Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Aprons: Patchwork, Paisley, Pretty and Vintage

Good morning. Gold Country Girl Tina here, and Gold Country Granddaughters pitching in to help as models. We are going to show you a part of my "extensive" (isn't that what they always say about a lot of stuff?) collection of vintage aprons. I am starting today with my favorites, paisley, patchwork and just plain pretty!
The idea of the apron is to protect your clothing during housework. Mostly cooking, but here, my lovely Granddaughter is dusting my stairs. She is a good duster (is that a word?) and thankfully she usually does it when she is here, because no one else ever does ;-)
This is my FAVORITE of all my aprons. It covers you completely, and it's RED and it's PAISLEY. What not to love? Big pockets, great trim. Love it.
A close up of the lovely cotton paisley. I am a paisley addict. I admit it freely. Give me anything paisley, but mostly the vintage and also the "hippie" stuff from the 70s. I am so there.
My lovely model shows off her Grandma's favorite apron.
Another love of mine, patchwork. I am totally entranced by patchwork. But it has to also have lovely fabric, usually cotton, involved. This apron is so 60s. I love the colors, someone put a lot of thought into it, just for an apron.
A closeup of the calico prints in the apron. So full of color. It isn't faded at all.
Another of my lovely granddaughters shows off the full apron.
This fabric is just lovely. It almost wants to be a paisley, but isn't. I couldn't pass this up when I found it at a garage sale. I have so many aprons, you would think I wasn't picky about them. But I am. Otherwise I would probably have about 1,000. I think I only have about 50. I really CAN control myself, honest!
This is a closeup of the fabric. Isn't it lovely? Colors and flowers against black have always caught my eye. Oh, and did I mention I also love rickrack?
If you want to look good in an apron, just relax. Of course, if you have an apron on, you aren't supposed to be relaxing. Just mentioning it, just in case.

I have three vintage patchwork aprons, one is a child's apron, which I will now show you. Patchwork, especially by hand, is a lot of work.
This is a closeup of an apron my granddaughter will show you soon. See the paisley? I always look for it in the vintage fabric.
We had fun with the modeling. My granddaughters came over with their father to see my daffodils and I enlisted them for this gig. They did a good job, but we found out it takes a lot of time and effort.
Another lovely patchwork apron. I wish I knew the story behind each of my vintage aprons.
A closeup of the apron above.
I can't wait to get my studio/library/sewing room up and going. I want to make some "vintage" aprons myself. I made an apron in 4H about 1963, it was in solid robin's egg blue and solid brown fabrics. Who knows where it ended up. Maybe it will turn up on another blog someday.
This is a closeup of the apron above. More lovely paisley. I don't know what it is about paisley that I love so much, the colorful designs, the many different ways to draw it? I just love it.
Here we are, the dear granddaughters, displaying one of the patchwork aprons, and another that was a gift, not vintage, but a much-used favorite.
I haven't had this apron very long. I bought it after the 1st of the year in an antique shop in Georgetown, California. I saw it hanging there, in lovely paisley, and fell in love. It is really beautiful. It would work for Christmas with it's green and red pocket with gold rickrack trim. It has already been used a lot, mostly when I make the biscuits for the Kelsey Community Association breakfast.
A closeup of the paisley. Simply perfect.
Well, we have been working hard to bring this blog to you, so we are going to rest now, well dressed in our vintage aprons. We hope you enjoyed our blog.

7 comments:

Heidi Ann said...

I hope you DO show us more from your extensive collection of aprons in a future post!
I loved seeing your beautiful aprons, but I love my sweet grand nieces more!

Lorlore said...

Great aprons Tina!!!!

farmlady said...

Such a cute post!! Love all the aprons and your grandaughters are adorable.
I love the patchwork aprons. If I ever get going on sewing something, I would like to try some of these.
It cracks me up that you had to say..."The idea of the apron is to protect your clothing during housework." Doesn't this generation know what aprons are for? I'm glad you clarified that.
My grandma, who never took hers off except to go to bed, would have chuckled at this...

yosemite faith said...

farmlady said it all. my gram was a farmlady thru & thru and always had one on. especially in the garden. work aprons. cooking aprons. cleaning aprons. and of course dressy aprons when there was company or it was a holiday! the cherry one is perfect for northern michigan. traverse city is the cherry capital of the world ( at least that has how it has always billed itself) they have the cherry capital airport and the cherry festival that includes a cherry festival queen & court with a parade of course. i also love paisley.

Tina Dawn said...

Thanks Heidi and Lorlore (who was taking time out from the excitement of a new grandbaby to comment). Hi Farmlady, oh how you just made me laugh. I never even considered how funny it is that I even thought I had to describe the use of an apron! Anyway, thanks for the great laugh and the tears in my eyes after I read your grandma chuckling over my blog. One of my treasured photos is of my great grandma in an enveloping aprong, showing off her apple tree. Hi Faith. I wish I could have met your Gram. I love all the cherry info. I love cherries and stuff with them on it. Wait until you see an apron in my next blog with appliqued cherries. It is the one I have had the longest, and is also a more dressy apron! Love T

Cynthee said...

Love this week's selection of photos of your lovely granddaughters modeling your vintage aprons. I wonder what happened to my first home economics class sewing project, a bib apron! Hopefully someone in Iowa is putting it to good use as I did get an A on the project......

Jennifer D said...

Oh you are speaking my language. I love that calico patchwork one. It is so cute.