Book Review Week: Born-Again Vintage

Born-Again Vintage is another book I'm not really the audience for. I figured this out along about page 10, where the author refers to a "frumpy fifties housedress." (I clutched my pearls and said "Well, I never!" Then I shook out my skirts.)

If I wanted to eviscerate some perfectly good (or not-so-good: think qiana shirts from the 70s) vintage and clap together the pieces into new, wearable garments, that would be one thing (and occasionally a fun thing, too) but here's a list of things I do not consider wearable:

• jeans cut off at the knee with sweater sleeves sewn on them, "to create the look of a leg warmer while eliminating the struggle of "boot-horning" your cuffs"


• (while we're on the subject of leg warmers) leg warmers made from sweater sleeves, in general


• leg warmers AT ALL


• a corset made from a sweater


• short-shorts (made from anything)


• arm warmers

If these sound like garments that have pride of place in your closet (and you have a lot of sweaters to cut up) then maybe this book is for you. I'm afraid that I spent my time flipping through this book wanting the "before" garments a LOT more than the "afters". And when the author wrote (on page 65) "Cutting any fabulous vintage dress is a risk, but the end result here shows that it is worth the gamble," I'm afraid I said "No it's not!" out loud. (Sorry about that, guy in the coffee shop next to me.)

If you DO want to cut up perfectly good vintage dresses and sew them to t-shirts, this book offers more than enough information to get you started. (And if that's what makes you happy, fine. Go, have fun!)

[P.S. the pocket haiku from yesterday are FANTASTIC! I'll post the winners (and some runners-up) next Monday.]

Comments

[Alison]

That's so disappointing! The picture on the cover is so cute that I was expecting better things.

[Nicole]

The book sounded intriguing and I was thinking about buying it, but now I'm SOOO glad I held off. Those "fashions" sound like things you'd see on the Go Fug Yourself website. The legwarmers/jeans combination? Words fail me.

[Lydia]

Great. Like we don't already have a hard enough time finding wearable vintage these days. Now there's a new group of people cutting the stuff up. *ugh*

[Julie The Vintage Goddess]

Jeans with leg warmers are so, so wrong in the first place, let alone with sweater sleeves sewn on in the place of said leg warmers.

[MarieGrace]

Eek! Thanks for the warning. Not at all what I expected.

[Little Hunting Creek]

CUT UP a vintage dress! And make some of these horrors? Where are my smelling salts? I must lie down for spell...

[Myra]

No kidding. I cannot stand refashions that mutilate something pretty, it should enhance the original or be equally nice and serviceable. I just don't get armwarmers and being a teen from the 80's, legwarmers, unless you danced Flashdance-style. I had a pair and never wore them, could never get them to look right.

[Emily]

Leg warmers are useful, in their place. Which is mostly on dancers and cyclists training for racing. Same for arm warmers, tho they're useful to a wider range of people, like anyone who types in a chilly house.It really does sound like you can sum up the book with corset... from a knit. Corsets should *fit* which means stretchy is bad.

[wundermary]

Actually, I hate this sort of thing. I hate any book or article that encourages the destruction of vintage items as a cheap and ready source for material. Yes, there are cases of an item being so damaged that it is simply ready for the garbage and might as well become the subject of a cut-up / overhaul / whatever. But, what happens many times is very good stuff that managed to have integrity for 30-50 years winds up as a trendy discard.I had the same type of aloud reaction as you when, in the fall, a popular crafty magazine ran a project making pipe cleaner legged spiders from black spray painted jello molds circa 1930s. They had you poking holes in the mold to insert the pipe cleaners. Ugh! No, the molds aren't terribly valuable. But, as a jello mold collector, I instantly imagined myself five years from now continually encountering the classic single serving jello molds with holes in them at yard sales.Thinking about this book gives me the same sinking feeling.

[Marge, Born Too Late Vintage]

Just goes to show that you are a classic vintage lover, rather than a grunge vintage lover. I err on the side of classic as well.

[winifred]

You know, it's quite sad to see DIY, clothing repurposing painted in such a frivolous and disrespectful light in this book, because I think (and a quick jaunt through Etsy backs me up) that there are some very reverent, talented artists and designers out there who do amazing things with recycled clothing--and without being complete jerks about the source material.

