Bonnets and Bees and Aprons

My grandmother called it, ” a bee in your bonnet”. It refered to the situation when you had a thought in your head and it wouldn’t go away. That is the situation for me with aprons that you see in vintage photographs. I long to make them.  As a business, we tell ourselves, “No! we can’t”. They have way too much yardage, no one will ever pay that much for an apron. And the pieces create way too much waste. When the pieces are curved and long and drift away from the center, lots of fabric gets scrapped, more waste.

But they linger in my head. And quite frankly they linger in other peoples heads or they would stop sending me photos. It’s like a cheering section quietly applauding you for something you haven’t committed to do. Every time another email comes, its like one more voice whispering, “Make them, make them, make them…”….add to the fact, that my own heart wants to go play design in Farmwife land, well, I give up to the bee in my bonnet…..I have finally succumbed.

I have fabric on its way that will fit my dream of these new pieces. And in doing so, my customers will get to see what a Farmhouse apron means to me. Then we will all either get to start enthusiastically producing and purchasing them…… or we all sit back and disappointingly say,…”Oh, so that’s what you made”… and everyone goes home.

Either way, the bee will leave my bonnet. And that will be exhilarating no matter what the outcome.