The Extraordinary Aprons of Evelina Grimes
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by Laurann Gilbertson
prons are usually utilitarian accessories, but a large number of aprons, now in the collection of Vesterheim NorwegianAmerican Museum, were made by one woman for the reasons of self expression and public entertainment. Evelina Oppegard Grimes was well known to Minnesota community groups as the creator of “apron art.” Evelina’s first apron show was at her own church and soon she began delighting audiences in the Twin Cities, central Minnesota, and western Wisconsin throughout the 1960s and 1970s. She enjoyed offering an unusual program to church, senior, and women’s groups. “We get tired of high-sounding speeches and being told what we should do,” she said. “This is pure entertainment.”1 Evelina was born in 1900 in Faribault, Minnesota, to Ingeval and Isabel Juvrud Oppegard. The family lived in rural Rice County and then near the town of Little Chicago. While attending high school in Northfield, Minnesota, Evelina lived with Edith and F. Melius Christiansen, the choir director at St. Olaf College. She helped with household chores and childcare and probably honed the sewing skills she had learned from her mother. After high school, Evelina remained in Northfield and met Gordon Grimes. They married in 1922. She sewed coats and trousers for their three sons and clothing for their daughter. She also made quilts. Daughter Shirley remembers her mother creating a “Sunbonnet Sue” quilt, repeating in embroidery the design of the print fabric dress on the bonnet.2 This creativity and attention to detail can be seen on the aprons. Evelina began creating her apron collection during the late 1950s and early 1960s. She made the last apron in 1964. Once she had the idea for an apron, Evelina would find designs in photographs or in children’s books to adapt and use. Shirley Grimes Dickey said that some of the apron designs were inspired by poems and songs, many of which her mother wrote.3 Evelina Grimes and her family lived in Minneapolis and her first apron style show was at the Oakland Brethren Church there in 1962. The style shows always followed the same format. Evelina arrived early to iron the aprons and hang them in order on a portable rack. She recruited members of the audience to model the aprons during the show. Husband Gordon worked in the back to help the models get ready. Then, wearing her grandmother’s old gray and white apron, Evelina would narrate the style show while the models walked through the audience. The narration included stories, songs, and poetry. Many of the poems and songs were Evelina’s own. She was an active member of the Minnesota League of Poets and later published two books of songs from her style shows. Evelina entertained groups with her apron shows for 13 years, until 1975, when her health began to fail. Her daughter Vol. 6, No. 1 2008
Learning to Read girl’s apron. Vesterheim 1988.034.001.31—Museum purchase.
decided not to take over the programs, so Evelina approached her friend Ione Brack Kadden. Ione purchased the aprons and offered style shows for the next 13 years. Ione’s shows were very similar to Evelina’s, except that she ironed the aprons at home before transporting them carefully to the destination. Her husband Helmut wasn’t able to assist with the shows, so she recruited several friends to help and model. Ione Kadden retired in 1988 and Vesterheim Museum acquired the aprons for the collection later that same year. Evelina Oppegard Grimes died in 1983, Ione Brack Kadden in 2001. The apron shows began with an apron titled Genesis. It was followed by several aprons depicting stories from the Bible. Holidays were next. This series concluded with New Year’s Eve, an apron questioning whether the first baby born in the New Year would be a boy or girl. The answer is given by a pink apron. Some of the most cleverly-designed aprons are part of the “Cycle of Life” series. Evelina picked an alphabet-patterned background fabric for the classroom setting of Going to School. There is Learning to Tell Time and Learning to Read, where the images of Cinderella are carried out with the finest embroidery stitches. The series includes aprons showing a visit to Como Park in St. Paul, Minnesota, and a stop at Dairy Queen. Through a series of homey images, Evelina reminisced about “Grandmother’s Farm.” Aprons celebrate Fresh Strawberries and the Country Store. In cross-stitch embroidery 25
Fresh Strawberries woman’s and girl’s aprons. Vesterheim 1988.034.001.47-48—Museum purchase.
Trillium woman’s apron. Vesterheim 1988.034.001.91—Museum purchase. Spring Surprises by Evelina Grimes I spied trilliums Blooming by deep woodsy paths. April fool! … Snow mounds. By deep woodsy paths Tiny snow mounds yet linger. Surprise! … Trilliums
Scandal in the Garden woman’s apron. Vesterheim 1988.034.001.101—Museum purchase.
