Aprons: Do you use one?

[Jacksoup]

I have many aprons hanging on a rack in my kitchen.  Most of them are souvenirs from travel, it’s my favorite thing to bring home.  That and reusable grocery bags.  Both something I use a lot and reminders of my trips. I try to wear one every time I cook because I’ve ruined many tops and I’m messy.  The ones that get the most use are ones with long ties that can be wrapped around and tied in front.  

[JoNorvelleWalker]

2 hours ago, SusieQ said:

I carried this habit into adulthood but, as an adult, I have gradually learned to always wear an apron because otherwise there are too many disastrous consequences.  😄

 

I would point out that human hair and skin clean up more readily than most fabrics.  Plus skin almost always eventually grows back.

 

But thanks to @blue_dolphin I have ordered the Rough Linen pinafore and two 24 inch napkins.

 

[weinoo]

Some of the aprons I see cooks wearing these day look like they'd not be out of place on a farrier - i.e. they look ridiculous.

 

These days, I tend to not wear an apron in the kitchen, unless I'll be cooking all day.  I have a couple of dedicated kitchen shirts/shorts, and I've bought a few "dishwasher" shirts which work fine.  I still have a stack of plain, white classic kitchen (bib) aprons, from back when I was a cooking school student.

[btbyrd]

If I'm doing anything serious, the apron will usually come out. The primary advantage of an apron, for me, is that it gives you the ability to strap a side towel to your... side. It's also helpful in keeping you clean, but I don't often get food on myself when cooking. Baking or pasta making is another story -- anything with flour demands an apron.

All of this is for "back of house" work. There are a lot of beautiful high-end aprons out there that I find attractive but would never buy because they're impractical to clean. Leather... denim... waxed canvas... gorgeous stuff that you either can't launder or wouldn't want to (denim). Useless materials for the cook. Front of house? Bartenders? Sure. Perhaps if you're a woodworker or a barber or a bladesmith, something like that might be useful. But I'd hate to wear one while cooking. 

Edited March 29, 2019 by btbyrd
Moderators merged threads. (log)

[lemniscate]

I am constantly gifted "joke" aprons because people know I like to cook, so I guess they think I need aprons a lot.  Most are terrible in function and fabric and have stupid jokes, but one of them turned out to be pretty useful.  It's a Thinkgeek Tactical Apron, camo.  It is kind of heavy, but it covers where I get the most splatters.   I find I reach for it when pasta making, rolling out pizza dough, juicing prickly pears (bloody messy).   It is a ridiculous garment, but I grin when I put it on.

Edited March 29, 2019 by lemniscate
extra e removed. (log)

[HeatherM]

I'll often wear an apron if I'm working in the kitchen, mainly because I hate having to try to get stains out of clothes. I find many aprons to be too heavy on my neck. This one is my current favourite.  It has shoulder straps, so no weight on my neck, and I can throw it in the wash. 

[Katie Meadow]

This topic reminded me that my apron of many many years, despite periodic washing, has some embedded grease and is not very nice looking any more. So I was inspired to soak it to see if I could rescue it. Since I am most likely to wear it when finishing cooking a meal for company after I am already dressed in something I don't want to splatter, the apron itself needs to look passable. I soaked it in very warm water with dish-washing liquid and a few tablespoons of bleach. After half an hour the water was disgusting. I changed it, and re-soaked, then scrubbed the greasiest part. After a turn in the washer and dryer, low and behold it is much improved. It's a very nice apron: heavy soft cotton, mattress ticking stripe, unisex looking, not dopey in any way--and that's saying a lot for an apron. No Eiffel Towers, no cats, no poorly rendered artichokes, no cringe-worthy writing.

 

For most of my daily cooking, other than baking, I just toss on an old flannel shirt if I know I'm in danger of flying fat. don't have to get dressed for a job any longer, so I don't worry about most of my stay-home clothing.  But now my apron has a new life, so perhaps it will get more use.  Oh, and I agree with a poster above that having a tie strap enables you to hang a towel on your body. If I'm not wearing an apron I am typically found cooking with a towel slung over my shoulder, but which has a habit of creeping off somewhere when I need it most.

[heidih]

I can't even bring myself to wear a garden apron. I bought one and it just feels constricting. I grew up in an apron era. First Home Ec project sewing was usually an apron. The women in my circle generally wore the ones that were more like a long vest -  no ties - perhaps better for rotund gals.  

Edited March 30, 2019 by heidih (log)

[Kim Shook]

I love aprons and wear them all the time I am in the kitchen.  The one that I wear most often is actually 100% polyester, but feels exactly like cotton.  It is a classic plain white with extra long ties (so that it ties in front and I can drape a towel through the ties).  It was a freebie from a cooking class I took years ago with Roberto Donna.  I have them for almost every holiday and wear those when entertaining.  My other favorite is one made for us by @maggiethecat  It is two-sided.  My side is flowered and Mr. Kim’s side is camo.  It is one of my most treasured gifts.

 

[gfweb]

No apron for me. 

I get more food on me eating than cooking

[JoNorvelleWalker]

38 minutes ago, gfweb said:

No apron for me. 

