Another GGH apron finished

This is the last of the aprons to be finished there are a few that need repairs. Will see what I can do to put them in working order before my mil and ail get them. Didn't have the original fabric for this one which is sad because I think it would have looked better. This is a pin-on apron; I still like it even if it isn't original.

Before, missing its ties:

After, with ties:

Day 34 of an apron a day....

This is the last apron unless we find more; you never know at this point. This one is nothing fancy, but it was full of love (my mother-in-law now owns it because it is her children represented on it). My husband's family made it in 1980 (oh, that was an easy one to date for once). Not all of his family is represented on this apron because they had not all been born yet. Like I said, nothing fancy just a bar-b-que apron, but lots of love from little kids for their Grandmother.

Photo taken by my mother-in-law

Day 33 of an apron a day....

I decided to post two aprons of GGH today because they are so similar. These two are purchased, one made from toweling. They look to be from the 60's to 70's from the patterns on the towels and the colors.

There is one more apron she had that was given to her in the 1980's; will post that one tomorrow.

Day 32 of an apron a day....

This, I think, is the third true smock apron in the collection; yesterday was the second, and the first was posted in July. This type of apron is slipped on by pulling your arms forward and then it is tied in back with nothing going over the head, so nothing pulls on your neck. It has two pockets and is made up of 7 pieces of fabric, not counting bindings. This is a very practical apron because it covers most of your upper clothing. Just not a very fun style to look at, but that is easily changed with fabric choices and embellishments. This apron has seen a lot of use.

This apron style was popular from the 30 - 60's. But this is more than likely the 40's.


I was a substitute teacher yesterday for the Second Grade class I used to teach. It was real fun to see the children again and get to say bye-bye to them this time. I also had them write their names on an apron for me to keep. Sad 4 students were absent so I didn't get their names. May not be a pretty start to an apron to any body but me, but I love it. I used a pattern I drafted off of one of GGH aprons minus the flaps and pocket. Still have to add the waistband and ties to it; will probably do that this weekend.

Day 31 of an apron a day....

We found more of GGH aprons, so I will continue with the apron-a-day where I left off, so we are on Day 31. This is your basic utilitarian apron, I assume more modern as it has a Velcro closure, maybe 1970-early 1980's. The fabric looks old as does the trim. So I am not sure of the dating of this one. It has two pockets for a total of three pieces of fabric, edgings and Velcro.

The bottom photo was taken by my mother-in-law when she found the apron at her home. I have since borrowed it to make a pattern and to add it to the other aprons so they are all together.

Finishing GGH aprons

There are a few of GGH 's aprons that have never been completed. Before the family goes through them, I am finishing the undone ones so there are more to pick from and so those that don't sew will not get something they cannot use. The first one to be completed is this hostess apron, seen before like this first picture below; the only thing sewn was the pocket on one of the flaps (sorry to say, it wasn't sewn well either, but because that was GGH's work I left it that way).

We found the original bias tape that she had used on the pocket in her sewing stuff, so it was used to complete the project. It now looks like this. Because the lower photo was taken at 11 p.m., the upper photo is true to color, not the one below.

It is not a garage/basement sale

This is what my basement looks like at the moment. My extended family (my father-in-law, mother-in- law, uncle-in- law, and aunt- in-law) are trying to go through GGH stuff. I have an empty basement, so it seemed like a good place to do this, especially since, yes, there is snow outside. Found a few more of GGH aprons; will post them later. For now, this is my basement 'till most of it is gone through tonight. It was so neat unpacking all the boxes that have been stored for about 5 years. The trunks had been in storage since about 1930; real neat opening them up. Such pretty, old photos; too bad they are not named, so we do not know who the family members are. Sad, most of her items got tossed in the quick move, but I think a lot of the important stuff is here, like her handwork; stacks and stacks of handwork, both hers and her mother's. Sorry, bad lighting in an unfinished basement. Just so you know, the linens are not actually sitting on the floor; there is a tarp between them and the dirty cement.

Annamarie

I can't get a hold of you for some reason; my emails keep getting returned. Please email me your address so I can mail you an apron. I also have a few questions for you. Thanks. I will delete this post after I get an email from you; thanks

The winner is... or should I say the Winners are

So, on July 5th I had my two-year blogiversary. I still can't believe it has been two years since my first post. I had fun reading all the comments.
Thanks, sunshine

There were new people that posted only to win, which is fine, people who post all the time, and one person who posted to, I think, every apron I posted. It was an amazing collection of diverse people and comments. Thank you all for playing this game with me.

