I collect them. They are displayed, crisply starched and ironed, in my kitchen. I just wear my "bad clothes" to cook in these days and then clean up afterwards. I loved to see my mom in an apron, which she wore regularly. The epitome of grace and elegance.

I grew up with aprons but now I have only one which I wear if I make anything with tomato sauce. I can clean the house from top to bottom dressed in white, garden in good clothes and am spotless, but get me near tomato sauce and I get it on me, if not while cooking then eating or cleaning up, I have to get my share of tomato sauce.

My mother always wears one, but I never did. Until I realised that whenever I bake I end up with flour all over my jeans (not a tidy cook) and when I stir-fry I sometimes splatter my t-shirt with oil, which is a pain to wash out.

So now I have a bright blue apron from Williams Sonoma (I had a gift certificate) which is really long (past my knees) and wide (wraps right round the sides) with really long ties (cross them over at the back and tie in the front). It's perfect. And covered in flour again.

My mother (in the UK) gave Himself a navy blue one, with an embroidered coronet and "His Lordship" on it. Naturally, he loved it.

I have several aprons, some fancy, flowery, ruffled etc. But the apron I wear the most is one that I bought at a garage sale for 50 cents. It is made of some indestructible cloth and have ties that will expand with my girth. I always remove it before company comes or I answer the door bell.

I wear an apron always. Unless I forget. Then I regret, becaue I am a cooking slob. I wear one that ties around the neck and the waist and covers me from neck to knee. I guess they are chef's aprons. They look like WWIII was fought on them. I wear them when I go out to get veggies from the garden. I hold up the bottom and make a hammock to carry the stuff. I wipe my hands on it. I dry dishes on it. I flip it over my shoulder when I sit down so I cat won't curl up on it and get it "dirty".

Annelise you garden in good clothes. I have never been so jealous in all my life. How do you manage that!?

I wear an apron.
I buy a package of those white cotton ones from Sams.
They last forever and I can bleach the stew out of them.

I have some really cute ones made by one of our own here at the GP. I save those for special occasions only.

I have several chef's aprons I wear if I'm going to be in the kitchen for a length of time.I know I will most likely splash something on my clothes.

I try to remember....I really do!
I used to always wear an apron...but somehow got out of the habit.
I have 6 or 7 special chef's aprons...one with a stencil of my grand kids foot prints, another from a Partier of bygone days and one that says Iowa cooks, and a wonderful old one from an auction years ago...it's unbleached muslin and has a tatted border and woven embroidery on the pocket. The design is great in that you just slip your arms in and you don't have to tie it.
Suzanne K makes some lovely aprons....haven't seen her posting in a long time....guess she's busy sewing!
Linda C

I used to wear an apron regularly, when cooking on holidays, but don't think I've worn one for years. In fact, just today, I thought about it--since it was a holiday--and looked in my bottom dresser drawer. Sure enough, there was one apron hidden under everything else, but it's a Christmas apron! It also needed ironing so I closed the drawer and went back to the kitchen. Since I had on jeans, anyway, guess I didn't really need an apron.

Marda, I'm impressed that you found time to be on line at 11:47, this morning! It's now 8:59 p.m. and this is my first computer time all day.

Hope everyone had a pleasant day with good food, family and friends. We spent most of the afternoon looking thru really old pictures and trying to identify some relatives who are no longer with us. Just one more reason to write on the back of the picture. Of course, with most of them now on the computer, there may not be too many boxes full of old pictures in the future.

Most women of my mother's generation wore aprons with some regularity, and I think they stopped being so mainstream when jeans became the national uniform. One used to keep an assortment of aprons in different styles and fabrics, to be changed depending on the circumstances of its use.

I only wear chef's style aprons, because I am a profoundly messy and passionate cook. I often have traces of flour or sauce anywhere on my person from my eyelashes to my shoes. I don't wear them daily, but one hangs perpetually from my oven handle and they're worn in canning season, when I bake or when I have on good clothing I don't want to soil. I often wear an apron at transplanting season in my greenhouses because one stands as they work for hours with their bellies against a bench filled with wet soil. Clothing one wears then can get a perpetual dark stain across the midriff no amount of scrubbing on a board can remove.

I like the no-nonsense aprons like a butcher's apron. I sometimes grab one of my husband's old work aprons. They give excellent coverage and are very comfortable.

