I'm sure you can all remember moments of inspiration that you've had.
My moment of inspiration for the apron came when I was pondering what our cookbook might look like.
I don't think it was an intentional idea to give the book a retro feel and yet since many of our memories of the heritage foods date back to the 50's and 60's. . . I naturally was drawn to the vintage linens and kitchen items that belonged to my mom and now to me.
We knew that we would have professional group photos done for the book and rather than us all agree on a color scheme or even making a decision whether to dress up or down. . .it seemed easier to come up with a "uniform" that would be part gift .. .
part practical . .
and partly a signature look that would be ours.
We did not know when the aprons were started that we would be wearing them for our cooking classes. It is so fun to have a reason besides the book photos to need an apron.
In early June of last year I began to search out fabrics that would work well together.
I wanted them to be bright and cheery and remind us each of the aprons our mothers sewed up for themselves and wore daily over their clothes to keep their ironing down to a daily apron instead of ironing a new blouse or dress each day.
Once I selected the fabrics. .I found coordinating trim and dipped into my mom's vintage trim collection that I inherited when she passed away. The girls with the green rick rack have trim that is at least fifty years old.
I found some blue and red seam binding in her collection as well as a bit of white seam binding when I realized I was running out of the meters I purchased. Being a very sentimental person. .
this just gave me such joy in knowing that a part of my mom and her true first love of sewing was finding its way into the cookbook ...
one way or another.
We had no idea that so many of you would ask us for an apron. The publisher has received countless emails and judging by your kind comments and emails as well . ..it was tempting for a very short while to see about producing them and selling them to make additional money for charity. We quickly realized it would just not be cost effective. We would have to come up with our own pattern, since we would not be allowed to produce aprons to sell from the commercial pattern. The cost of the fabric and then the labour involved would not make it very affordable for you to buy.
So ..we are offering you the pattern number and we hope that those of you that can sew. . .will team together with those that can't. Perhaps the non sewers can offer to buy fabric for the sewers and you can work out a win win situation.
We are of course so delighted you are enjoying the photo's in the book. Your response has been delightfully overwhelming. We are so grateful to each of you that has left comments about our book. We are posting many of them on the book page. If you haven't already purchased your book and haven't been able to find it in a bookstore near you. . . please be patient.
You might want to visit our book page for additional information and book reviews. I will keep the apron number posted there as well.
In the meantime ...we are still getting the word out there about the book. Every week requests are coming in for radio and article interviews and if you ask your local bookstores to bring the book in. . .we hope that eventually it will be widely available.
We are very pleased to have the book available through the publisher and most other popular online sources.
Thank you so much for making the book an instant success.
The link to the apron pattern is here .
There is a little more about how they flapped in the breeze for the photo on my What Matters Most Blog.
Happy Sewing !
