I am a proud Scrappy Little Apron owner, a featured vendor at our Holiday Market. We chatted with Rachel Towner about her adorable handmade kitchen accessories and a poem that inspired her company.
Quilting is a hobby that runs in the family and the Scrappy Little Aprons idea initially came about after I made a quilt and was left with scraps that weren’t enough to make another quilt.
The following poem inspired her to start Scrappy Little Aprons:
“Grandma’s Apron” (Author Unknown)
I don’t think our kids know what an apron is.
The principal use of Grandma’s apron was to protect the dress underneath, because she only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.
It was wonderful for drying children’s tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears…
From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.
When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.
And when the weather was cold grandma wrapped it around her arms.
Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.
Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.
From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables.
After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.
In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.
When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.
When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men-folk knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.
It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that ‘old-time apron’ that served so many purposes.
REMEMBER:
Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool.
Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.
They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.
I never caught anything from an apron…But Love.Â
By day, Rachel is a Merchandise Planner for Barneys in the Women’s Shoes and Accessories Departments. She told us, “this job has prepared me for important financial aspects of running a business,” and that her “goal is to continually re-invent the apron into a fresher and newer look.”
We can’t to check out her new designs!
Shop for Scrappy Little Aprons on Etsy and Follow on Instagram.