Aprons

So many women have an aversion to aprons, recoil at the idea of them in fact. I think it is because they fear that donning an apron would turn them into Donna Reed or a Stepford Wife.

In fact, aprons are making a big comeback, and they don’t just belong in the kitchen anymore! Whoever has found their spaghetti sauce suddenly erupting like Vesuvius, or opened a rocket disguised as a bottle of seltzer will want one, but aprons are needed everywhere accidents happen! Drivers who drink latte on the road need not worry so about potholes with a pretty apron in the car…keep one at your desk at work and you may be able to go into the afternoon’s meetings without vinaigrette on your silk blouse! Whether housekeeping, petkeeping, gardening or baby tending the protection of an apron shouldn’t be missed, that’s why After All aprons are so attractive you can where them anywhere.

One of my most distinct memories of childhood is that of a little apron I was given, so I enjoy making aprons for children, too. Girls aprons which are sweet and feminine, and gender neutral aprons for the child who wants to help cook, assist with the housework, or whose artistic temperment is apt to leave paste and paint splashes here and there.

This year's line will offer more variations in styles in women's aprons, more aprons for men, gardening aprons, and aprons designed for craft show/farmer's market/flea market vendors.

Then Came Baby Bibs

My older daughter got married a lot that year. She was, in fact, something of a seriel bride, but since she was marrying and remarrying the same fine man it provided us amusement and entertainment and not concern.

In January she married him three times...a private civil ceremony to make it legal, then a day for the immediate family which included two ceremonies - one in English, one in Tamil, and two receptions. In April a large celebration for family and friends on the groom's side in Nashville, and a few weeks later a trip to India which included - I've lost count - one or two wedding celebrations. By the time they had their big, outdoor celebration here in Vermont in August they were expecting their first child. So all of those fabric scraps I'd been saving from making dog scarves soon were earmarked to make baby bibs.

Soon they learned that they were expecting their first children! Twin boys! So the reversible bibs I was making and had tentatively called "two faced bibs" began and remains my "twin faced bibs".

I know many people are attracted to baby bibs with characters, bunnies, sports teams or funny baby sayings on them, but I'm in business to work with fabric I love so my bibs are fashioned from complimentary cotton fabrics of the highest quality and design. Bright colors, beautiful florals, French and African designs...whatever suits my fancy. My latest and most popular bib to date features an out of print farm pastoral on one side and an out of print Laura Ashley design of children playing at the beach...I call it "Summer in Vermont". Another favorite design of mine refashions vintage, monogrammed damask napkins into bibs...I love repurposing vintage linens!

The Great Dog Scarf Enterprise

As spring turned to summer that first year, the flower beds filled in and I filled about every container I had of any kind to bring posies near our doorway, I became more serious about setting out to form some kind of business crafting with fabric.

My first project was boutique dog scarves. I had done no marketing research, had no marketing plan or even a marketing notion. I just loved dogs and sewing and thought it would be a good idea.

I collected marvelous cotton fabrics...toiles, designs of Provence, florals, an out of print line of quilting fabric designed by Susan Sargent, and began making reversible dog scarves/bandanas. My own dogs, Maggie the elderly cocker spaniel and Toby the terrier were happy models. The dogs of neighbors and family provided models of different sizes. They were great, colorful and fun but I found myself hesitating whenever anyone asked me what I was up to these days to say "Oh, I'm making dog scarves".

A few problems began to emerge. The first, and most serious, was that as the scarves were cut out I realized the designs caused a lot of fabric wasteage, too much was falling "on the cutting room floor". The second, my own fault, as that as I went to adjust patterns when I determined one needed to be resized, or have longer ties for tying, is that I tended to save both the old pattern and the new without properly labeling them, so I often ended up confused as to which I should be working with. Finally I consulted with a dog groomer on sizing and found her recommending more scarves for toy sized dogs and some for giant breeds. The tiny scarves ended up being too challenging for my somewhat arthritic hands, and the scarves for giant breeds were so enormous that I knew that there was no way to sell them at the price required to make a profit. So, at a point about 12 dozen bandanas into the process, the enterprise lost its appeal.

While I often feel like I don't care if I never see another of these dog scarves again, and never marketed them to pet shops or grooming parlors, they have ended up being something of a success. Whether at farmer's markets or craft shows I always manage to sell a few. Sometimes people buy them for their dogs, sometimes as kerchiefs, to tie on packages or suitcases or gifts, even as baby bibs. But their greatest benefit to me has been as a marketing tool for the kind of fabrics I use. People love to pour through the bandanas and say "Oh, I love this fabric", "Could you make me placemats out of these fabrics", etc. etc. So the dreaded dog scarf enterprise has been a succcess, in its own way, after all.

Why the Name "After All"

I think that many of us go through periods of time that are rough, or disappointing, where it seems like something has been lost or a dream we've had hasn't come true. I had been through such a time two years ago when in the spring of 2006 I suddenly found myself moving to a new home in the country and setting up household with a man I'd first met and fallen in love with in 1969, when I was a freshman in college and he was a high school junior with braces on his teeth.

I had never actually thought of living in the country...I thought I was an urban/suburban "girl" at heart, who liked the convenience of running out to buy a quart of milk any time at all, who didn't take too well to country roads or how dark it was when the sun went down. Nor had I given any thought a life with Peter in many, many years...we had married and divorced other people, gone in different ways, though somehow our hearts and heads had remained unmistakably linked through the years. We had gotten back in touch the spring before, and it was as if the years of separation hadn't happened in many ways, except to give us much to talk about. And we found we both needed new places to live at the same time...

It was Peter's idea we find a place in the country. I was agreeable, though I said I'd prefer a place that had neighbors around, as I knew he'd be traveling frequently and I still found the idea of darkness and isolation in the country disquieting. We saw an ad and that afternoon called on it, and ended up driving out and meeting Dave and Jane Garbose and the carriage house apartment they had for rent in an old inn in Charlotte, adjacent Mount Philo and in a beautiful setting overlooking Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks. I'm not sure which we fell in love with first - Dave and Jane or the apartment. But when we left it didn't take us more than a hundred yards of discussion in the car before we knew that was the place for us.

So we came to set up our country household, bringing together our total of four black cats, a black dog, and a dog of a different color. (One black cat had a marvelous summer as a country kitty, only to grow too familiar with the main road and be killed by a car in late summer. The black dog, a cocker spaniel, lived another year to the age of fourteen, and on the first day of autumn passed away in our arms. They are both buried here in this glorious setting, and a new black kitten joined our household last year.) When the morning light came over the mountain that spring I'd take my coffee outside and watch the birds and think about the nature of nature, the nature of relationships, the nature of life.

How is it I came to live in the country after all I've said to the contrary, I thought. How is it that after all these years I came to live with Peter? The year before health issues had caused me to leave a career and a company that I loved, working as a real estate agent. These morning musings reminded me that time after time during those years people had said "Susan, you really should be doing something more creative." I began to realize that this was the time to experiment, to nourish my creative side, and slowly I began to conceptualize a handcraft business sewing with fabrics I loved to find and collect.

So, in these quiet mornings where I watched the birds, greeted an occasional neighbor on the little lane we face, and saw spring become early summer the phrase that kept going through my head was "after all". I believe that no matter what twists and turns, bumps and bruises, and surprises life delivers, eventually we come to that place we were supposed to be, though perhaps didn't know it, after all.