There was a time in America, when you seldom saw a grandma or a housewife that wasn’t wearing an apron while cooking and doing general cleaning – at the very least she had more than a few stored in the kitchen cabinet drawer and she could pull one out at will. Aprons were functionable, and the average woman, whether grandma or not, depended on the protective coverage aprons provided. Most women did not own the multiplicity of clothing enjoyed today, and protecting and keeping what they had was important.
The practicality of aprons went beyond the kitchen into the habits of everyday life. Apron pockets often served as a holding place for a stray coin or other insignificant find as the wearer made her way through the day. The apron served as a dish towel to dry wet hands, a cloth to dust a less than clean surface and a napkin to wipe a runny nose or two. At any time, with the arrival of company, the apron strings could be undone, the apron tossed aside and the woman of the home ready to receive her guests with a clean dress front and a smile on her face.
Local resident and cookbook celebrity Ms. Nancy Sharp, who has many of her recipes printed in cookbooks “How Mama Made Gravy From an Old Flat Tire” and “Mama’s Flat Tire Gravy…” by her daughter, Jean Latham, has sewn many an apron and well remembers the former popularity and necessity of aprons.
“I learned to sew on an old pedal type sewing machine around the age of seven. By the time I was a teenager I had made all the women in my family an apron out of feed sack material we saved when my daddy bought horse or cow feed,” she remembered, confessing to even having sewn aprons for her dolls.
Mrs. Nancy’s dad bought the fabric used to sew the aprons at Brown’s in Jonesville. She accompanied him, choosing the feed sack prints that would best match the dresses of her patrons and herself. She would sometimes add delicate lace to the aprons making the styles pretty enough for church attire.
“When I was a little girl, all the women wore aprons and matching bonnets. We used aprons to protect our clothes. Clothes were hard to come by and hard to wash on a washboard. We didn’t want to get anything on them that would stain them,” she explained.
She continued to share that apron pockets were used to carry little oddities, even including eggs gathered from the chickenyard. If the pockets became worn and holes appeared, patches were used to cover them. When an apron became so tattered it was no longer usable, it was recycled for other things such as stripped bandages to treat wounds.
“There was nothing prettier than a starched and ironed printed feed sack apron,” she shared. “I can’t imagine a world without aprons!”
Despite the decline of the usability of aprons today, the vintage styles, patterns and colors of yesterday’s aprons evoke a feeling of nostalgia of home, hearth and the past people who wore them. In fact, old wellused and not so used aprons have become quite popular for some vintage shoppers and collectors. Home crafters who design and sew stylish aprons have recultivated an interest in aprons making them desirable to shoppers. Current cooking shows have also regenerated an interest in the past iconic garment.
As the popularity and sentimentality of the common apron comes and goes, it is assured that this simple garment has earned its place on the historical pages of kitchens past. For those who grew up seeing their grandmas and mamas dressed in an everyday apron, the sentiment runs deep. Untying the apron strings and hanging it on the doorknob in the kitchen is far easier than removing from the memories and family traditions it has come to represent.
