We're Covered....

I have been fascinated with sewing (and aprons) for quite some time. As a child taking dance lessons, my mother made all of my costumes. They were really lovely. Despite being proud of her skills, I never really valued the process of sewing, and the creativity that she put into it. I do today.

A Navy costume my mother made.

Another military theme.

My uncle Tom and me. He came to see the gypsy dance, under duress, I'm sure.

Betty Apple and me, on the left.. THE BALLERINAS!

The picture I call up of my grandmother, with whom we lived, is standing in the kitchen or the garden, wearing a small-flowered print full length apron. Grandmothers seemed to wear aprons a lot. As I have been making matching mother/daughter aprons lately, and making them and making them, I have explored my fascination a bit. Aprons have a poignant and long history. Somehow just the word calls up a longing in me.

"Aprons have been cooks’ companions for hundreds of years. Indeed, aprons were used by men and women for a variety of tasks long before they were seen on 1950s television. During this era, women were portrayed as homemakers and good mothers and you rarely saw them without their aprons.

Some researchers point to Biblical references about aprons. They cite a passage in which Adam and Eve sewed together fig leaves to make aprons to cover themselves. We traditionally think of aprons being used for cooking, and while that is true, they have served as a cover-up for other tasks that tend to be messy. Occupations such as butchers, welders and bakers have always used aprons to protect both their clothing and bodies from their work.

For centuries, homemakers have used aprons. Even since the early 19th century, women have used aprons to keep their clothing clean. They have also used aprons to carry essential utensils such as rolling pins, for gathering and carrying eggs and for transporting kindling wood. Aprons have been an effective tool for many, many years.

It was not until the 1940s and 1950s that society started to see the stereotypes of the ""perfect mother"" who always wore an apron, no matter what. Until that time, aprons were thought of as a functional piece of the wardrobe.

Today’s aprons are more stylish. Perhaps surprisingly, aprons have made a fashionable comeback, even making occasional runway appearances in the form of the apron dress."

An aproned grandmother(not mine, though it could be) holding a child. Sicily.

It's difficult to see this grandmother's apron, but the ties are visible. Sicily.

An aproned Sicilian grandmother at market.

An apron depicting Sicily.

Spaghetti supper at the Reserve, matching aprons.

Protected against the sauce.

The aproned pasta cooks at the spaghetti supper.

(My father, a great cook, wore aprons a great deal of the time. These men remind me of my dad.)

The cutest aproned cooks yet!

My latest sewing efforts.


Most of the women I know, do not wear aprons, even though they seem to be 'making a comeback'. I wear an apron some of the time, and sometimes seem to be in too much of a 'hurry' to take the time to put one on. Aprons recall days of a less hurried existence. Perhaps putting mine on will slow me down!