For some time I've been searching for
the perfect apron dress sewing pattern, so when I saw that fellow Etsyan Pomadour24
was selling copies of a Yoshiko Tsukiori sewing book full of apron dresses the fact that it's only available in Japanese didn't put me off.
The book includes 28 designs to sew.
There are bib aprons, pinafores dresses, cobbler aprons and tabards,
some bungalow aprons (these have sleeves cut in one piece with the
body of the dress, a bit like a t-shirt). There's even a design for
a loose cropped 'smock' blouse.
I would wear every garment in this book
but the standout design was No. 5: Jumper Skirt Apron. That's
'jumper' as in the American word for pinafore not a sweater dress (Wikipedia explain all here).
However, I'd describe this dress as a cobbler because it fastens with
ties – I challenge you to correct me!
The book has no actual sewing patterns
enclosed, you have to draft up your own pattern from diagrams, just
like in Tsukiori's Easy Cute Straight Stitch Sewing.
It's so liberating to work in this way and the diagrams are super
easy to follow with numbers indicating which seam to sew next.
As it was my first attempt with this
sewing pattern I used a budget black and white checked material bought
for a song from the fabric stall at Worthing market. It's very light
and drapey so this is definitely going to be a summer apron dress.
I
really love the rectangular shape of the garment and the way it drapes when tied – it feels like wearing
origami. I've bought some heavier
weight fabric to make another one of these, though I also have designs on No. 24: Wrapping One-Piece Dress...