Now take the piece you have cut for the apron, and turn a quarter-inch hem along both the sides and one of the ends of this strip, tack these along carefully, and hem neatly. We give directions for tacking and hemming on [page 18].
To form the large double pocket, fold the hemmed end of the strip up 11 inches, and oversew the edges of the side hems together. Directions for oversewing are given on page [page 28]. Now place a tacking line right down the centre of the pocket The small patch pockets should then be added. Turn a quarter-inch hem along the top of each of these, and a single narrow turning round the other edges. Hem one of these on to each side of the large pocket, placing them about 3½ inches down from the top of the large pocket, and 3 inches in from the side edges of the apron.
HOW THE FEATHER-STITCHING IS DONE.
Now take the band strip, tack a single turning round all edges and fold right along the centre. Gather the top of the apron, draw the gathers up tightly (winding the thread round a pin so that it will be ready when you want to let them out again), and carefully stroke down each gathered stitch with your needle to make them set nicely. Now let out the gathers until the apron is 13 inches wide, place the gathered edge between the folded band, taking care that you get the centre of the band and the centre of the apron together, and hem along each side of the work. You will see that you have a little picture showing you exactly how this should be done.
The open edges of the ends of the band should be oversewn together.
When you have finished sewing on your band you will need to put a button on one end and to make a buttonhole in the other end. If you are not quite sure how to make a buttonhole nicely you had better look carefully at the illustrations showing how to do this.
First fold the end of the band, and cut your buttonhole through the fold and exactly in a line with a thread of the material; the buttonhole should be cut just large enough for you to put your button through easily. Before you commence to work the buttonholes make a line of running or “barring” stitches quite close to the edges, to hold them evenly together, as shown in the first part of the little diagram; the second part of the diagram shows another way of holding the edges together by working overcasting stitches over the hole, but this way is more often used when working on thicker materials. The third part of the diagram shows a finished buttonhole, and you will see that one end is worked round and the other square; the outside should be the round one, and the inner end the square one.
THE “BARRING” OVERCASTING, AND THE FINISHED BUTTONHOLE.