=Cutting the yoke.= Lay the pattern on the cloth so that the width of chest line is on the filling threads of the cloth. Four pieces will be needed. Can you double your cloth and cut two at once? The yoke is made double of two thicknesses; that is why we must cut two pieces for the back and two for the front. Cut the two back portions through the center back, on the thread of material. Now our aprons are all cut. Carefully roll up the pieces and material left, for you will need them if you make the caps. [Illustration: FIG. 24.--Four of the Pleasant Valley girls wearing their finished aprons.] =Basting the skirt part.= Let us make the skirt of the apron first. Pin the widths together, selvedge to selvedge, to form seams. You all know what the selvedge is. Look in the dictionary. How is it made so firm? The whole width is for the center front; the half width for each side. Pin together and baste one-fourth inch seams, to within 8 or 9 inches of each length; this will be left open under each arm. Baste also one-fourth inch hems at the outside edges of the side lengths which are raveling. Turn the hems to the same side as the seams, the wrong side. Now all the basting is done, and next time we shall be ready for a new stitch. The picture (Fig. 24) shows some of the Pleasant Valley girls wearing their aprons. Can you guess which is Mollie Stark or Barbara Oakes? EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 1. Look up these words in the dictionary: _selvedge_, _warp_, _woof_, _pattern_. 2. Name other materials, besides gingham, suitable for work aprons. LESSON 7 USING THE RUNNING AND BACK STITCH ON THE APRON A new stitch called running and back stitch is very useful for seams (Fig. 25). It is a quick stitch, and it is strong. Let us learn to make it on the seams of the aprons. We shall need it later for other things. The apron seams are all basted with one-fourth inch seams. The selvedges have not been removed. Some day we shall learn to make a seam which will be sewed twice, and then we shall remove the selvedges. A seam made with one sewing is called a plain seam. The basting is only a temporary stitch. [Illustration: FIG. 25.--A new stitch called the running and back stitch.]