Keeping Clean in the Kitchen

Bachelorette penguins

I've had this conversation a few times in the past few weeks and I continue to wonder: what is with this (growing) mainstream movement to make and purchase handmade crafts? It's on Etsy, all over the mommy blogs, and even showing up in the G&M from time to time . There are lots of things to take into account of course, but I'm not writing a research paper here. Nah, I just want to think out loud.

For one thing, it's very female dominated. I have yet to come across an amateur style blog, sewing blog or etsy site run by a man, and I can tell you how rare they are on the Ottawa St. fabric scene.

I am also interested in the connection with consumption. I like the idea of being able to make my own clothing (saving money, not buying from brand name stores, actually making exactly what I want) but I do have to buy new fabric, which can be expensive and I still don't know the ethics behind fair-trade fabric shopping. (Anyone?) And then there is the fact that anyone who can bake or sew suddenly has an online shop. Is this a sign of economic freedom that women can use their crafts to make a little bit of extra money? Or is there a problem when we start to commodify everything that we do, even for fun?

The first "waldorf"

And then there are days when I worry that this craft-making nostalgia for 1950s fitted waists and hat-veils, 1900 ankle boots and corsets bring with them not only the fashion but particular attitudes: is the return to Victorian booties tied up with wanting to repress certain other parts of our life (sexuality, perhaps?) Or the move to feminine waists and hostess aprons a kind of nostalgia for a time when women stayed at home? (not that that ever really existed among anyone other than the upper middle class, but I do wonder why we focus on THAT idea in particular.) And what of the things that we don’t like about those eras? Colonialism and the progress of industry that increased the killing of this planet ten-fold? Alcoholism, smoking, sexism, limited access to birth control – what do we do with that? Can we pick and choose the parts that we like and discard the pieces that we think we have improved from?

I’m not sure. It begs the question of how much of those fitted waists were about drawing men’s eyes to women’s figures? And what were those ankle boots doing, allowing only the feet to be seen in a repressive society? Even the Globe and Mail weighed in on the trend of stylish aprons, wondering if these vintage aprons are reinforcing female domestic labour, or providing a comfortable respite from 70-hour work weeks?

And then I have to pause, take a deep breath, and say "what the hell, we all have to eat and it's just an apron." I started making them because I needed a use for cotton prints, something relatively easy (no button holes or sleeves) and I came across a local craft blog last summer whose author was making aprons. I like to bake, and tend to be rather messy in the kitchen, so, why not?

Yellow half-wrap for a cupcake chef

I made a few last summer: two Waldorf's, two half-wrap and a standard full apron with bib for Mac. The best part of his apron? It was made from Beatle's Yellow Submarine fabric that I scavenged from the end of a role at Fabricland. This year I got fancy with a vintage full apron pattern that I made for a few birthdays and wedding showers. Now if only I could get ahold of this cotton fabric of "the king" from and I would be all set. I wonder what kind of analysis we could do on a vintage apron made with images of a sex symbol from the 1950s?