# Work apron, patched

> Twenty-three patches, in nine different blues, sewn on over thirty years.

https://vitrine.themes.dev/collection/apron/

- Made by: Sewn by Ada Merrin
- Date: 1930s to 1960s
- Material: Cotton drill
- Size: 92 cm long
- Cost new: One and eleven
- Came from: Dorothy Merrin’s house, 2009
- On view: Made to Mend, folded at the end of the case

An apron for the packing room, where knives were wrapped in oiled paper. Each time it wore through, Ada sewed a patch on from whatever blue cloth was in the house: an old shirt, a pair of trousers, a curtain.

By the end there was more patch than apron. Imran counted twenty-three patches and nine different blues, and we are fairly sure one of them is a pillowcase.