My favorite things 30

One Christmas many years ago, I opened this gift from my mother:

A bunch of aprons that had been accumulating in her house for decades, many of them made by the same person (I suspect it was my Aunt Freda) and probably multi-gifted to me and my sister.  I was thrilled!  What a madeleine of remembrance of time past!  Time when people wore fancy half-aprons to cover up a nice dress (although these aren't fancy enough for a REALLY nice dress)!  Time when people wore nice dresses while cooking and serving dinner!  Time when gingham was 100% cotton!

With the exception of the no-frills pink apron at left, all of the others show quite a bit of clever handwork and design -- the trim element also was functional.

The two print aprons are made in gores, and each gore is faced with the solid pink, with the facing turned to the front and hemmed -- finish and trim all in one step!  And if you're of a certain age, you will remember when "hot pink" was the trendiest, daring-est color you could wear.  (It was my favorite color for a long time.)

The two made with the small-scale gingham feature cross stitch as, again, both trim and finish.  The row of stitching up from the hem also held the hem in place.  On the red apron, the stitching on the waistband also secured the pleats.

The ones made with the large-scale gingham were cut on the bias, and the cross stitches at the waist acted as smocking to release fullness.  And after you turned your narrow hem to the front, a row of rickrack, secured with hand stitching, also sewed the hem in place.

The red apron shows the most signs of wear -- the black stitches on the pocket are worn away in many places.  This was my mother's apron, and I remember her wearing it a lot.  The ones that I think belonged to me and my sister are in much better shape.  I don't think we ever shirked our kitchen chores, but we are of the generation that started shirking the aprons.  Today I'd be amazed to meet women under 35 with aprons in their regular clothes rotation, and I'd bet real money that if there were any, their aprons wouldn't be cross-stitched gingham.