The Apron Book: Making, Wearing, and Sharing a Bit of Cloth and Comfort [Hardcover]

EllynAnne Geisel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2006

Aprons are back! After more than 30 years in the attic, aprons are making a splashy comeback in a happy convergence of nostalgia, pop culture, and contemporary fashion.

Vintage aprons and modern designs are turning up in movies, magazine spreads, upscale shops, and hip retail venues like Anthropologie, whose trendy line of aprons is selling as fast as they can stock them. The Apron Book is an infectiously enthusiastic guide to aprons, old and new, that are suddenly everywhere.

Aprons take us back to our favorite place-hearth and home. Vintage aprons help us remember home and family the way they used to be, while bright and sassy contemporary aprons confirm that nesting is all the rage. Actress and trendsetter Julia Roberts has a closetful of vintage aprons. Celebrity custom-made apron auctions have become an annual event for several popular charities in the past few years.

The Apron Book provides full-color photos of new and vintage aprons from the author's collection, patterns for four basic apron styles and myriad variations, recipes, tips on collecting and preserving vintage aprons, and heart-tugging stories from the author's traveling apron exhibit. The book also explores the heyday of aprons and looks at the various roles aprons still play when worn in the kitchen, around the house, by the backyard grill, on the job, and for special occasions.

Warm and inviting-but like an apron quite practical!-this book is a celebration of a great American icon and reminds us of what we loved about the people who wore them.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Easy-to-follow instructions, quirky facts, personal stories, and vintage illustrations make this book as charming as each pretty cover-up featured inside." -- Homemakers magazine

"EllynAnne Geisel has restored dignity to a symbol of domesticity long gone from many kitchens‹the apron." -- Denver Post

"Part how-to, part history, this book is like grandma's pudding—comforting and a great treat." -- Create & Decorate

"The Apron Book unfolds like a bolt of fabricŠthe pattern of a life remembered through a homely object." -- NPR¹s Weekend All Things Considered

About the Author

EllynAnne Geisel, who lives at Pueblo, CO, is the author of The Apron Book and the creator of Apron Chronicles, the traveling exhibit. Her apron designs have appeared in Vogue and have been worn by Bree in Desperate Housewives. She's been a guest on both NPR's All Things Considered and CBS News' Sunday Morning. She continues to make nationwide appearances to promote her books and exhibit.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 152 pages
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing (September 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0740761811
• ISBN-13: 978-0740761812
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #107,451 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #24 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Antiques & Collectibles > Textiles & Costume

More About the Author

In 1999, I wondered if anyone else felt a connection to aprons. That curiosity led me to embark on an apron journey that unexpectedly and quite delightfully has resulted in the publication of my first book, THE APRON BOOK: Making, Wearing and Sharing a Bit of Cloth and Comfort; a national touring exhibit, APRON CHRONICLES: a Patchwork of American Recollections; and Apron Memories', my very own company of vintage inspired aprons that I design.

As a further outlet for my love of aprons, I created Tie One On Day. Annually recognized by Chase's Calendar of Events on Thanksgiving Eve, the 4th Wednesday of November (11/22/06 this year), the designated day celebrates the humble apron and the spirit of women of earlier generations who donned the universal symbol of home, family and mothering as the uniform of their daily wardrobe and helped make America the great country it is today.

The process by which I turn the apron memories of others into evocative narratives is one I presented at the 2006 International Obituary Writers' Conference. I've never met a happier group of writers, and I'm already at work with Carolyn Gilbert, the Conference organizer, on next year's live-ly presentation.

No one is more surprised than I that the apron has brought into my life the most amazing bounty of friend-ship, storytelling and joy. Aprons! Who would have imagined?

