14 - Sunday, March 30, 1986 - North Shore News

Quiet revolution in home sewing provides high fashion cost relie

A QUIET revolution is happening — not the grim front- page type, yet one that touches every community — it is the revolution in home sewing, that formerly painstaking homebound activity.

Long a money-saving product of the wife-at-home role, sewing suffered a body blow in the seven- ties when women returned to work en masse. The impact was in- evitable: women suddenly had less time to sew and more access to ready-made.

Fusible interfacings, already a fact, evolved into a wide range of chemically sophisticated and ver- satile products. An explosion of new publications and seminars began to replace the schools and mamia’s knee as learning sites.

By good luck, fashion's return to natural fibres in the seventies and the eighties evolution of the oversized silhouette made sewing easier.

Next to appear were dramatic advances in major sewing equip- ment. The new star was the tech- nological marvel ef the program- mable computer sewing machine.

Though unable to take over like

“GIVE ’EM HELL!’

is the washing Instruction, and “Free Replacement If They EVER Wear out” is the promise on our Tilley Shorts (the ones with the six-pack carrying capacity).

FOR ADVENTURES —

© Tilley Pants: tz secret seventh pocket is for your passport, Sizes: 30 to 52; women: 6-18.

¢ Tilley Long Shorts, Culottes, and Wrap Skirt (available soon) also have a hidden pocket.

© Tilley Hats are acknowledged to be the world’s best outdoor hats. They float, tie on, repel rain, won't shrink, last, and so on.

® Tilley Cottons: marvellous casuals which are NC-IRON, NO SHRINKING (no kidding!).

“It’s all terrific, from hate to pante!” “Dr. doe MacInnis (first scientist UNDER the North Pole}

DO see us before you need us; we're always out of something! § “We have it made in Canada!” Alex Tilley j

many women. Sewing retained its appeal, but how to find the time?

The home sewing industry saw the writing on the wall, and while a few sectors turned to hand-wring- ing, most moved fast to adapt their wares to the new reality.

Pattern companies acted to eliminate the time-lag between

Yet the move into the cookie- cutter, one-size-fits-all world of ready-to-wear with its soaring prices was less than satisfying for

tunway and pattern versions and to vastly expand their easy offer- ings, incoporated more and more fast industrial sewing methods.

ENHANCING your image through eyewear ‘involves proper selection of frame color as well as style. .

In eyewear, as in fashion, the popular concept of the seasonal color palétte is extremely valuable in maximizing your total look.

Accurate selection involves knowing what colors look best with your seasonal palette:

The Winter Pallette’s dark hair and deep skin tones are enhanced by darker frame colors such as deep blues, reds and greys. If metals are preferred, winter brunettes look their best in smoky tones and chromes, rather than golds.

The Spring Palette’s ivory- skinned blondes look super in eyewear tones in the amber, peach, caramel and brown family. Gold- toned metals are most flattering to those in the Spring Palette.

eSummer Palette blondes with rosy beige skin are flattered with eyewear shades of pale blue, toast, light rose~ and lavender. Taupe- colored metals look especially well on summer blondes.

*Autumn auburns and redheads with creamy white or freckled skins look wonderful in chocolate browns, tortoise tones, and greens. Metal frames in shades of cafe and copper are made to order for Autumn avburns. :

| PREPARE FOR

Endure

DROP IN, PHONE Barbara Tilley QR WRITE 1559 Pemberton Ave., J MON.-SAT. North Van, V7P 2S3

10-5 980-2631

/ Distinctive Fashion Fabrics

Our exciting spring/summer fabrics are now in. Visit Elle soon for a choice selection of silks, cottons, linens, bridal fabric and woollens from many countries.

Experience Elle... the fabric store without equal.

Store Hours: 9:30 - 5:30 daily, Friday 9:30 - 9:00 Sunday Noon — 5:00 p.m.

elle

644 Seymour Street — 683-7466

| Andrew i is alive and weil

..and so are all his friends.

Ten years ago children with Trukemia hid file hope. Voday 50% are cured.

mates naa e May ante ed ren He ny thane BURR Strh DD, Nair St

elves in the night, computer machines provide a wider range of functions, quicker operation and greater precision for flawless results, The operator can punch a stitch sequence into the memory, tepeat a buttonhole indefinitely, monogram and write, invert and reshape stitches, return to pre-set stitch formats, and do it all by touching a pad.

has begun. Besides, it doesn’: take many $300 outfits to justify ube higher price, as many purchasers have concluded.

Competing now for the sewer’s attention is an even more revolu- tionary machine, the serger. After decades in manufacturing, the overlock sewing machine has hit the consumer market with a bang.

A serger stitches, trims and finishes seams and edges at super-high speeds, saving hours of stitching and trimming time and — very important today — creating a clean ‘‘ready-made”’ interior look.

See Glue Page 15

AFFORDABLE FASHION

Such marvels come at a price — up to $2,000 — but the trickle- down process by which similar ca- pabilities appear in cheaper models

Contestant Entry Form

Address:

Phone 4: HM- WK.

Yam interested in: (Check one) ___Acting Medelling Contest deadline April 30/86. Draw held May Jst/86. Prize courses non- transferrable and have no cash value.

1785 Bellevue, W.Van., V7V 1Ag. 926-5394