Week 29: Fashion

In the 70’s I did a lot of sewing to keep my family fashionable! Bell-bottoms, crochet vests and hats, leisure suits for men and hip-huggers for women. Stretch and Sew was a popular method of making garments from stretchy polyester material. I took a couple of classes and managed to keep my family of five in the latest styles.

Plaid was a big thing in the 70’s and it didn’t seem to matter if we wore two plaids at the same time. Once the girls hit high school they were not too happy to wear homemade clothes and the polyester craze went out of fashion, especially living in California where polyester was really uncomfortable.

I wish I had a picture of two of my favorite crazy clothing items I made. One was a robe made out of 3 bath towels. Two were sewn together the long way and the third was folded in half with a hole cut in the middle for the head. Then it was attached to the tube made by the other two towels. It made a full length, long sleeve robe. The other was a 3 armhole wrap-around dressing gown.

Daughter Renee still has many of the patterns we used…maybe we should start a retro sewing project and create a new wardrobe!