VINTAGE APRONS: Look Cute & Sexy While Cooking & Cleaning!

Oilcloth was, traditionally, heavy cotton or linen cloth with a linseed oil coating: it was semi-water-proof. The most familiar use was for brightly printed kitchen tablecloths. Dull colored oilcloth was used for bedrolls, sou'westers, and tents. By the late 1950's, oilcloth became a synonym for vinyl (polyvinyl chloride) bonded to a flanneled cloth. (From Wikipedia)

I absolutely adore old, tattered floursack aprons! I have a few aprons that my grandmother made out of her flour sacks and feed sacks many years ago. Poor people and thrifty people made clothing, pillows, aprons, quilts and no telling what else out of the cloth sacks their flour and feed came in.

Sometimes you can get better search results on eBay by spelling words different ways (even if one spelling is uncommon or incorrect) which is why you might see "floursack aprons" and/or "flour sack aprons" listed here. You could also search "flower sack apron" (without quotes) because a seller might accidentally spell it that way.

Old kitchen aprons are special to me for several reasons! I love the pretty colors and lively prints on the fabrics that many vintage aprons are made from, and the warm, cozy vision I have in my mind of a gray-haired grandmother (yes, I know, not all grandmothers have gray hair!) sewing the perfect apron from scraps of fabric held together with stitches that might have been made on an old, black treadle sewing machine or by hand.

I think the main reason I am drawn to these adorable vintage aprons is because of the memories dancing in my mind of my own country grandmother wearing her homemade aprons while she cooked delicious southern-style meals while I snooped through her kitchen drawers (that I could barely reach) digging through the piles of aprons she had made. The wonderful aroma in the air made my tummy growl and made me impatient for supper to be served.

I loved my grandmother dearly, and she was such a sight wearing her frilly kitchen apron, bouffant wig and horn-rimmed glasses!

~Vicki~

If you do not see an apron here that you want, just click on one of the apron images which will take you to eBay, then you can do a search there. There are THOUSANDS of aprons for sale on eBay every day, so you will want to decide what type or color apron you want. Try these search terms along with the word, "apron" to narrow your search: retro, vintage, antique, kitchen, crochet, hostess, old-fashioned, primitive, home-spun, organza, gingham, country, half, full, bib, sexy, cute, frilly, mother's day, Valentine's, Christmas.

For example, type in: hostess apron

Or try something like: vintage red Christmas apron

The apron was traditionally viewed as an essential garment for anyone doing housework. Cheaper clothes and washing machines made aprons less common beginning in the mid 1960s in some countries such as the United States. However, the practice of wearing aprons remains strong in many places.

Today, the apron has enjoyed a minor renaissance in terms of both women and men now wearing them when performing household chores. For instance, an article in the Wall Street Journal claimed in 2005 that the apron is "enjoying a renaissance as a retro-chic fashion accessory" in the United States[1]. However, it still is not as prevalent as it was prior to the 1960s.

Aprons are nowadays considered equally appropriate for both women and men by most people. However, prevailing social norms ensure that women frequently wear more delicate clothing, and may therefore be more likely to want the protection an apron offers.

When domestic workers are supplied a uniform by their employers, an apron is often included. The aprons are worn for hygienic as well as for identification purposes. Click here to read the entire Wikipedia article.

What you see here today might be gone tomorrow (or even in a few minutes), so if you see an apron here that you like, click on it to go to eBay, then you can either bid on the apron, or if you are not ready to bid, just click on the words, "Watch this Item" near the top right, then you will be prompted to log in to your account (if you aren't already logged in), and you will then be notified by e-mail when bidding time is almost up on that item. You can also be notified of an auction nearing its end using apps for your computer or smart phone. Good luck bidding!

Gina Elise's "Pin-Ups For Vets" calendar is helping to fund programs that help support our hospitalized veterans. You can order your 2012 calendars and posters now! This colorful calendar features World War II style pin-up girl photographs of Gina that are reminiscent of the cheesecake photos popular during the 1940's. Your purchase of one or more "Pin-Ups For Vets" calendars will benefit hospital programs that help our ill and injured American veterans. If you decide to donate the calendars you purchase, Gina will personally deliver those calendars to the hospitalized vets, and she mails out calendars to deployed troops with your messages of appreciation. Gina and others have put many hours of hard work into this wonderful project, and your help will be greatly appreciated! Please help support our U.S. troops by purchasing one or more "Pin-Ups For Vets" calendars at PinUpsForVets.com.

Your vintage aprons probably do not have care labels sewn into them, so please give your little treasures lots of TLC, and click on the link a little further down to read about the proper way to wash vintage linens and clothing, including aprons.

Here are a few tips for taking care of your vintage aprons:

• Never have your vintage aprons dry cleaned, unless there happens to be a care label on the garment that specifically states to have the garment dry cleaned. Dry cleaning can weaken the fibers of some vintage fabrics, and it can also fade or cause ugly spots on the fabric.
• Never hang any type of wet garment to dry if it is a stretchy fabric such as a crocheted apron. Wet yarn and some other fibers will stretch out from here to kingdom come if they are hung while wet, so it is best to lay them out flat on an old towel or sweater dryer.
• Remember to keep any vintage textile away from bright light.
• Never store any type of vintage fabrics near a heat source.
• Never store vintage fabrics in a basement or other high-humidity environment.
• If you fold vintage aprons or clothing, do not store them this way, because they can end up with permanent crease marks. Instead, you can lay the apron flat on a sheet of acid-free tissue paper, smooth out the wrinkles with your clean hands, then place another sheet of tissue on top of the apron, then roll up this entire little sandwich-looking thing (do not roll tightly) and store with your other linens in a dark closet or drawer.
• Another good way to store vintage aprons and table linens is to roll them up on a cardboard tube such as a tube from the inside of a roll of paper towels or wrapping paper. You might want to wrap some acid-free tissue paper free tissue paper around the tube first, then roll up the apron and cover the apron with another layer of tissue or a clean pillowcase to keep light and dust off the apron. I have to give credit for this tip to my late mother who probably got it from Heloise! Thanks Mom!
• One other thing I must mention, is that cats LOVE strings! My cats go NUTS when they see any type of string, and it amazes me to see how amazed and amused a cat gets over something as silly as a darn string....amazing! Make sure Fluffy is not even in the room while you are handling an apron, or else the apron strings will become a toy, and your cat will shred the strings with its claws or practice dental hygiene by flossing its teeth with the strings! Yuck!!!
  
  

WARNING: Any type of string can be harmful and even fatal to an infant, toddler, bed-confined adult or to an animal, so please do not leave an infant, toddler, bed-confined adult or an animal unattended with any type of string! Thanks!

Aprons by Carol Paulsen
Buy This at Allposters.com

When searching for items from a specific decade, use variations of search terms to yield more results such as: "50s sewing pattern" (without the quotes), or "fifties sewing pattern".

You can type the apostrophe in "50's" or "1950's" (without the quotes) but it is not necessary. You will get the same results by simply typing "50s" or "1950s".

To weed through the thousands of apron patterns on eBay, be specific in your search, for example: When I searched for "apron pattern" (without the quotes) I got 2,934 results, and many of these items were not sewing patterns. I narrowed the search by typing in, "vintage apron pattern" resulting in 789 items. Typing "vintage apron sewing pattern" showed 340 items, including patterns from the 1970's that I was not interested in, so I added one more term to my search: "vintage 50's apron sewing pattern" and got 34 results of really nifty apron patterns from the fifties -- exactly what I was looking for.

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