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Making and attaching the apron
#1
I've started looking into making myself a belt (Well two actually - I'm doing the early 1st C AD) but when I got to the apron I couldn't find much information on how it should be attached to the belt.

I was looking in JRMES 3 - The Early Imperial Apron, but there was very little information on how (or if) it was attached to the rear of the belt. It also seems that some of them actually go through the middle of the buckle, and others have rectangular plates on them at the top of the belt ( Reliefs 1, 4, 8, 10, 18 ). There also seems to be something rectangular at the top of the belts as well?

So my question is, could anyone give me information on how to make and attach the apron? Also what are the rectangular bits and what are they made of?

Thanks!
Lee
(Lucius)

Legio V Alaudae (Europe)
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.alaudae.eu/">http://www.alaudae.eu/
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#2
Some of those aprons seem certainly to have vertical rectangular metal plates at the top of the straps where they join the belt, with the more usual round studs below them. I'm fairly sure (and only my opinion) that a few seem quilted and complete (uncut) at the very top across the entire width of the apron where it joins the main belt, and may be leather? - would make a good purse with built-in alarm bells :wink:

A most common method for attaching the apron is to use the belt plate rivets going through the main plates, main belt leather, and the apron's top. This is done by not having each strap as individual fitted piece, but the apron is a rectangle kept whole at the top, as if the straps were a long fringe. Make any sense?
TARBICvS/Jim Bowers
A A A DESEDO DESEDO!
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#3
ya thats the way i did it. i cut out a rectangle of leather. cut the rectangle into 6 equal sections about 1 inch wide all except about 2 inches or so. then i wet it down and folded that 2 inch part. then after i attached my dangliums i set it over my belt and when i riveted my belt plates on, it riveted the folded over part too.
Tiberius Claudius Lupus

Chuck Russell
Keyser,WV, USA
[url:em57ti3w]http://home.armourarchive.org/members/flonzy/Roman/index.htm[/url]
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#4
That is how Jorge made mine too!
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
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#5
Thank you for the information guys!

Quote:would make a good purse with built-in alarm bells :wink:

Interesting idea. It would explain where the term 'Kicked in the family jewels' comes from! Smile

I was thinking - If the apron was made of a single piece of leather, cut into strips, isn't it possible that this rectanglar 'plate' is another piece of leather stitched onto it to stop the leather tearing further upwards where the straps were cut?
Lee
(Lucius)

Legio V Alaudae (Europe)
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.alaudae.eu/">http://www.alaudae.eu/
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#6
Quote:I was thinking - If the apron was made of a single piece of leather, cut into strips, isn't it possible that this rectanglar 'plate' is another piece of leather stitched onto it to stop the leather tearing further upwards where the straps were cut?
Well, as always; maybe. But the apron straps tearing off isn't really one I've heard of happening amongst re-enactors. The original strap found, intact with studs, et al, had stitching around its edges for strengthening. You should download and read Mike Bishop's article on aprons:
Download the highlighted PDF http://www.jrmes.org.uk/vol03.htm
TARBICvS/Jim Bowers
A A A DESEDO DESEDO!
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#7
"You should download and read Mike Bishop's article on aprons"

Actually that is what he has been reading already. Bishop is (probably deliberately) unclear about how aprons were attached to belts. If you look he talks about them being "somehow attached", rather than anything specific. Thus it will have to be , I suspect, until such time as a bog body turns up in the full kit of a Roman soldier to answer all of our questions and pose twice as many more.

A possible method of attachment not mentioned in Bishop's article, by the way, is for the top of the apron to be sewn into a tube which is simply slid onto the belt, giving the impression that the straps are attached to the back.

Crispvs
Who is called \'\'Paul\'\' by no-one other than his wife, parents and brothers.  :!: <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_exclaim.gif" alt=":!:" title="Exclamation" />:!:

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.romanarmy.net">www.romanarmy.net
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#8
Quote:You should download and read Mike Bishop's article on aprons

That's what got me asking these questions in the first place Smile

Thank you for the information Crispvs. I've read some articles saying the apron was supposed to be detachable, so maybe this is the way to go. I'll do some experimenting!
Lee
(Lucius)

Legio V Alaudae (Europe)
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.alaudae.eu/">http://www.alaudae.eu/
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#9
Teach me to always go back to the initial post and re-read the question :oops: Big Grin

Don't be too prescriptive about the apron. Maybe the ones that return over the face of the belt were detachable, but many representations have them attach at the back of the belt with no sign of looping. That suggests those ones were fixed, more than anything.
TARBICvS/Jim Bowers
A A A DESEDO DESEDO!
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