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on a yellow gingham apron, Evelina posed The Eternal Question—Which came first, the chicken or the egg? There is a small series related to history and literature. One apron shows Tom Sawyer’s picket fence and another Columbus’s three ships. A Friend’s Greeting pays tribute to popular and prodigious poet Edgar Guest. The “Travelogue” aprons make up the largest of the series. There are aprons for states from Maine to Kentucky to California. While the New York—Statue of Liberty apron was modeled, Evelina read Emma Lazarus’s poem The New Colossus. The foreign country aprons were popular with audiences. They could see the crown jewels of England and visit Norway, Spain, Africa, and Paris in April without leaving their seats. Evelina cleverly borrowed the form of native dress for Scotland. Plaid fabric is pleated like a kilt and the pocket looks like a traditional sporran. In the next series, Evelina featured six different flowers, including her favorite, Trillium. Apparently not everything came up roses in this series, because one apron tells of a Scandal in the Garden: Bachelor Button is found sleeping in Brown-Eyed Susan’s bed! The style show concluded with a look back, to Leif Erickson’s discovery of America, and a look forward into the future of space travel. The very last apron in Evelina Grimes’s style show was Minnesota, featuring the state bird (loon) and flower (pink and white lady’s slipper). Although it seems that each series would make an interesting program, the style shows included all of the aprons. Regardless of the group, Ione Kadden said, “Everyone always wanted to see all of the aprons.”4 Audiences were mostly female, such as mothers and daughters, but men did often attend. “It might be hard to convince them to come to see aprons,” explained Ione, “but once there, they were as taken by the skill, imagination, and artistry as the ladies.”5 Of the 122 aprons that Evelina made for her style shows, one is for a man, 17 are for girls, and 104 are for women. Father’s Day from the “Holidays” series is, appropriately, a man’s barbecue-style apron. The girls’ aprons come from several of the series and often coordinate with women’s aprons. Evelina used several styles of aprons for the girls, from classic ruffled pinafores to simple smocks that button in the back. All of the women’s are half-aprons, also called hostess or tea aprons. Seven of the women’s aprons are made into special shapes, like Red Maple Leaf. Dark organdy makes the perfect background fabric for Glass Bottom Boat. The aprons that are made of patterned fabric, like Pittsburgh Blast Furnace, are memorable because Evelina carefully selected the fabric for the theme. But patterned fabrics are not typical of the style show aprons. Fifty-one percent of the aprons are made from only solid-color fabrics. All of the aprons are decorated with appliqué, embroidery, or applied trim. Because Evelina often used solid-color fabrics, she achieved many of her decorative effects with embroidery. Applied trim, such as bias tape, metallic cord, lace, and ribbon provided decoration to 81percent of the aprons. Rickrack appears on more than Vesterheim
Leif Erickson woman’s apron. Made at the request of Ione Brack Kadden for a Leif Erickson Day celebration on October 9, 1964, at Lyngblomsten (retirement center) in St. Paul. Vesterheim 1988.034.001.121—Museum purchase.
half of the aprons. In fact, there are 35 different colors and sizes of rickrack used for borders, outlining, and special effects. Evelina transformed the common trim into tree trunks and branches, seaweed and anemones, a serpent, and the flowers of a Hawaiian lei. Pockets, on all but one of the aprons, are often cleverly worked into the overall theme and design. For example, Eve looks like a cluster of leaves with bright red apple pockets. The pocket on Going to School is a chalk board, complete with math equation and spelling lesson in white embroidery. Looking at the Night Sky apron, you can see that Evelina hid pockets behind the Big Dipper and the moon. Coming out of the 1950s, when aprons were hugely popular, Evelina Grimes took this familiar form as her canvas and created 122 pieces of wearable fiber art. She chose the style show as the way to share them with appreciative audiences in the Midwest for more than 25 years. Iconic imagery, clever touches, and needlework skills, along with memories of apron-wearing mothers and grandmothers, further endeared them to the public. Perhaps these cleverly designed and wellsewn aprons may not qualify as fine art or folk art, but as an example of self-expression, her aprons are extraordinary.
Father’s Day man’s apron. Vesterheim 1988.034.001.10—Museum purchase.
From Caveman’s Meal to Modern Man’s Cuisine by Evelina Grimes Upon the ground the caveman flung his kill. The hungry horde, respecting jungle law, all waited till the hunter had his fill, Then grabbed at bleeding flesh and ate it raw! Some hundred generations passed; there came a man by chance upon a burning tree That lighting set on fire. He cooked his game and shared it with his friends and family. To old wood-burning stoves or instant gas The modern Ms. says, “No, I’m not a slave.” The clean electric stove her mother has is out. She’ll cook her meals by microwave. At outdoor barbecues the bill of fare may featured choicest steaks, but make mine rare!
Endnotes Judy Radloff, “Grandma Didn’t Dream of This Use for Aprons,” St. Paul Pioneer Press, nd [1964], np. 2 Shirley M. E. (Grimes) Dickey, letter to Marion J. Nelson, October 8, 1989. 3 Dickey. 4 Ione Brack Kadden, St. Paul, Minnesota, interview with the author, November 11, 2001. 5 Ione Brack Kadden, “Evelina Oppegard Grimes, Biographical Sketch,” unpublished manuscript, June 4, 1988. 1
Detail, Glass Bottom Boat woman’s apron. Vesterheim 1988.034.001.084—Museum purchase.
Vol. 6, No. 1 2008
Results of this research project where shared at the Costume Society of America regional symposium in Minneapolis in 2002. 27