TUCKING GRANDMA’S APRON
[Illustration]
One day Margaret and her little friends, the One-Eyes, were talking
together about grandparents.
“You never had any grandmother or grandfather, did you?” Margaret asked
Sir Bodkin.
“Of course we had them just like everybody else but we never saw them.
They were very funny; you’ll laugh when I tell you their names,” said
Sir Bodkin.
“Oh! please tell me!” urged Margaret.
“Well, thorns and briers were their names!” he said.
“Why, how funny, for they grow outdoors on trees and bushes!” cried
Margaret trying not to laugh for she thought this sounded very queer.
“Just so. Yes, our great-grandparents, as I’m telling you, used to grow
outdoors. They were the first One-Eyed Fairies. The people who made them
lived outdoors, too. Then our grandparents were made of ivory and bone
and were cut from bones and tusks. They lasted many a long day, I can
tell you. Even to-day when some place is uncovered where people used to
live hundreds of years ago, you’ll find a grandparent lying fast asleep
with one eye open wide.”
[Illustration]
“You are a funny man. I never know what you are about to tell me,”
Margaret said to him. “Now that reminds me that Mother has cut out and
hemmed on the machine, the dearest little white apron for me to give my
Grandma Thanksgiving Day when we go there to dinner. Do you know how to
put in tucks?”
“Upon my word I do. Just show me where they’re to go and I’ll show you
how to put them in,” proudly said Sir Bodkin.
Margaret went to get the gift and soon returned with it.
“Look here!” she said and held up a piece of white lawn, hemmed on the
sides and across the bottom. It was twenty-seven inches wide and several
inches longer.
“Mother allowed some material for the three tucks,” Margaret explained.
“She said each tuck was to be one-quarter inch wide and one-half inch
apart. We can baste in the tucks, can’t we? Then Mother will stitch them
in on her machine.”
“Oh, yes, My Lady, we can easily do that. First we shall have to measure
the distance, then crease them in, then baste,” Sir Bodkin told her.
Margaret took the tape measure out of her work-basket and the tucking
began.
[Illustration: “Measure one inch up from the hem top”]
“Measure one inch up from the hem top and crease the first tuck with
your nail then pleat it with your fingers across the bottom of the
apron,” Sir Bodkin said.
Margaret creased very carefully and every so often measured until she
had marked the tuck across from one side of the little apron to the
other.
[Illustration]
“That looks very even. Now, Baster, you rogue, baste this tuck very
carefully,” said the King.
Baster was harnessed with basting-thread, with the end knotted and then
he waited for his little mistress to begin.
“Step along the tuck one-quarter inch from the creased edge. Take
medium-sized steps, sir,” ordered Sir Bodkin, “but before you start take
a few slides back and forth through the emery to glide in and out
easily. Lawn is a little stiff sometimes, My Lady,” he said to Margaret.
After Baster was shined as bright in the emery as he could be shined,
Margaret held the tuck in her left hand and with her right pushed and
held Baster as he stepped along.
“Use your tape measure, as you go along, to be sure he keeps his steps
in the right track always from the top,” reminded Sir Bodkin.
“That one is basted,” cried Margaret at the end of the first tuck.
[Illustration: Basting first tuck]
“And very nicely done, too,” praised the King.
“How shall I measure the second one?” asked Margaret.
“Measure one inch from the basting for the second crease,” answered Sir
Bodkin.
When the second tuck was creased and basted and the third one done the
same way, Margaret measured the apron from top to bottom.
“Don’t they take up the goods fast? It’s about twenty-seven inches long
now,” she laughed.
“That’s what tucks do. They always take up twice as much goods as they
are wide. We use them for dresses to allow for shrinking. And to allow
for children growing, too,” he laughed.
“Yes, I know that,” said Margaret, “for Mother is always putting tucks
in my clothes then taking them out, I grow so fast.”
“Then we use them for trimming, as in this apron. There are wide tucks
and narrow tucks and pin tucks. Pin tucks go in babies’ bonnets and
dresses. Sometimes we hold a little cord in the crease and sew along it.
These corded tucks are very pretty for sheer materials,” he said.
[Illustration: Tucks basted ready for stitching]
“And what kinds are they?” asked Margaret.
“Oh, those fine enough to see through, like lawn and swiss and
organdie,” answered Sir Bodkin.
“This begins to look pretty. When Mother stitches these tucks on the
machine and the bastings are pulled out, then I’m going to gather the
top and sew it on a band,” said Margaret.
“That’s fun!” cried Sir Bodkin. “I just love to put on bands.”
“We’ll do that another day. I must run out now and do my errands for
Mother,” Margaret said folding her work and jumping up from her little
chair.
“Good-bye, everybody, and be good,” she laughed running out of the room
with the folded apron in her hand.
“Step, step, step away,
Always jolly and always gay.
While my steps may not last, you see,
How would things look if it wasn’t for me!”
sang Baster, dancing and whirling around the table-top.
“He hates himself,” cried some of the other One-Eyed Fairies from the
pincushion. Then Baster went on singing:
“Laugh, smile, dance away,
Enjoy yourself, is what I say.
Do your work, then dance for joy,
Is the motto I give to each girl and boy!”
Sir Bodkin stood watching and laughing at the antics of his
happy-go-lucky subject as he frolicked around the table-top teasing this
one, pulling that one’s thread out of his eye.
“Now, that’s enough, sir, for to-day,” said Sir Bodkin laughing and
holding his sides. “Enough’s enough!”
[Illustration]