US2706817A

US2706817A - Combined apron, towel, and hooded cape

Info

Publication number: US2706817A
Application number: US309578A
Authority: US
Inventors: Schneider Ruth Mansfield
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1952-09-15
Filing date: 1952-09-15
Publication date: 1955-04-26
Anticipated expiration: 1972-04-26

Description

April 6, 1955 R. M. SCHNEIDER COMBINED APRON, TOWEL AND HOODED cm: Filed Sept 15, 1952 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. Ruth Mansfield Schneider BY WHITEHEAD 8 VOGL ATTORNEYS April 6, 1955 R. M. SCHNEIDER 2,706,817

COMBINED APRON. TOWEL AND HOODED CAPE Filed Sept. 15, 1952 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig.6

v INVENTOR. Ruth Mansfield Schnelder BY WHITEHEAD a VOGL h PER ml ATTORNEYS United States Patent COMBINED APRON, TOWEL, AND HOODED CAPE Ruth Mansfield Schneider, Denver, Colo.

Application September 15, 1952, Serial No. 309,578

1 Claim. (Cl. 2-s4 This invention relates to a combined apron, towel and childs robe, and, more particularly, to an article which is not only pecularily adapted to be worn as an apron by a mother or nurse when bathing a small child, but which is likewise pecularily adapted for use as a towel in drying the child and is likewise pecularily adapted to be inverted and worn by such child as a cape or bath robe. The word nurse will be used herein to designate any person bathing or attending such child. The term inverted is herein used to indicate the change of the garment from its position in use as an apron (wherein one surface of the garment is outside) to its use as a cape wherein the other surface of the garment is outside.

Objects of the invention are to provide an article of apparel which combines, within it, elements which adapt it to be worn as an apron by a nurse when bathing a child, as a towel for drying the child and as a cape or robe to be worn by such child, and which: (a) is so formed and pleated as to fit the nurse neatly, regardless of size, when worn as an apron, and to fit a child neatly when inverted and worn as a cape or robe; (b) is so constructed as to form either a neat apron or a neat cape or robe while being of such shape as to also serve most efficiently as a towel for drying a child upon the lap of a nurse wearing the apron; (c) includes a hood adapted to cover the head of a child either while being dried or when the article is worn as a cape or robe; (d) is made of material which adapts the article to each and all of the three uses mentioned above, and (e) is simple and economical in construction, wearing and laundering.

With these and other objects in view, all of which more fully hereinafter appear, my invention comprises certain new and novel constructions, combinations and arrangements of parts and elements as hereinafter described, and as defined in the appended claim and illustrated, in preferred embodiment, in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 illustrates a woman wearing my improved article as an apron and with hands holding two corners away from the body in order to better illustrate the shape of the article.

Figure 2 illustrates the article being used as a towel for drying an infant.

Figure 3 illustrates the infant wearing the article when inverted from the apron position and as a hooded cape or robe.

Figure 4 is a front elevation view of the article spread out in a plane to better show the details of its construction.

Figure 5 is a fragmentary portion of the rear side of the article.

Figure 6 is a section as viewed from the indicated llne 6-6 at Fig. 4.

Figure 7 is a fragmentary detail of a portion of the article as viewed from the indicated line 7--7 at Fig. 4, but on an enlarged scale.

The problems of bathing a young child often involve difficulties which may become vexing to the nurse who must avoid splashing water upon her clothes, often while holding the child, she must reach for a towel that has fallen or is on a rack; she may, for various reasons, have to pick up the child, Wet and uncovered, and she must have special clothing prepared for the child after his bath. The present invention was conceived and developed to meet such and other problems and to simplify the task of bathing a child and solve problems incidental thereto, and the invention comprises, in essence, an article of absorbent material which may be worn as an apron to protect the nurses clothing while the child is being bathed, which is already in place upon the nurses lap for use as a towel to dry the child and which includes a hood for the child while being dried and tie cords for use in securing the article to the nurse when wearing the article as an apron and for securing the article to the child when inverted and worn as a hooded cape or robe.

