COMMON THREADS Hand-stitched gift bonds mother, daughter

Ardeana Hamlin’s By Hand column (Aug. 23, 2005) about aprons inspired Donna Brown of Winn to share her memories.

My mother [always] wore aprons. She had two kinds – everyday housework aprons and her special fancy aprons to be worn for Sunday dinner, entertaining and holiday dinners.

She liked her work aprons to be made from colorful cotton floral prints sewn in the “bib style,” which would protect the whole front of her dress. It had to have two large pockets, one for a dust rag and the other for her hankie. Mama’s fancy aprons were half-length style. They tied at the waist, always had very feminine looking ruffles or lace, and often were made of sheer types of fabric.

Regardless of style or function, her aprons were only used once before washing, starching and ironing, then neatly folded and put away. She kept her work aprons in a kitchen drawer and her fancy aprons in her bureau drawer.

I remember that my sister and I learned to iron handkerchiefs first, then learned the “proper way” to iron and fold work aprons. My brothers didn’t have to learn to iron, but much to their dismay, they had to wear one of Mama’s aprons when it was their turn to do dishes.

When I was in the fourth grade in the early 1950s, I went to school in Boston. In those days, boys were taught mechanical drawing and girls learned sewing arts and cooking twice a week. Every girl had a shoe box sewing kit with her name on it. Her supplies and project were neatly stashed away after each class.

Hand washing was the first step required of every girl at the beginning of sewing class. Then we could go to the storage shelf and retrieve our sewing kit. Before starting on our first “real project,” we had to learn various hand stitches using gingham checked fabric – large checks first, then smaller checks as our skills improved.

Once we had mastered basting stitches, running stitches and simple embroidery, we were ready to work on an apron. We were not using sewing machines in these classes and did not get training on sewing machines until we reached sixth grade. Every part of the aprons we made were hand stitched.

I remember the pride I felt when at last I completed my apron. It was light green and white gingham fabric. I got to use small checks because my teacher said I had mastered small-stitch uniformity well enough to make my first apron with this “special” fabric. The pockets were decorated with pink embroidered flowers and green vines and leaves. We embroidered our initials on one of the apron ties because our teacher said that it was a “work of art” and we needed to sign it.

It took us many weeks to complete our aprons because we could only work on them during sewing class hours. Once we had ironed and “correctly” folded our apron, we wrapped them in pretty paper and brought them home to surprise our mothers.

My mother cried when she opened my gift. She said it was the most beautiful apron she ever had received. She kept it in the “fancy apron” drawer and used it for Sunday family dinners. She always said what a good job I had done and how much she liked the little flowers on the pockets.

Thanks for bringing these memories back to my mind after all these years. I don’t have that special hand-stitched apron now, but I do have several of my mother’s aprons tucked away in a cedar chest to give to my granddaughters someday. It’s probably the only way they will see a piece of clothing that we thought was indispensable back when I was a girl.

– Donna Brown