Saturday, September 03, 2005
Modern-day conservation... sort of
I really want to blog this, but it doesn't fit on my other blog, and my next blog, which will be devoted to this kind of thing, isn't ready yet. (One of the pitfalls of being an ex-library cataloger is the compulsion to categorize everything, including my opinions, to a fairly ridiculous extent, which is why I need a lot of blogs) But I guess I can loosely group this in with all of my recent posts on rationing, making and mending, and other conservation efforts of the past.
Earlier this week I was distressed to find out that Lands' End has discontinued their maternity line, just as I'm heading into the home stretch and cooler weather. As far as I can tell, nobody else makes any maternity jeans that don't have some kind of strange wash, or that won't require me to buy new, trendy shoes instead of the good sturdy ones I prefer--which only really look good with straight-leg jeans. But Kwik Sew, long a favorite pattern company of mine, has come to my rescue with this: Kwik & Easy™ Maternity Pattern #3324. I can now convert my old Eddie Bauer and Lands' End jeans--which I would be replacing in a few months anyway, in the regular order of things--into maternity jeans, for a few dollars' worth of knit ribbing and some elastic. I actually made a special trip to Hancock's last night to pick this up, and found that the knit ribbing was on sale too, so that's my project for today.
Until I read The History of Kwik Sew I had completely forgotten that there was a time that stretch knits were not generally available in fabric stores. My mother took a class at Stretch & Sew, a chain store that had special patterns for stretch knits, sold special Stretch & Sew fabric, and had lots and lots of classes. They were around until at least the early 80s--I tried making my own polo shirts (you could buy pre-cut polo collars there too) and using little embroidered patches where the alligator would have been on the OTHER shirts that were popular at the time. This was mostly a dismal failure, as my mother's Singer Touch & Sew has always hated me and has a tendency to pitch bobbins spontaneously whenever it sees me coming, but I did make one striped shirt that I actually wore to school a few times before I realized just how dorky I looked wearing a fake Izod I had made myself. I don't remember what the patch was; I do remember spending an inordinate amount of time looking through an awesome display of patches, trying to decide which one to buy (Mr. Vintage Reader just read that and smirked, I'm sure, as my shopping habits haven't changed much).
I've been sorry to see apparel sewing mostly going away over the last couple of decades, but I think younger women are starting to pick it up again. Kind of like knitting, which has become HUGE after nearly dying out completely in the 90s. I'm hopeful that interest in sewing will "serge" (sound of geeky guffaws) again soon as well.
[EDIT: Link to pattern fixed, 9/4/08]
Earlier this week I was distressed to find out that Lands' End has discontinued their maternity line, just as I'm heading into the home stretch and cooler weather. As far as I can tell, nobody else makes any maternity jeans that don't have some kind of strange wash, or that won't require me to buy new, trendy shoes instead of the good sturdy ones I prefer--which only really look good with straight-leg jeans. But Kwik Sew, long a favorite pattern company of mine, has come to my rescue with this: Kwik & Easy™ Maternity Pattern #3324. I can now convert my old Eddie Bauer and Lands' End jeans--which I would be replacing in a few months anyway, in the regular order of things--into maternity jeans, for a few dollars' worth of knit ribbing and some elastic. I actually made a special trip to Hancock's last night to pick this up, and found that the knit ribbing was on sale too, so that's my project for today.
Until I read The History of Kwik Sew I had completely forgotten that there was a time that stretch knits were not generally available in fabric stores. My mother took a class at Stretch & Sew, a chain store that had special patterns for stretch knits, sold special Stretch & Sew fabric, and had lots and lots of classes. They were around until at least the early 80s--I tried making my own polo shirts (you could buy pre-cut polo collars there too) and using little embroidered patches where the alligator would have been on the OTHER shirts that were popular at the time. This was mostly a dismal failure, as my mother's Singer Touch & Sew has always hated me and has a tendency to pitch bobbins spontaneously whenever it sees me coming, but I did make one striped shirt that I actually wore to school a few times before I realized just how dorky I looked wearing a fake Izod I had made myself. I don't remember what the patch was; I do remember spending an inordinate amount of time looking through an awesome display of patches, trying to decide which one to buy (Mr. Vintage Reader just read that and smirked, I'm sure, as my shopping habits haven't changed much).
I've been sorry to see apparel sewing mostly going away over the last couple of decades, but I think younger women are starting to pick it up again. Kind of like knitting, which has become HUGE after nearly dying out completely in the 90s. I'm hopeful that interest in sewing will "serge" (sound of geeky guffaws) again soon as well.
[EDIT: Link to pattern fixed, 9/4/08]
permalink posted by The Vintage Reader @ 8:23 AM 
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