Red Linen Apron Dress

Red linen apron dress – just missing the brooches!

After making the blue linen apron dress, I wanted to adjust the pattern and make it up in red as well. This also happened to coordinate perfectly with the Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge #16! (Read more about that at the end.)

I used the Fabrics-store.com 100% linen IL019 – multi-purpose linen in a 5.3 oz/yd weight, in colour Biking Red – its a bit less cranberry than the photo online (at least on my monitor) and pretty much exactly the colour I had in mind. (Shown with the black linen underdress from a previous post.)

Pattern drafting

Since I had to add in a bit extra material for the blue linen apron dress to fit the way I wanted, I re-made my pattern with this adjustment built in, and then also drafted a reverse-facing for the dress. On the blue dress I did just a strip of red silk, but this time I wanted to do something that reflected the slight curve of the top of the apron-dress so I drafted a separate pattern piece for it.

drafting the pattern for the (slightly shaped) reverse facing on the red linen apron dress

After I had sewn up the apron dress – all that additional fabric I had added in – was unnecessary – now the garment was too big! I had to take it in at the bust and waist – though I left the additional room at the hips and hem… why not have a little extra flare!

Some fairly considerable alteration needed on the red linen apron dress

Reverse facing & straps

Attaching the strap loops on the red linen apron dress

I added in a short loop for the front ‘strap’, and a long loop for the back strap on either side. The straps are loops because the brooch will connect them. I fussed around with the length for a bit – having an extra set of hands around was really helpful – I wish I always had the extra help! From there I sewed on the reverse facing – remembering that the facing was going to come around to the front, instead of to the back….

Tiny line of understitching on the reverse facing on the red linen apron dress

I had stay-stitched the neckline of the dress, and then sewed on the facing – then by hand did tiny little (barely visible on the front) stitches to fold the facing to the right side. On regular clothing I’d do this by machine.. but since this is the “visible” side of the garment, I did it by hand instead. (All of the visible stitches for this garment are done by hand, though the stitches that go unseen are almost all by machine….)

Following the machine zig-zag with a row of hand stitching on the red linen apron dress. The zig-zag will be removed.

There’s the front – see how you can barely see the tiny stitches at the top – in this bigger-than-life photo.

I sewed down the facing in place with a large zig-zag stitch… I chose this because a) it’s easy to see to remove and b) the zigs and zags could act as spacing guides for my hand-stitch.

Using Pearl Cotton I did a running stitch to hold down the facing.  I’ll probably elaborate this a bit more in future – but I want to get some hand-made tablet weaving for the dress first… sew it on.. and then add the hand-stitching to match it.

visible top-stitching on the on the red linen apron dress

Close up of the hand-stitching along the (temporary) zig-zag.

sewing the reverse facing down discreetly on the red linen apron dress

Once I had finished all the hand stitching with the Pearl Cotton, I also went in and did  a very tiny running stitch with regular thread at the bottom of the facing, to hold it down even more securely.  From there of course I removed the machine zig-zag.

I also added some four-strand braid to the very top of the apron dress, as I’ve seen mentioned in examples from finds – this was hand-stitched on at an A&S get-together as part of the SCA.  (I had to make the braid the night before in order to have it for the get-together though!)

Hem

herringbone stitch on the hem of the red linen apron dress

For the hem, I pressed the hem in place, and then used a wide zig-zag on my machine to sew the hem down – but well below the line where the fabric ended. Right over the fabric edge (which was serged to avoid raveling) I did a herringbone stitch with the same red Pearl Cotton.

herringbone stitch on the hem of the red linen apron dress

Shot from above of the herringbone stitch. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good I think!

In terms of authenticity… this is more a guess than something I can “back up”. No trimmed hems have been found (to the best of my knowledge/research) so not only I don’t know how long Apron Dresses were in the Viking Age, but there’s no artifacts to illustrate how they may have been trimmed.  I figure that braids, trims, possaments, etc survived at the top of apron dresses, but since they weren’t found at the bottom, that perhaps just stitching might be ok… and with the Viking love of embellishments, a fancy stitch for a hem of an over-garment would probably be relatively authentic.

embellished herringbone stitch on the hem of the red linen apron dress

I highlighted the “cross” in the herringbone stitch (also called a ‘long-arm cross stitch’) with a little black line.  Again, a note on authenticity – black would have been very hard to dye, but I LIKE it. Likewise, I’m using cotton thread instead of linen or wool, out of convenience, colourfast-ness and affordability. (And accessibility, as I’ve never seen linen thread around here… and super-fine wool thread is really hard to find locally too…)

embellished herringbone stitch on the hem of the red linen apron dress

Another view of that hem.

Finished apron dress

Red linen apron dress – just missing the brooches!

Red linen apron dress – just missing the brooches!

Skjoldehamn style hood (with some alteration)

My original interpretation of the Skjoldehamn style hood (with some alteration)

London Hood style hood

London Hood style hood

Historical Sew Fortnightly #16

Although I already planned to make this dress, it fits in perfectly with the Historical Sew Fortnightly #16 – Terminology – due Mon 1 September. Explore the etymology of fashion by make something defined in the Historical Fashion & Textile Encyclopedia (new terminology posts and items will be added throughout the year).

The Challenge: Historical Sew Fortnightly #16 – Terminology

“Apron dress – the name usually applied to a simple rectangular over-dress, the most common known garment worn by women in Northern Europe during the Migration period and Early Middle Ages. Also called “hängerock”or “pinafore.” Some scholars believe the name used by the wearers was “smokkr”. 600-1,200 CE”

Fabric: Fabrics-store.com 100% linen IL019 – multi-purpose linen in a 5.3 oz/yd weight, in colour Biking Red

Pattern: drafted based off 10th Century Norse extant example speculation

Year: 10th Century

Notions: hand-made 4-strand braid, embroidery Pearl Cotton, thread, safety pins (for the moment, until I get those brooches!), interfacing.

How historically accurate is it?: The pattern is entirely speculative, based off the shape of a piece of fabric.. LOL (But it’s duplicated over and over, so here’s hoping.) My research suggests the apron dresses were more commonly wool, but linen was available. (Maybe my next one will be wool..?) and I did all of the interior sewing by machine, all exterior (visible) sewing by hand.

Hours to complete: Umm? no idea. I made it over the period of about 2 weeks, including some some of the hand-work at an SCA A&S get together.

First worn: To an SCA tavern night in the last week of August.

Total cost: I bought 4 yards of  linen at $36.40/US specifically for this project. There’s still a fair amount of fabric leftover though. The black band of linen was leftover from another project (so let’s call it a trade-off) and the Pearl Cotton was $0.99/Canadian per skein – I didn’t quite use a full skein though.