Calliope, you are right, jeans made a big difference. That and the synthetic fabrics. Before, outside of the summer month, everything needed to be drycleaned, so everybody wore approns. There were cooking aprons, big wrapers for cleaning, butcher type aprons at the backdoor for gardenwork (female and male), good aprons for running across the street to the grocery store and Sunday afternoon aprons when visitors might come and needed to be served coffee and cake (Germany). Have not thought of that for many a year. Thanks for the reminder.

My Mom always wore an apron when home, usually a bib type with pockets. The pocket always held a hankie to swipe kids noses and on the bib were rows of safety pins or straight pins or maybe even a needle and thread that had been found around the house. Do you remember the little fancy aprons that the servers at a wedding reception always wore. They were frilly and lacey.

I'm surprised that so many others 'used to' wear aprons! And I guess I'm surprised that so many still do, I don't think any of my local friends wear them now - or ever did. I grew up with aprons: mum sewed them for sale at the farmers' market and sometimes I embroidered fancier ones. We even had 'mother-daughter' aprons, and always some that were made of organdy and trimmed with lace. I remember them being a steady if variable source of income, with weekly sales that may have been 3 in the summer up to 30 each week during November and early December.

I rarely wear one now; not because of jeans but because of old, beat-up sweatshirts that are already so stained, new stains are hardly noticeable. During canning season, especially for grape jelly or tomato products, I pin a thick terry towel as a sort of bib... probably deluding myself in thinking that's cooler than tying something around my waist. Anyhow, the terry is great for wiping the sweat off my face.

Thinking of the flour, spices, pumpkin, celery leaves (don't ask), and other assorted remnents of this past T-day cooking: I really should go back to wearing aprons!

I have a big assortment of aprons. They're all full, they all have pockets, and they're all tailored to flatter. Not only do I always wear one when I cook, but I'm fussy enough to wear a color coordinated one. But I know from comments neighbors have made when they've seen me in them that I'm an anomaly. But judging by the selection and availability I've seen over the last six years or so, apron wearing is becoming more common.

The one sort of apron that doesn't make any sense to me, frilly or otherwise, is the half apron. It only protects the part of your body that is shielded by the counter anyway. If there's going to be some spillage or splatter in my kitchen, "the girls" are going to be involved...

Me too Jazzy. Me too. That's why I just wear sweats. It's impossible to cover my entire body.

My boss just put in an order for aprons?! It was a t-shirt for years, then a ball cap, then a tote bag. So for him to pick it? Wow. Small world. Guess they must be making a comeback.

Hi, everyone!
Did someone say aprons?

Had a number of full-coverage, pin-striped ones my Mom made for me when I was a little girl---ric-rac around all edges---she used ric-rac on sheets, towels, washclothes---we escaped only with our underwear.

Now my favorites are used red chef's aprons--cotton-- I've had for 20 years at least---my son gave me about eight old ones from Barnaby's, the pizza place where he worked as a teen. One is always donned religiously when it involves actual cooking.
It stays on all day long once the slipknot has been tied in front.
While selling cars for years, I wore one if I was doing the usual car-washing or interior detailing.
They are so a part of me, I've forgotten to remove one sometimes when running to the store for somesuch.

My now 44 yr. old son just shakes his head when I thank him all over again for those beautiful, perfect aprons!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!\
(We did a family brunch---best Thanksgiving we've ever had!)

All aprons are not what they seem to be. One year someone gave me a "naughty" apron as a gag gift. It looked like a "normal every-day" apron from the front, but it had a built in full male genetalia in the back. Aprons can hide more than tomato sauce.

LOL! Though not as naughty as yours, I enjoy my souvenir apron from Seville because it has, ahem, cojones. It's a unisex red apron with the silhouette of a bull with an impressive pair. I have lost track of the number of times my offer of an apron to a kitchen helper has been met with complaints of their girliness... and then I offer them the one with "b*lls."

While on vacation in Italy I once bought an apron for a
friend. Some would call it naughty, it had David on it in full
glorious color. A magnificent work of art, thank you Michelangelo.

Isn't it fascinating how a post can evolve from one subject to another? Long Live Aprons! :>)

So Jan,when she wears it,I wonder where she wipes her hands when they are full of cake batter or spaghetti sauce?

Marda, I bet it depends on how much she loves what she's COOKING! Snort!

(feels like snow today. Greatgoogamooga...)

Didn't Di used to say that? I miss her.