notions. Patty’s apron is embroidered with cherries and a bluebird, since they have lots of bluebirds in upstate New York where she lives. I used the pale green polkadot fabric for both the lining and the bias binding.
Even though I have some of those Clover bias tape maker thingies, I can never seem to press the tape well enough so I can top stitch it to a garment the way I do with packaged bias tape. So, for this apron the bias is applied the way I do binding on quilts — machine sewn on the front, and hand stitched on the back.
The other apron I made for myself, adding some vintage decorative bias trim (sent to me by Patty) and an old Vogart chintz appliqué. The apron is lined with a pink print that I forgot to photograph.
Because I think I can figure out how to construct most of the aprons in this catalog, next time I’m going to try a little more elaborate design, but first I have to finish hand piecing the last of the Seven Sisters quilt blocks — only 6 half blocks to go.
Very sweet!
Love your aprons! They are fantastic 🙂 Can’t wait to see your Seven Sisters too! 🙂
Happy EAster,
Mickie
Oh how nice. I really like version 2816 with the flower ‘pot lifter’.
Mickie..Ditto
I love your aprons. They are lovely.
Oh Martha!!! The apron arrived on Saturday and I just cried. It is too beautiful. Although your photographs are detailed, to see your apron in person brings your careful skills to life. It is just the most wonderful gift beyond words! What an amazing and generous person you are. Thank you Martha!
Hello, Martha. This is the first time I have had to stop by in a while. Just love the aprons. I love the embroidery. Your work is beautiful-as usual. I hope you don’t mind, but I use the bias tape makers all the time and I can tell you an easy way to use them. It really works and will save you lots of time. When you are pulling your fabric through the bias tape maker and pressing it, pin the end down to your ironing board.(Keep pinning it as you keep pulling the fabric through) MAKE SURE that you press one side just a little smaller than the other side.I usually press mine at least 1/16 of an inch to 1/8 of an inch smaller. Then when you get ready to sew it on, just put the smaller side on top and sew. I don’t even pin it down. It will go on as good as the bias tape that you buy–and you get to choose the exact color you want by making your own.
BTW-Thank you again for telling me where I could find the pattern to make the cloth book. But I found another pattern that had directions to make cloth books with something to do on every page AND the pages were big. Plus there wasn’t so much sewing on each page. This one was much simpler and easier to make.
Have a great day!