Tuesday 30 August 2005

A very special apron

This apron is one by the Dear Friend I have just spent a few days with.

Victory apron

It is now old, very tattered, and she is the first to say embroidery was never a passion of hers.

But about 1942, when she was 14, her father died suddenly - I think he was killed in a car accident, or something like that. As she said, it would not be the same today, but the decision was that she was too young to be there at home, and she was sent away to friends at the beach, and given this apron to embroider. I don't think she was even allowed to go to her father's funeral.

So she sat on the sea wall and embroidered an apron that was all about the war, and victory and patriotism, and grieved for her father.

She has worn the apron after that until it almost fell to pieces - the bias ties broke and she just knotted them up again.

It still has a special place in her linen cupboard.

1 Comments:

Blogger Gina E. said...

Now that is a real heritage piece - the kind of item I am always on the lookout for. It is great that you have the provenance for it too, Linda, so that if the original stitcher passes away, somebody else will at least know the story behind it. The flags are similar to a WW1 embroidered photo frame I have in my collection; unfortunately I know nothing about the original owner.

10:57 pm  

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