Word: sew
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...stereotype of the dowdy, pennywise seamstress, today's home sewer is youthful and fashion-hungry. The average age of the Ms. who makes her own clothes has dropped in the past few years from 47 to 23. Surveys show that 85% of all teen-age girls now sew. Many of them, like Sharon Sikora of Oak Lawn, Ill., do so for the obvious reason: "I want clothes that are different." Home economics classes, long known for their "horrible aprons and dumb blouses" (as one graduate put it), now feature smarter getups, from pantsuits to prom gowns. One Park Forest...
Economy is still a big reason why women sew. But an increasing number of home seamstresses-over half of whom have incomes of $10,000 and up -find other advantages as well. Bib Neiman, 30, whose father owns women's clothing stores in Illinois and Kentucky, used to get all her clothes free, "but they never really fit me." Now she sews for herself and her husband and is even learning to weave her own fabrics and spin her own yarn. "I think we need to return to a more primitive way of doing things," she says. "When...
Linda Hackett, wife of a New York oil executive, taught herself to sew several years ago when she couldn't find pants for her long-legged, size-8 frame. Soon she began designing her own slacks-and got more than a good fit for her efforts. One day at the beach, a Saks Fifth Avenue buyer spotted Linda in a pair of sleek white slacks and signed her up to design a line of sports clothes for the store...
...Bolt. Sewing machines now do practically everything but press the finished garment. Dial a knob or change a foot and your machine can sew on buttons or make flawless buttonholes. Machines can also darn socks, embroider blouses and monogram pockets as well as baste, hem and stitch once "impossible" materials like leather and stretchable knits. In addition to all this, Singer's expensive Touch & Sew model ($439.95) has solid-state speed control enabling it to breeze through varying thicknesses of fabric without being reset. Today, however, many inexpensive machines (about $60) offer zigzag, hemming and stretch stitches plus...
...Home sewing used to be the dumping ground for the fabric industry," says Carol Bird, president of Off the Bolt, a chain of fabric shops in Los Angeles. "Now all that has changed. If a woman sees a dress she likes in a store, she can come into a fabric shop, ask for the identical fabric and get it." Five years ago, there were 2,300 fabric stores in the U.S.; today there are 12,000. Most popular sellers have been double knits, which are strong and stretchable, and bonded fabrics, which have a backing sealed to the cloth, making...