If you`re old enough to have taken home economics in junior high school and made petits fours and lace curtains, and then saw home sewing fade with tie-dyed shirts and macrame, you may think that your old black Singer sewing machine is stored away forever. Don`t be so sure.
During the `70s and most of the `80s, interest in sewing home furnishings and apparel waned as women headed into the work force and as schools cut sewing classes for economic and feminist reasons.
But the cocooning craze of the last few years-which fueled everything from video movie rentals to exotic microwave popcorn flavors-is spurring a return to sewing for the home, known in the trade as ”home dec.”
Sales of sewing-related items are rebounding, up to $4 billion a year, much to the amazement of people who thought the needle and thread would go the way of the nickel candy bar. One-third of those sales come from consumers who make their purchases strictly for the home instead of the wardrobe and represent the fastest-growing segment of the market.
They buy new machines, patterns, fabrics and and attend classes, all of which help nimble or klutzy fingers craft home furnishings, from baby-boomlet bumper pads to sophisticated swags.
Not surprisingly, the still-sluggish economy is providing a boost. More homeowners resist paying hourly designer fees, costly fabrics and trims and pricey workroom charges.
”I`ve been sewing for my home since I got my apartment 17 years ago,”
says Carri Lannon, who works in the promotions department of the Hotel Inter- Continental Chicago. ”I`ve made all the curtains-pleated and valances, tons of pillows, and I`ve reupholstered chairs from the Salvation Army for $10.”
Although Lannon sews to cut costs, she also sews to save time and get the look she wants.
”I find I`m able to be more creative by selecting the patterns, choosing the fabric and trims,” said Lannon, 38, who has taken dozens of classes to gether ideas. ”In the new patterns there are a host of items in one package . . . the possibilities are endless.
Indeed. Today, home sewing has a status that it didn`t have the first time around. In the way that homeowners discovered that stenciling their own walls and baking their own bread can be more personal and artsy than hiring a professional, so can making their own furnishings. Less money and time expended also mean that designs can be changed frequently, sometimes seasonally.
Nancy Erickson, marketing and fashion director for the area`s Vogue Fabrics stores, has become almost evangelical about the rewards since using her new-found sewing talents to redecorate her Chicago condominium:
”It was a way to transform some second-hand furniture and give my rooms a personalized look. I also didn`t have to wait months to get the work done.” Among her prized creations are a slipcovered chair and sofa, table skirt, lots of pillows and fabric-covered bedroom and bathroom walls.
Erickson is spreading the gospel in classes that are quickly filled by the new breed of sewing enthusiast: 25-to-45-year-old, college-educated women with yearly household incomes of at least $35,000, a profile compiled by the Sewing Fashion Council in New York, an industry trade group.
”They love the classes,” Erickson says, ”whether it`s making something complicated or simple. It`s become chic to make your own furnishings, sort of a badge of honor these days.”
Maryjo Harmon, 22, a supervisor for Midtown Bank, has sewn clothing since her father bought her a machine when she was in 8th grade. She recently took her first home dec class, went home and that night sewed valances for her living room and bedroom.
But forces besides uniqueness and thrift are propelling this wave of home sewing. Many pattern companies have added cachet and converts by calling on interior decorators to lend their names and ideas, as some decorators have done for sheet, towel and furniture manufacturers.
Bebe Winkler, a New York interior designer, has created several collections for Butterick`s ”Very Easy Vogue Patterns for Living.”
Known for her lavish interiors that appear frequently in Architectural Digest magazine, Winkler would seem an odd choice to advise others on threading a bobbin. She was, in fact, a bit surprised on being tapped, but the company convinced her that the curtain styles, fringed pillows, table shawls and oversized napkins she favors for her clients could be translated into patterns for the masses. They were, and Butterick and Winkler were delighted.
”I loved the idea of having my designs exposed to a wider audience and saying `Hello` to the world,” she says.
Butterick`s chief competitor, Simplicity Patterns, has joined the fray. Just last month, the company joined forces with Better Homes and Gardens magazine to produce a new home design collection, ranging from traditional to contemporary.
”This new line of patterns will provide seamstresses with up-to-date and easy-to-achieve home dec designs,” said Abbie Small, a vice president. ”Even the most modest room will take on a unique sense of style. One window treatment package, for example, focuses on toppers, a selection of 12 different shades, valences and blinds to fit any size window.”
Some patterns can be completed in a few hours, and the companies seem bent on a race to beat the clock and one another. Simplicity has curtain designs that can be completed in less than two hours. McCall`s has a ”Home Dec in a Sec” collection with projects that take from 90 minutes to four hours.
Some designs require no sewing but use iron-on tapes, fusible materials, glue and staple guns to hold together fabrics and trims. Vogue offers several patterns that require just a wrap and a tie.
A majority of all three companies` patterns focus on window treatments. Traditionally, curtains with rows of pleating and layers of folds have been expensive to have made professionally. But as styles have grown simpler and have given way to loose swags and puddles of material, homeowners have realized that they could produce the results themselves, with a little guidance.
”I took some chiffon and wrapped it loosely over a rod, and instead of finishing ends off on a machine, I glued on trim,” says Caryl Svendsen-Deiches of the Sewing Fashion Council. ”The result looked very Pompeii-ish.”
Technology has also wooed back thousands of women who only remember the frustrations (to say nothing of the ugliness) of that first project.
Walk into the Vogue Fabrics store in Evanston and there`s a new generation of computerized sewing machines that do almost everything but cut fabric. They speed the process, make complex designs easier to tackle and produce professional-looking results.
Singer Sewing Co.`s Quantum CXL-known as the Cadillac of the business-has 300 programmed stitches in its repertoire. It electronically threads a needle, sews different buttonholes and stitches monograms in script or block print. At $2,500, the price may provoke some sticker shock, as well.
Even more revolutionary are the accessories known as sergers, or overlock machines, which became available for home use after years of being limited to factories. With the speed of light they perform 1,500 stitches a minute, twice the number of a conventional machine. More important, they produce perfectly finished seams with overcast edges. They also trim excess material. They, too, are not inexpensive ($500 to $700), but a more basic sewing machine can still be had for $200 to $500.
Add to that how-to videos, easy-care 90-inch-wide fabrics that require fewer seams and handsome tassels and other flourishes and you can see why for some people a fabric store has become as seductive as a bakery.
