Meirin's apron: Tutorial
I was asked about how I made my Meirin costume this weekend, and I realized that, although I talked about how I made the dress, I have not talked about the apron. This is because I basically took all of Katie's work on it, and copied it blatantly. And now I share Katie's hard work with you!
Here you can see it laid out and how it is basically just a few pieces. The skirt, the underbust, and the straps. For the skirt, I actually just used half of the skirt pattern from Simplicity 3685, since I had used that for the dress. I started with it 2" shorter than the pattern, but it eventually got up to 6" shorter (I wanted a lot of the dress to show). I hemmed both the sides and bottom of the skirt part.
The underbust is based on three pieces of fabric, and three of lining. I measured from waist to underbust for the height of the piece. Then I measured my underbust and divided by two. I added half an inch around for seam allowances, and then cut out two pieces of fabric, and two of lining. Then I cut one of each in half, for the back two pieces. You could add shaping here, or make the corsetted gap a bit wider, if you'd like. I sewed all of the fabric pieces together at the sides (leaving the back gap open) and sewed the lining pieces together at the sides. Now, I had two pieces - the fabric piece and the lining piece. I sewed the pieces together across the top, then carefully ironed all of the seam allowances in.
Then I folded the fabric and lining so that they were wrong sides together, and pinned the skirt in between the fabric and the lining. On the sides, I pinned 1/4 inch doublefold bias tape in between the fabric and lining to make the corsetting loops (and used it for the lacing as well). On one side, I pinned in a square of fabric that was the same height as the underbust and four inches wide after hemming under the loops for a modesty panel. After everything was pinned in place, I topstitched around the sides and bottom of the underbust. Then I hand sewed hook and eyes to the top and bottom of the modesty panel and inside the underbust part so that it would keep up properly.
Now there are just the straps to go. Put on the apron so far, and measure where you want the straps to go. Having a second person here helps a lot! Add two inches to the length (for actually attaching it to the apron) and cut two rectangles that length and four inches wide for your straps. I folded the straps up like double-fold bias tape and ironed them. Before sewing them, I made the ruffles.
I'm pretty sure that I put way too much calculation into my ruffles and you could just wing it, but here's what I did. I subtracted four inches from the strap length - I wanted two inches of plain strap on each end - and then added two inches per pleat for five pleats with one inch on each side for the half pleat (12 extra inches). I held the measuring tape up to my shoulder and decided that about five inches would be a good height for the ruffle. It may have been four inches after sewing. I cut out four rectangles with those dimensions, then rounded off the edges. I sewed two of those together at the curved edge, and then the other two and turned them right side out and pressed. Then I box pleated them and pinned them inside the fold of the straps, then topstitched across. I sewed the straps into place, sewed the buttons on front, and then I was done!
