BAY CITY, Mich. – From the full busia apron to those cute half-numbers worn by Mary Tyler Moore on the “Dick Van Dyke Show,” aprons are what memories are made of.

“Aprons are very nostalgic,” said Karen Scheel, a Bay City collector of vintage aprons. You can’t help but wonder, she said, “What were they doing when they wore this? What were they cooking?”

Not only are they nostalgia, but others say aprons are becoming more popular.

Could Bree VanDeKamp be leading the way? The character portrayed by Marcia Cross on the TV series “Desperate Housewives” has brought the apron from the back of the drawer to back around the waist.

“There is a resurgence right now for people doing retro,” said Pattye Kent, manager of Bay City’s Fabric Fair. “There are a lot of vintage patterns out there that have been redone. Aprons are just a fun thing to wear right now.”

A long busia apron may conjure up memories of Grandma standing in front of a stove stirring a pot, while a pressure cooker hissed and spit in the background. That apron was pretty much part of the uniform for the day.

Besides keeping food splatters off her house dress, the bottom corner was handy for wiping crumbs or fingerprints off tables, or just giving an area a quick shine. The skirt of the apron, when held from the bottom, was handy for carrying laundry, toys or anything else that needed to get from one place to another. And the pockets were great places to keep clothespins or other doodads.

“They were always dirtiest across the mid-section, where they wiped their hands,” Scheel remembers.

Most were made of cotton and were as easily washable as garments could be back in the ’50s.

“Some were made from old clothing that was lying around the house,” Scheel said. “In the early days, people saved everything. It wasn’t a throw-away society.”

Feed sacks were used as well.

“I think the history behind the apron is it was a means to an end,” Scheel said. “It was easier to put a piece of cloth around you than get your clothes dirty. They didn’t have clothing like we do. They protected them.”

Flash-forward to the ’60s and aprons became an art unto themselves – the housewife’s fashion statement.

“Aprons evolved. Busia aprons were a necessity. Those Laura wore in the late ’60s with her capri pants and little flats, it was a fashion statement,” Scheel said of Laura Petrie, the character played by Mary Tyler Moore.

Moore caused quite a fashion stir when others of her TV generation, like Donna Reed and June Cleaver, were wearing their aprons over nice dresses, complete with heels and a string of pearls. Moore’s only nod to societal norms was a little half-apron over pants.

“Laura (Petrie) always wore a cutesy apron,” Scheel said. “It showed her individuality. … Some had loud flowers, polka dots.”

Walking into a store nowadays and looking for one of those frilly aprons is an exercise in futility. Not so in the ’50s and ’60s. Five-and-dimes stocked all styles of aprons, from frilly to plain.

Patterns to make aprons were readily available as well.

In her collection, some of which is on display at her booth at the Americana Co. Antique Mall in Bay City, Scheel not only has busia aprons but a few unique aprons as well. One is made from pink and white hankies with little blue flowers.

Another, perhaps worn at Valentine’s Day or Christmas, is white cotton covered in colored polka dots. It’s the red voile trim that makes this one a hot little number. There is also a red voile pocket stitched on.

Others are embellished with tatting and cross-stitching.

“It’s almost smocking,” Scheel says. “It’s all done with embroidery floss. They matched up their aprons with their Sunday best.”

In wasn’t unusual for moms and daughters to have matching aprons, all handmade, especially around the holidays.

“Every holiday my mom had a different apron,” Scheel recalled.

Scheel’s collection of aprons came about from an interest in fabric from the 1930s and ’40s, and from special childhood memories.

“The aprons, it is something that stems from Grandma,” she said.

Scheel finds her aprons at estate or garage sales and sells some for between $5 and $20, depending on the length and condition.

These days, vintage aprons aren’t too often used for covering clothing. Some collectors frame and hang them. Scheel herself came up with a unique idea for a display at the store: A few of her aprons have been transformed into curtains, simply by tying them to a rope – no sewing involved. She also suggests using them as covers for chair backs.

But she would prefer they be worn as they were intended.