So I asked my husband to pick a number, and he asked his computer to. It picked 41 which is

Jenna Z who said...

I have loved seeing all these aprons! They were so diverse! I love a pleated apron so I fell in love with day 26. I love chicken scratch and the pleats are darling! I also loved day 12, the rick rack! And day 11 with it's sculpted waistband was also awesome! Make me want to do my own apron-a-day except I don't have nearly as many.

Friday, July 18, 2008 1:20:00 PM

I also decided to give away a second apron; this person commented on every post during the apron a day, so I thought that was kind of her.

annemarie said...

Your blog is absolutely wonderful. I have spent hours going through all your past projects and ideas. Thanks. The aprons, though, are my favorite. I have enjoyed each and everyone that you have shown. They bring back such wonderful memories of days when life was so much simpler. a.haun(at)bcglobal.net

Friday, July 04, 2008 5:46:00 AM

Thank you all for playing. The two winners can leave a comment here as to which you would like, but I will email you, too.

Day 30 of an apron a day....

This is the last apron I have to show you all, and we come to the end of this journey unless we find some more, which we just may.

For the most part, this apron speaks for itself. I love the graphic lines in the embroidery, but yet it still has a floral motif; so cool. I wish the ties on this one weren't broken, but that's easy enough to fix.

Bib detail:

Hem detail:

Waist detail:

This is a lovely embroidered apron, probably from the 1910's to 1920's.

Made to order.. An apron a day

OK, I promised to post what apron you could win. I decided to sort of let you pick which. Below is a list of the aprons I am willing to reproduce for the lucky winner. These will not be the originals that I posted that belonged to GGH, but ones I make from the patterns that I pulled.

DAY 1, DAY2, DAY3, DAY 4, day 5 not doing because of my hand, DAY 6, day 7 not doing because of my hand, DAY 8, DAY 9, DAY 10, DAY11, DAY12, DAY13, DAY 14, DAY 15, DAY 16, DAY 17, DAY 18, DAY 19, DAY 20, DAY21, DAY22, DAY23, DAY2 4, DAY 25, day 26 not doing because of my hand, DAY 27, DAY 28, DAY 29, DAY 30

If a day reads "not doing because of my hand," that means I am not giving you the choice of that day. Aprons with embroidery I can either draw the pattern on for you and let you embroider or leave blank so you can add whatever pattern of embroidery you want to your apron, or use a patterned fabric so embroidery wouldn't be needed.

None of you have seen this, but my wrist has been in a bandage for almost two weeks; that is why I have only been posting aprons. I can't do much at the moment with my right hand without pain; because I am right handed, this is a problem. So I hope it is OK that I don't embroider or do chicken scratch or smocking. If it has machine embroidery, as one hostess apron did, that will just be ignored completely because I don't own a machine that can do that; wish I did.

Remember when making your choice it is the shape and style of pattern you are picking. I am not making plastic aprons; I will use cotton cloth for those. So find your favorite style. If an apron was the pin-on style and you want apron straps around the neck, I will gladly add them to make it more useful to you. Because these are not exact reproductions ,I may make some modifications to the straps and such to make them fit better. Also, remember some are children's aprons so they won't fit a normal-size adult; if you are supper petite, they may.

Also realize they only come in the size of the original pattern. GGH was not a large woman, so please keep that in mind when picking an apron. Tie around the waist will work better for a larger person than the over-the-heads.

There is less than a day and a half left to enter the drawing; the link is on the side bar. Have fun!

Day 29 of an apron a day....

Another embroidered apron. This is a very lovely, well-used apron. The funny thing about this one is that the second butterfly never got its wings before the apron went into full use. This is another apron my youngest daughter would love. I am not sure as to what size person would wear this apron; it seems to be more child-like in size, about a 10 or 12 year old, but the straps are too long and have been extended. So I am thinking it was GGh when she was a girl, and her mom kept letting it out as she grew.

I love the old yellow edging on this apron. I have some, somewhere in my studio; I don't think mine is yellow, though. The trim comes from the time of 1910-1920.

