December 12, 2006 1:08 PM
Apron Power!
More notes:
First of all, yes it's a shame that the company that was making the retro oilcloth aprons like mine seems to be no longer making them. I will continue to try to track them down. In the meantime, I discovered that the same company - Dakat Studio Goods - is selling 12 yard lengths of the Mexican oilcloth they used for aprons on pages at Amazon beginning here. I'm hoping some enterprising woman out there who knows how to sew might just buy some up and start producing the same apron. It is so flattering and practical!!
In the meantime, there are lots of aprons - including retro aprons - around the Internet. If you are shopping for an apron, just google aprons or retro aprons and see what comes up.
No, the apron does not have to be a holiday apron - just hoping that the pictures convey some sense of who you are and what you're doing during the holidays. And let's just say that humor is everything :)
Also hoping to spark an apron revolution. I say that the feminists took away our aprons along with our self-respect when Betty Friedan claimed in The Feminine Mystique that every woman who stayed at home (most likely imprisoned in an apron) was a mental case. Now, ironically, someone like Martha Stewart makes millions (billions?) teaching us to do the very things feminists spent decades liberating us from.
You can tell where this is going. . . .(I actually wrote a whole chapter on my experience as a Second Wave Feminist in Reaching the Left from the Right). . . .
And don't forget to take a picture for the contest!
(I'm sure to be making more comments on the contest in the weeks to come as I gather more ideas to share with you. Plus I will be publishing entries as I receive them before a roundup on the final day of the contest. All will be gathered in my Contest Archives - you might want to bookmark the spot.)
And be sure to spread the word!
Posted in Contest, Mothering | Permalink
Comments
I am so glad to see someone else who is crazy about aprons. I actually got a beautiful one from two of my girlfriends for my birthday. The apron was from Anthropologie and it is totally vintage and cute.
My mother-in-law makes beautiful aprons for me and I wear them all the time. I actually usually hang my apron up at the end of the day next to my robe, before I head to bed.
I actually have that apron pictured on my Amazon Wish List. It is so cute!
Thanks for sharing!
Posted by: Amy | December 12, 2006 4:47 PM
Hi Barbara,
It may be obvious but how do I send my apron picture to you? I can't find your email address.
Thanks,
Kimm
Posted by: kimm | December 12, 2006 5:54 PM
That apron doesn't look like it would be horribly hard to draw a pattern for (love that grammar?). Anyway, I'm going to see what I can do. I love aprons, my current most-used one was my husband's grandmother's. She passed away the year we got married, but nearly 4 years ago we were blessed to live with Grandpa and take care of him so he could stay at home. I found the apron in a drawer and began using it immediately. It's a great Pennsylvania Dutch pattern in reds, greens, and yellows. I'll have to blog a picture for sure!
Posted by: Gem | December 12, 2006 5:56 PM
I love your Martha Stewart comment. Things are done in circles, right?
Anyway, ours is an apron wearing family. I can remember my mother putting on her dressy full coverage apron when a serious lunch was to be taken care of at home. And my mother in law has aprons from all over the place where my father in law was posted. And both my daughters and myself wear aprons when we cook.
You are so right about this, as with many things. It's time we realize how much was taken away from us for a sterile 9 to 5.
So, although I'd never go back to the no rights era, I gladly wear my apron with pride!
Posted by: Irene | December 12, 2006 6:24 PM
I've posted before about how I feel that growing up in the aftermath of the 70's and feminism has made it much harder for me to be content with the role I chose as wife and mother. THe pressures to be "More than that" are intense, form my own upbringing as well as the culture I live in.
Recently I was thinking about my grandparents and their very well defined gender roles, I realized that one of the biggest things that we women lost in feminism is respect for our roles as homemakers. My grandfather expected his lunch on the table at noon, his dinner at six, his clothes washed and dried, his holes mended and his 11 children fed and cared for as well. BUt if you were caught making a mess at Grandma and Grandpa's house it was grandpa who yelled at you for disrespecting grandma and making more work for her. In his mind what she does is important and valuable and don't you dare leave socks or toys lying around on the floor or dishes in the sink, you clean up after yourself. He would never leave his socks by the door, or his clothes in a crumpled heap next to the bed, or shake the excess water off of his hands straight at the mirror. I wish that the husbands of my generation, mine in particular of course, were taught the same respect, instead of learning along with the rest of us to consider housework demeaning and through that lack of respect to become thoughtless and careless.
Posted by: carrien | December 13, 2006 1:44 AM
Oh no my perfect apron is gone?! I'm so sad. I showed it to hubby just a few weeks ago and oh so slyly hinted that it would make a great Christmas gift. Oh well :(
Posted by: Lauren | December 13, 2006 9:27 AM
Lauren, there is still one on ebay from the same seller, although it's an auction, not a "buy it now" sale. That seller has a couple of other cute ones. It wouldn't hurt to ask the seller to keep you posted if she gets more, too.
Posted by: Lucy | December 13, 2006 5:24 PM
Thank you so much Lucy!
Posted by: lauren | December 15, 2006 11:56 AM
