Pleated Apron

As I often do in the week before an event, I decided I needed a new accessory. This time, it was an apron. Historically they would have been exceptionally handy for keeping your clothes soil free while working but also for carrying things, handling hot pots, etc. I decided to go with a simple, white linen, pleated apron, although there is a little bit of evidence for honeycomb pleated (or smocked) aprons as early as the 14th century.

Some of the research I did online recommended using the full width of my linen (60 inches) and cutting the length to about 6 inches above the floor. That seemed like an unreasonable amount of precious fabric for the average medieval woman, so I drafted a pattern with half the width of my fabric (30 inches). I thought that would still leave me with enough fabric to make a good looking apron when pleated down to about 12 inches. I made the tie for my apron the full width of my linen. My apron was just two easy pieces, one 30" x 36" piece and one 60" x 2.5" piece. The 2.5" width when folded over and sewn resulted in about a 3/4" waistband.

I really wanted to try thread pulling for this apron since squareness of cut would be important for a good final product. My thread pulling processes looked like this:

1. Even up the end of your linen by pulling loose threads until you get one that goes across the whole 60 inch width of your farbic.

2. Trim all the extra threads until you've got a nice straight edge again.

3. Measure the amount you want to cut (2.5" in my case) and make a little snip through the selvage of your fabric.

4. Pick a single thread running the width of your fabric from this gap and tug it gently.

5. Keep pulling until you can either remove the thread all the way across your fabric or it breaks and you have to hunt it down again and start pulling from the middle.

It took me a while to get the hang of this, and I still can't get a single pull to go across the whole 60 inches of my linen, but I was able to use this method to cut my apron pieces.

The next step was to do a simple rolled hem on 3 of the 4 edges, leaving the top unfinished. This edge is then pleated using a gathering stitch (I chose to use two rows of parallel gathering stitches because I find it is easier to work with and neater, well worth the extra time).

I then pulled the tread ends to gather to the desired width (approximately 15" for me) and tied a knot to keep the gathers from coming undone. I spread the gathers evenly, then found the center of my tie piece, pinning it to the center of my apron pleats with the raw edges matching up. Using a straight stitch, I sewed the strap to the apron about 3/5" from the edge. Then, I folded the strap over the top of the apron and down the other side, tucking the raw edge under. This leaves the edge of the strap in the back JUST below the edge in the front, making it easy to sew through just a single layer of fabric to sew the back down.

The straps were finished by folding the edges to match and whip stitching the edge. It would have been much faster to straight stitch, but I found the edge finish to be nicer with a whip stitch.

The final product is a simple, economical apron that has helped make many of my more work-a-day outfits feel much more complete.