Tuesday, June 15, 2010

"because she has found it easy!"

I got a little obsessive after my previous post, I went ahead and finished the apron from vintage Butterick 3872. I used Alexander Henry's "Home Sewing is Easy" fabric. The fabric is a hoot - one panel features a man saying "Honey - if you can make dresses like that your sewing machine was one solid investment all right!"For the bias I picked a khaki green color; there are so many colors I wanted something that looked neutral.

A couple of comments on the pattern:
  • At the top of the first page is written "For your sewing pleasure . . . this new, improved guide is scientifically designed to make the sewing and cutting instructions clearer and easier to follow." I found that interesting; I study technical writing in school and I know that in the 50s and 60s there was a boom in technical writing, thanks to the space race and the Cold War. Funny that should manifest in sewing directions!
  • The directions tell you to sew along the seam line (around the outer edge), then trim the seam and THEN apply the bias tape. I'm not sure why it's necessary to do that sewing around the edge, so I didn't.
  • Putting bias tape on curves is a pain.
  • Each side of the apron has a tie. It took me a while to figure out how to tie on the apron, but then I realized that you tie the two ties from the back up front under the apron, then you tie the front ties in back. I guess people were more familiar with apron designs back then.
  • This design (I would call it a tabard style, but I don't know if that's the proper name) provides great coverage, which I need since I'm messy. :)

0 comments:

Post a Comment