So, I would guess the trim pretty well dates this apron as well as the style of the apron. It can be as late as the early 1930's as we all keep things in our stashes for a while or I wouldn't have trims that almost 100 years old in my sewing room even though I am only in my 30's.

Day 28 of an apron a day....

This is also a set of twin aprons; these two aprons have seen better days. At first glance you think they are the same apron, but if you notice the tear and stains you will see you are looking at two different aprons. They definitely saw a lot of use in their day. Just a basic full-coverage apron, good for every-day chores.

I figure these are probably from the 1920's through the 1930's, more than likely the 30's.

Day 27 of an apron a day....

First of two aprons made from this same pattern. The first is definitely a hostess apron because of the sheer fabric used in it.

The second one is made from this same pattern, but it was never completed; we have all the parts, minus the binding. I have tons of vintage and antique bias binding, so it should be easy to finish. It was nice finding the apron shown above because we were trying to figure out the layout of the unfinished apron below. We thought the two decorative pieces were pockets, not just fabric panels. We thought it had three pockets but it only has one little one, we now know.

Still trying to date these, this look to be from the 1950's.

Day 26 of an apron a day....

Here is the apron that I made a green copy of in an earlier post. This apron is a gingham apron, of course, with chicken scratch embroidery; the pleats in it are actually achieved with the chicken scratch. There are a total of four pieces of fabric making up this apron.
Pocket detail:

Waist-band detail:

Hem detail:

We are still trying to date these; so far I think this one is 1940- 1950 because of the style of apron. Best bet, mid to late 1950's.

Day 25 of an apron a day....

There are so many hostess half-aprons in this collection I hope you are not tired of them, because I am not. This is another hostess apron that mixes the sheer with the opaque fabrics. Seven pieces of fabric make up this apron, not counting bias. I like the print fabric in this apron a lot, too.

Not sure on the date but probably the 1950's

Day 24 of an apron a day....

This is a sweet gingham apron. The thing you can't see from the front is that this apron is not done. On the back side of the apron, in pencil, is drawn some chicken scratch that was never embroidered on to the front.

I believe this is one of those aprons that has never been worn. This is a four piece apron; it is hard to see, but there is a pocket on this half apron.

The era is probably the 1940's to 1950's.

This is one of the aprons I have already reproduced. My reproduction was in green, black, and orange, the Halloween apron. I didn't add the drawing of chicken scratch to the back of mine. I figured I didn't need to be that accurate in reproducing. Also, if I ever wanted to do that part of the apron pattern later, I could get the pattern off of today's post.

Day 23 of an apron a day....

This is obviously another hostess half-apron. This is a six-piece apron. I like the diagonal line through the fabric to give it some contrast. It also has white rick rack trim. The fabric looks to be from the 40's to me but could be early 1950's.

Day 22 of an apron a day....

Take a double take. Yep, there are two of this apron; one complete and one in stages of completion. The second one that is partly done my sister-in -aw who watches my children found in a bag of fabric scraps. The fabric is actually a panel; the big polka dots at the top of the apron are the top of the panel. Too bad we do not have all the pieces to the second one to make it original. There is another apron later you will see that there are two ofo as well; one done and one not, but those two are not identical in fabric as this one is. This is one of those pin-to-your- bodice-type aprons that I showed earlier in the apron series. I think it would be fun to make an apron like this but to use rare-earth magnets to keep it up instead of pinning it all the time. I just love the fabric in this apron; I wish I could go to the store and buy this fabric to use these days. Four pieces of fabric make up this apron.

The fabric is confusing me on this because this type of apron is from 1900 to 1920's but the fabric looks a little later in date. If someone could help me date these two, I would appreciate it because I am confused; it could be as late as 1950 because of the fabric. I guess this fabric style could have been used much earlier. I just don't know. That all said, I think it is from the late 1920's to early 1930's

Day 21 of an apron a day....

This is another over-the-head, tie around the waist, full-apron apron. I really like the fabric in this; the purple rose fabric is so cool. Just not sure if it does the apron justice in this pattern or if it is the other way around where the pattern of the apron isn't doing the fabric justice. This apron hasn't seen much wear. Funny thing, some of these aprons you can tell where well used and some it looks like were made and never ever worn at all, not even once. But that is probably true for most collections.

This style of apron was popular in the 40's - 50's. I think this is more a 1950's version.