Groovy, Baby!
Having trouble locating the perfect late 60’s/early 70’s garb at your local thrift store? I’ve got a book for you. The Illustrated Hassle-Free Make Your Own Clothes Book by Bordow and Rosenberg, originally published in 1972 has been reissued. Those of you with modest sewing skills or an interest in learning can use this book to give secondhand finds a vintage feel, although most of the book is devoted to from-scratch patterns for items such as caftans and ponchos.
I can tell you that those of us who were young in 1970, when the book was first published, actually did want to look like “…pirates and Native Americans…. We longed to be fairy princesses…”, as one of the authors notes in the 2008 introduction. The designs are definitely representative of what we wore then, but I can’t vouch for the patterns, because I haven’t made any of them. Although I enjoyed dressing like a fairy princess when I was a teenager, my taste in clothing has definitely changed since then. By the way, check out this shot of the original cover. Now that’s what I call groovy!