Examining the Old to Make the New

You may not know that when I was a senior in college I received an undergraduate research fellowship through Buffalo State College. It was through this fellowship that I got a taste of curatorial work with the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. For a summer I was the curator of the clothing and textile collection of this organization. At the time the collection was not cataloged and some of the boxes had not been looked into for 20 or more years. Each day I went into work was another amazing opportunity to see old clothes and textiles. To me, the entire collection felt like my children; I brought them into the light, putting them on dress forms I breathed life into them, taking their picture for documentation was like watching their first step and posting it on social media for everyone to see, knowing full well that I was one of the very few who appreciated it for the true beauty it was.
I learned so much from that summer, and from all the work I did with the historical society. We mounted a modest exhibition of clothes from the collection at the local library and in order to do so we needed dress forms, so, I made them using information from Janet Arnold. I find all of her work to be most valuable; even if you're not a fashion historian it is very fascinating to see her illustrations of historical clothing from England. The book that I went to numerous times that summer was A Handbook of Costume, one of her lesser known books. It has since become a rather expensive out-of-print book, but if you can get your hands on a copy at your local library, I greatly encourage it.
In this book Janet Arnold explains how you can learn from clothing. She talks about having the actual garment in front of you but also how to examine art works, of all forms from paintings to stain glass windows, to better understand the clothes in them.
So, why am I telling you all of this? To me, clothing is a vital part of seeing who people were in past times. It can also teach us how to do better work with our fiber crafts. Since moving to Wyoming I feel as though I've fallen into being a vintage clothing dealer. I can look at clothing or textiles and tell you how they were made. That is something that I am proud of, and today will be the first of many posts in an examination of a certain garment. This post will be on the simple side, a late Victorian to early Edwardian full apron.

Description:
This is the apron with a dress underneath. The front is on the left and the back is on the right. It is made from a simple white cotton calico with a small floral sprig motif printed on it in navy blue. It is simply constructed with all straight of grain pieces. There are two patch pockets on either side at hip level. There is one button at the top of the yoke at center back.

How they made it:
The fabric was a mere 25 inches wide. One panel 43 inches long is the front. A second, the same length is the back, but split down the middle. There is a small gore at the side seam, placed on the selvage, measuring 13.25 inches with a height of 3.5". The bias side of the triangle is placed on back panel and the straight of grain is on the side seam.
The yoke and straps are a folded 4 inch piece of straight of grain material cut into 12 inch pieces. The little ruffled hem flounce is 75 inches long and 4 inches wide, so three 4 inch wide strips of the 25 inch wide fabric.
With the front panel, you would gather it down to 12 inches and sew the yoke to it. The back yoke is cut in half and the back panels are sewn into each yoke piece. The straps are top stitched on the yokes. The sides seams are open from the yoke down 11 inches. The fabric folded twice and top stitched. The rest of the side seam is felt felled. The hem flounce is sewn together, hemmed on one long side and gathered on the other. It is then mounted on the apron hem using a french seam. A 7/8 inch button hole is made, on the horizontal, 1 inch in from the center back. A matching button is sewn on the other side to form the closure. The patch pockets are a 6 inch square with a slightly rounded bottom. They are placed 4.5 inches down from the bottom of the armseye, with one side placed on the front panel side of the side seam.
Does that make any sense? If not, comment, and I will try and clarify!
Now you're probably say, 'Ben, this is an old apron and this would not fit me, nor can I find 25 inch wide fabric!' So, here's some thoughts on modernizing it:
You can shorten it, although fiber friends I think it would be helpful to have a full length apron to card or dye or spin in.
Substitute fabric. If you get a 54 inch, or so, wide fabric you can make the full length apron in 2 yards of fabric, less if you want it shorter. The only important thing here is to not pick a directional fabric or one that you will have to match a pattern on, then you're going to need more fabric. Or, if you wanted to use scraps of fabric you could piece them together into the shapes and have a sort of crazy quilt apron. The straps and yoke could be substituted for ribbons.
Make it fit you. I would make the front and back yokes 2 inches shorter than your across front measurement. This measurement it taken from one side of where your arm meets your chest to the other, pretty much right over your heart. For the front and back panels, I would measure your hips and add 6 inches for ease, more if you want it to be more full. Half of your hip measurement plus ease should be the width of your front panel.
Again, does this make sense? Contact me if it doesn't! I'd be more than happy to explain it more!
I hope this inspires you to examine the old to make your next new project! Be prepared for more in depth examinations too!