I get more food on me eating than cooking

 

Rough Linen also sells napkins!

 

I showed a friend the picture that @blue_dolphin posted.  My friend said for that price I should get an apron to wear over my apron.  Truthfully what sold me on the pinafore was the picture:

 

https://www.roughlinen.com/products/pinafore?variant=16371977542

 

 

It must have been the asparagus...yes, definitely the asparagus.

 

 

 

[ChocoMom]

I grew up with a mom and two grans that wore aprons.  I inherited my one gran's apron collection- which is no more, but it was classic. She had everything from cocktail waitress to grandma styles.  I have two aprons now....one with a pattern of chocolate pralines all over it- that a dear friend made for me (with a set of matching potholders)...that one stays in the chocolate shop. 

The other one is longer, and has a large rooster on it- which i use almost every day in the home kitchen.  We sometimes end up with too many people in the cooking area, which equates to bumps, splashes, sorry Mom, oops...etc.  So, I need protection from splatters, flour and whatever.  

 

Now that I am back to work outside the home, I am particularly protective of my work clothes.  In my haste to get ready for work, and also get meals ready for the fam, I use the apron for protection so I don't have to change clothes in case of an accident. 

[Katie Meadow]

@Maggie the Cat : one smart cookie.

[chromedome]

I have a bunch, and try to remember to wear one when I'm cooking, but seldom do. The upshot is that most of the clothes I own have either grease spots from the cooking part, or bleach spatters from cleanup (I routinely add bleach do my dish hand-washing water).

 

I have a special knack for managing to get stuff on a new and slightly costlier-than-usual piece of clothing the first time it's worn.

[lindag]

My Mom always wore a half-apron, the kind that tied at the waist.  I used  to love to tease her by sneaking up behind her when she was at the sink and pulling the strings....God, she was patient.

[BetD]

I have a drawer FULL of them... black ones, white ones, Rancho Gordo red ones, playful prints and memories. Mostly, they stay in the drawer.  🙃

Edited March 31, 2019 by BetD (log)

[andiesenji]

I wear aprons, heavy cotton I bought at Smart & Final a couple of decades ago. Can be bleached to remove stains, oil patches painted with Dawn, blood stains treated with peroxide.  They are practically indestructible and the material is heavy enough that if folded the bottom corners can be used to take hot pans out of the oven or to grasp the handle of a hot skillet or pot.

 

I have a couple of colored ones that I used to wear when I still entertained. One is black with chile peppers all over it. One is yellow with chile peppers.  Sort of a theme from when I was a "Chile-Head" subscriber and one came from another member and I won one for my goat meat chili at one of the "hot-lucks" I attended back in the days when I could still consume hot stuff with impunity.  

[heidih]

2 hours ago, andiesenji said:

I wear aprons, heavy cotton I bought at Smart & Final a couple of decades ago. Can be bleached to remove stains, oil patches painted with Dawn, blood stains treated with peroxide.  They are practically indestructible and the material is heavy enough that if folded the bottom corners can be used to take hot pans out of the oven or to grasp the handle of a hot skillet or pot.

 

 

You just reminded me about the Smart & Final ones. It is where many of my gardening friends purchase theirs.

[kayb]

My grandmama wore an apron every day of her life, all day long, unless she was going somewhere. Truth be told, I think it served mostly as a repository for her handkerchief, which she also carried constantly. Her aprons were mostly from the waist down, which I find fairly useless. 

 

If I'm going to wear an apron, it's a bib or pinafore style, to protect my blouse or shirt, as that's where most of the spills land. I have one that's like a sleeveless hospital gown, that ties in back. It's the most effective, but I cook without one probably 98 percent of the time.

[Kim Shook]

POCKETS!!!  Not many of mine have them, but I love them.

[lindag]

6 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

POCKETS!!!  Not many of mine have them, but I love them.

 

YES!  I want pockets in everything.

[Toliver]

3 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

POCKETS!!!  Not many of mine have them, but I love them.

 

3 hours ago, lindag said:

 

YES!  I want pockets in everything.

I recall @maggiethecat once asking in a eG forum whether she should put pockets on an apron she was sewing.

I replied with the old axiom: 

Better to have them and not use them,

than to need them and not have them.

Yes on pockets.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

My Rough Linen pinafore arrived.  Took a while to figure how to put it on.

 

[lindag]

Apparently mine is waiting in my mailbox; I didn’t make out to get my mail yesterday.

i assume you put it on over your head, correct?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

11 hours ago, lindag said:

Apparently mine is waiting in my mailbox; I didn’t make out to get my mail yesterday.

i assume you put it on over your head, correct?

 

When I posted earlier I had put it on over my head.  I have the pinafore on now but I confess I could not replicate my success.  This time I stepped into it and looped the straps over my shoulders.  Don't tell.

 

There is a problem with the apron though, at least for me.  It is not as long as I had hoped.  It does not quite reach my knees.  I'm thinking about what to do.  But I have to say lovely material, workmanship, and color.

 

 

Edit:  though looking at the picture the pinafore sits on the model about where it sits on me.  I guess it's working as intended.

 

Edited April 4, 2019 by JoNorvelleWalker (log)