Infinity More Monkeys

Yesterday I drank my morning coffee (elixir of the gods) while watching the flickr slideshow from Tie One On's rick-rack apron challenge. If you haven't seen this yet, I can highly recommend sitting down (with a cuppa joe, ideally), and watching the slideshow. Aside from being impressed by the range of interpretations and utter creativity, the gallery made me think:

1. I love when people show themselves wearing their aprons -- their whole selves, so that you can see their faces and even little glimpses of their homes. It's not that I don't understand people's privacy concerns, but it's disconcerting nonetheless to see all of the headless torsos. Also, it's interesting to me (but maybe there is no connection?) that people are willing to show their children, faces and all -- but maybe the people taking pictures of their children are the same ones who are willing to show themselves...
2. Given that some aprons, too, are shown without a human in sight, it's hard to know for sure, but I wonder about the seeming lack of cultural diversity in this group -- surely there are more crafty blogging types out there without white skin? I just notice how homogeneous the community seems to be and I wonder about that.
3. In as much as the "studio" like shots are gorgeous, I do like the pictures where you see, again, the real person wearing the apron in her real home -- maybe a little messy, maybe lots of other stuff going on -- just a great little slice of life.

I considered making an apron for this theme but not doing so was the right decision (laugh at me, please, those of you who've been reading for any length of time and know how many projects I'm juggling at once as is). But then the next theme, pockets, has me seriously considering. Which takes me to more of yesterday's activities and the image, above.

I spent some time working on cleaning out a closet. Very slow, depressing work -- we just have too much stuff, and no amount of spiffy organizers or rearranging will solve it. We need to get rid of some critical mass of stuff before effective cleaning can be done. Anyway. I've inherited/accumulated a really large collection of old linens. I've been known both in my own family and by my husband's family as someone who appreciates/keeps/uses old linens, so those drawers full of stuff that no one uses but no one can bear to throw or give away all come to me, along with the things I've purchased over the years. Oh, I've got drawers in the house where I keep the linens I use regularly, and there are some in the upstairs linen closet, but this closet of yesterday (my bedroom "clothes" closet) features a large laundry basket heaped full of MORE. So much handmade lace, like the sample above, so many hand towels and napkins and things that I don't even know WHAT they are, but they carry some little bit of embroidery or lace or other handiwork of the women who have come before me. I'm trying to think realistically what to do with some of this stuff, other than leaving it heaped in a basket in a closet. So ONE of the things is a vintage tablecloth -- 50s, most likely -- really too stained to use, not with any handmade-ness to it, and I'm thinking about cutting it up for an apron featuring some kind of magnificent pocket. Again, even though it is not handmade, I'm a little hesitant to cut something up, but this could be just the ticket.

Speaking of cutting things up to make something else, one of the aprons in the rick-rack gallery was made partially from an old pair of jeans. It inspired me to pull the pair of jeans I put in the give-away pile yesterday (maybe this is not a good thing). Stuff made out of old jeans has so much potential to go wrong, but this apron was a lovely example of seeing it done right and made me think I was too hasty in giving up the old pair. Well, I'll give myself a deadline and if I don't do something with the jeans they'll go back to the give-away pile. I have this image in my head of a beach-worthy bucket tote, made from two legs of jeans cut and sewn together....