This apron was a very custom, "One-Off" apron. This apron is all hand embroidered using various colors of Bullion. All of the embroidery was done by the same employee who embroidered the aprons below for St. George's Lodge.

These aprons were made for St. George's Lodge No. 6, F. & A.M. in Schenectady, New York.
This lodge is celebrating its 232nd anniversary with Colonial Style Aprons.
The aprons were styled from an apron that was originally made somewhere between
1800 - 1850. The original apron, which was to delicate to be shipped to us was
scanned at actual size. The color image was sent to us by Brother Frank Karwowski,
to be duplicated as close as we could. We worked very close with Bro. Karwowski
in determining exact shape, color(s) and type of bullion used in the apron.
The original apron had a hand painted All Seeing Eye, which we were unable to
duplicate so modifications were made by using different types of material and
styles of embroidery. This project was started in early April of 2006 and shipped
complete in late August of 2006.

Please visit the web site of St. George's Lodge No. 6, at: St. George's Lodge

Picture of Original Apron


This is a digital photo of the scanned
image of the original apron.


You can see in this image how "tattered"
the material is. You can also see the
hand painted All Seeing Eye, trimmed in
Gilt Bullion.


This design was copied and is now being used
by St. George's Lodge as the Worshipful Masters' Apron.

Getting Started!


The scanned image was laid over a Light Box
and pattern paper was laid on top of that.
The pattern was traced onto the pattern paper.
Along the way, different officer emblems were
placed on top to check size and placement.

The pattern is made.


Once the pattern was made, it was set on
top of the apron(s) to double check size and
final placement. We are still NOT done with the
pattern making process!

Finishing the pattern.


After the above steps were completed
the pattern was then "punched" one hole
at a time! This allows the tinted powder
to "fall through" the holes. With the pattern
now transfered to the apron, we can begin actually
placing the emblem(s) and leaves down so the
embroidery can be done.


On a side note, it was decided about half way
through, that the Warden's Aprons should be done
with the full "wreath" pattern.

The first pattern is placed on an apron.

After the entire pattern was "punched, it was
placed on the apron(s) and the powder transfer process
was completed. With the powder transfer on the apron(s),
the leaves for the wreath were cut...One at a time...and
glued to the apron along with the emblem of office.
Once the pattern has been put on the apron, the embroidery
can now be started.

Embroidery has begun!


After the painstaking process of pattern making
was completed (It took a full 8hrs. to complete
the pattern), the apron was given to our employee to
begin the embroidery.


Each piece of bullion is cut to size and sewn down
one piece at a time! A very "labor intensive" task!


This employee has 26 years of experience in hand embroidery,
and 21 of those years have been with our company!

The first apron is completed!


The Sr. Warden apron is completely finished.
In trying to keep with the Colonial style,
the "ties" are of the same satin ribbon as the border.


At this point, the entire process was repeated only now
an entirely new pattern was made for what would become
the Worshipful Masters' Apron.

The Worshipful Master apron is completed!


Again, with all previous steps now completed,
the Worshipful Masters' Apron is complete.


You will notice that the wreath in the Sr. Warden
apron was altered and is not the same as what
was used on the Worshipful Master apron.


Because we take pride in the work that our employees do,
we want to point out that on the Worshipful Master
apron, the SUN in the center of the emblem and
the SUN to the upper left were both done completely
"freehand". A very light circle was drawn for both
as a reference point. All the embroidery was then
done "freehand" with no pattern to follow!


An entire set of aprons was crafted for St. George's Lodge.
There was a total of 16 aprons were made. Only the Wardens
and Worshipful Master aprons were this elaborate. The rest of
the officer aprons had the respective emblem of office that
was enlarged to fill the field of white Satin. All of the
embroidery was done in Silver Bullion.


This was an Honor and Privilege for our company to be able
to do this work for St. George's Lodge. We endeavour to
maintain the "Old World" traditions of crafting Hand
Embroidered aprons. All work on this project was
100% "Made In America".

Sr. Deacon Apron

Jr. Deacon Apron