Referring to the drawing, the article is formed in generally diamond-shaped piece 10 of absorbent material, such as terry cloth, and the edges are folded and bound by stitching 11 to prevent ravelling of the cloth. Because of the conventional weaving of the cloth, it is preferably originally cut square and thereafter formed as hereinafter described. Its size is such that it will cover the larger portion of a nurses body with the top point 12 near the wearers throat and the bottom point 13 near her ankles. The side points 14 have a similar span between them and provide free moving flaps which maybe easily grasped as shown at Fig. 1 to serve as towel portions.

When worn as an apron, the lower half of the diamond 10 and the lower portion of the upper half of the diamond forms a skirt 15 and the upper portion of the upper half of the diamond forms one layer of a bib 16. The demarcation between the skirt and bib portions of the apron, at the waistline 17 of the wearer, is defined by a double under-pleat 18 at each side of the diamond, formed by opposing substantial under tucks of cloth at the underside of the apron and held in position at the head of the pleats by a triangular pattern of stitching 19. Each pleat 18 is positioned in substantially spaced parallelism with and alongside its respective adjacent edge 20 of the upper portion of the diamond 10, the triangular stitchings 19 being at the waistline 17. The pleats actually diverge from the stitchings 19 causing the respective upper edges 20 of the diamond to angle inwardly to form inward corners 21 at the waistline 17. To complete this apron construction, a waist cord 22 is secured at each corner 21 and a neck halter cord 23 is provided which is attached to each edge 20 near the top point 12 to form a loop above the bib.

The top portion of the bib 16 is generally covered by triangular piece 24, of material preferably like that of the diamond, and laid upon the diamond 10 with the edges of their apex portions coinciding and secured together as by stitching 11 whereby to form a hood 25. The base of the triangle 24 forms the front rim of the hood 25 and it may be set 011, as by fringe, 26 for decorative purposes.

In use, as an apron as shown at Fig. 1, the halter cord 23 is placed over the wearers neck and the cords 22 are tied around her waist. The pleats 18 cause the apron to fit neatly over her hips and the bib to fit loosely above her waist. The corners 14 at each side of the diamond, may be pinned to the wearers dress or they may hang slack as desired, and are always handy to serve as towels for Wiping the arms and body of the child. The apron will protect the wearers clothing whenever the child splashes water. To dry the child after bathing, the apron is adapted to be used in several ways. It is desirable to release the cords from around the wearers waist but to retain the halter in position, and then to place the child upon the wearers lap, with the skirt portion 15 wrapped about its body, with its head in the hood 25 while the wearer is drying its body, as clearly shown at Fig. 2. Upon the completion of the drying, the cords 22 are tied around the childs neck and the steps of inverting the apron to make it a cape commence, the skirt portion of the apron being adapted to fold around the body of the child to become the cape, all as clearly shown at Fig. 3, with the pleats 18 at its arms and the stitchings 19 forming shoulders of the garment while the bib becomes the hood. Thus, the apron becomes a comfortable hooded cape or robe for the child.

While I have illustrated and described many details of construction, alternatives and equivalents will occur to those skilled in the art which are within the scope and spirit of my invention; hence it is my desire that my pro tection be not limited to the details herein illustrated and described, but only by the proper scope of the appended claim.

I claim:

An apron-towel-hooded-cape garment, for use in nursecare of small children, formed of an originally substantially square piece of material and, when positioned with one of its diagonals vertical, having in combination the following elements: the side edges of the material above the horizontal diagonal being drawn toward each other in their upper portions to form a contracted waist line with a bib portion thereabove, the upper portion of the bib being triangular and having a substantially triangularly shaped piece of material affixed thereto along their corresponding side edges near the apex but being otherwise unconnected, and thereby adapted to form a hood, a halter-loop having its ends attached to the upper portion of the bib and waist-cords attached to the garment A, at said waist line, whereby the garment may be worn as an apron by a nurse with the halter around her neck and the waist-cords tied about the waist, and may be used as a towel for a child on the nurses lap, with the waist-cords untied, and also may form a hooded cape for the child with its head in the hood and the body of the material covering the child, with the waist-cords about the child, the surface of the garment next the nurse, when worn as an apron, being on the outside when worn as a cape.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,933,185 Rouleau Oct. 31, 1933 2,242,641 Berger May 20, 1941 2,442,895 Hill June 8, 1948