At the first writer's conference I attended in 2000, I was inspired by Jack Canfield, co-creator of the Soup for the Soul empire, that "Going for it is the only way to go." Serendipi-tously, my very first writing sale was 2 years later to Chicken Soup for the Parent's Soul. A second essay (and tribute to my mama)- I Never Saw My Mother Do a Sit Up - appears in Chicken Soup To Inspire a Woman's Soul. And my vignette on the book that influenced my life appears in Jack's (!!) latest, You've Got To Read This Book! 55 People Tell the story of the Book that Changed Their Life. While I doubt other contribu-tors like Malachy McCourt, John Gray, Dave Barry, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, eBay COO Maynard Webb,and Jacquelyn Mitchard (Oprah's first Book Club author)are excited I'm one of the 55, I am ecstatic to be included.

I live in Pueblo, Colorado, with my prince charming, Hank. My sons, Noah and Gideon, have flown the coop. Like their Dad, they are excellent husband material, and will one day be someone's prince charming.

September 1, I'll celebrate a 31st wedding anniversary. Last year, we toasted one another in China; this year, we'll be clinking champagne glasses and swatting mosquitoes out back on the patio.

Truffles, our departed pet, was so beloved, we had her memorialized in a life-size portrait. Framed in faux gold, the painting hangs in our dining room, her favorite spot. Years since her puttin' down, we still can't talk about her without tearing up.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great History and Memorabilia, but short on actual patterns, March 12, 2009

By 

J. Grufman (Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Apron Book: Making, Wearing, and Sharing a Bit of Cloth and Comfort (Hardcover)

I was on the verge of purchasing this book, but at the last minute headed off to the library to take a look at it. What I found was a book filled with memories and anecdotes shared by various people involving aprons (mom's, grandma's or otherwise). There are beautiful pictures of many vintage aprons with lots of history. Also included are 3 simple patterns and directions for a "Waist Apron", a "Basic Bib Apron," and a "Smock Apron," with ideas for varying the pockets. Don't misunderstand, plenty of ideas can be gleaned from the pictures of aprons on display, but the book is limited in pattern styles - and that's what I was after. I've got plenty of cookbooks, so for me the recipes were wasted space. If you are looking for a book of reminisces and vintage images, this book will serve you well. However, if you are after a large variety of patterns to begin with, the Apron Book falls short.

40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars apron lover, October 15, 2006

By 

earnest reader (East Coast) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Apron Book: Making, Wearing, and Sharing a Bit of Cloth and Comfort (Hardcover)

I loved the colorful mix of worn aprons in my mother's kitchen drawer and I'd give anything to have one wrapped around my waist right now. Unfortunately, those aprons are long gone, but as I hoped, THE APRON BOOK brings me right back to the wonderful memories I associate with the aprons of my childhood.

As the author suggests, this book IS like an apron, simple yet beautiful, nostalgic yet useful. The gorgeous photos of vintage and contemporary aprons make you want to get our your machine and start sewing. The instructions are clear and the book inspires you to be creative and original.

This book is not just a stroll down apron memory lane. It's a warm and charming invitation to bring aprons back to our everyday lives. I will give this book as a gift many times over....with a homemade apron, of course.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Of Grandmas and Aprons, October 22, 2006

By 

Judith Paley (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Apron Book: Making, Wearing, and Sharing a Bit of Cloth and Comfort (Hardcover)

When my friend EllynAnne asked me if I had an apron story, the memories came flooding back. Grandma in pearls and stockings with a brightly colored hand-sewn apron over her dress, my mom with that same apron tied over her work clothes at the end of the day, and finally me--you guessed it, in Grandma's apron--cooking away in junior high home economics class.

How pleased I am now to read The Apron Book, and I'm here to tell you it sounds just like EllynAnne in person. She's taken her "girl-raised-in-the-south" voice to these wonderful apron memories, a rich mixture of gentility, tradition, and folksy humor, with her own finely tuned ability to tell a story. I only wish I could serve my teenaged son and his friends bottled sodas swathed in tiny aprons. Check out the picture, it's a hoot! Please oh please publish the pattern for those.

And how especially honored I am to see my family heirloom apron, unfortunately now too worn to wear, featured in this handsome volume. EllynAnne has elevated our everyday aprons out of the kitchen or backyard barbeque pit into an American icon.