[Otherwise known as Jen]

Oh my! The book seems almost sacrilegious! The whole time I was reading your review, my mouth was opened in shock and, at the same time, the corners downturned in horror.

[sewducky]

The author should be ashamed of herself.

[lucitebox]

If you do want to cut up perfectly good vintage dresses and sew them into t-shirts, don't cross the street in front of me. I will run you over with my bike.

[vespabelle]

I used to think arm warmers were silly until I started to ride my bike to work! A pair of arm warmers keeps my poor wrists warm while I ride!

[Lauren]

I have nothing against people re-purposing vintage that is damaged or just not wearable as-is, or is of a type that is readily plentiful and not historically important (ie not very old or not a major designer label, etc.). However, I have a major beef against people who take perfectly serviceable vintage that is already desirable for the condition/style its in and alter it in such a way that once the person doing the DIY work is through and no longer wants the garment, no one else wants or has a purpose for the garment either.Don't ruin a great dress just on a whim, and don't sew hacked off sweater sleeves on short-shorts.

[julia m]

I altered and hemmed a vintage skirt to fit me (which required, yes, some cutting). Um, I had no idea this made me a legitimate traffic accident victim. Can I keep wearing my skirt in safety? Do I have to promise never to commit such sacrilege again, to give the true lovers of vintage a chance?

[Trevira]

This is obviously a generational thing, and I'm too old to sign up to this. Plus I'm super defensive about garments that have survived intact for decades. My instinct is to preserve them, not chop them up. julia m makes a great point - its important to remember that people have always altered/adapted secondhand garments to fit or suit. And we can't be too judgmental about that. But the dress historian in me, contemplating mint surviving garments butchered, is screaming too!

[belphebe]

julia m, I do not think this makes you a "traffic accident victim". You modified a skirt to fit you so that you could get lots of wear out of it. You did not turn a perfectly good vintage skirt into a tote bag or a trendy garment that would be discarded when it is no longer fashionable (or so I assume).When you get tired of that skirt, you can sell or give it to someone else your size or smaller and they will be able to enjoy the skirt as well.

[Joni]

I was at the library this very day and picked up that book... the sweater-sleeves-sewn-to-jeans combo made me shudder with horror and drop it back on the shelf. Perhaps I should have re-shelved it with the spine facing in so that no one else will be fooled into thinking that pants/legwarmers are hip! (What's next? Skants?!)Julia, I like to think that making your vintage skirt wearable is a fulfillment of its original destiny, which is to be worn and not stored in a box until it gets all moth-holey. Even if it requires some cutting. I think that vintage items are 'happiest' when they are being *used* (books are to be read, aprons are to be mussed, etc.) but I might actually be crazy.

[Anonymous]

People who make minis out of wonderful 50s dresses are clueless. esp. when they are doing it to things to sell. People who wear 50s dresses everyday, and who will pay good money for them, don't want a mini-dress.

[Becky]

I did what Joni did but at a bookstore. I stood there in complete disbelief! I turned to the craft book shopping stranger beside me and we both agreed it was hideous.

[lucitebox]

Julia M--of course I won't hit you with my bike because you altered your skirt to fit you. I was kidding. I'm a non-violent person.I'm not nuts. I wouldn't dream of hitting someone on my bike. I lived during the 80s, too, when cutting off your 50s dress was the Pretty In Pink thing to do. Damn that movie and the travesties I committed because of it. Recently, I had a slim 50s pencil skirt altered. I asked the seamstress not to cut before hemming, just to press and hem. She also added two darts to the waist. It looks great and it could even be put back to its original form if need be. I want to add that it would be difficult for me to know what type of garment is legitimate for re-purposing and which isn't. How old is 'not that old' and how do we know what's not important enough? (I love slinky 70s disco shirts (even Quiana) even though I don't wear them.) Since my own criteria is the only criteria I'd want EVERYONE to use, then I have to say that it's not the sort of thing I'm willing to advocate since no one in their right mind would obey my rules. (I'll bet we each have our own limits and criteria and I'm guessing they're going to differ vastly.) Sorry, crafters, would-be fashion designers, and knitters. Without looking at the book, I cannot say this with certainty, but I am willing to guess that I wouldn't wholly support these endeavors. I'm afraid I would find that the majority of this type of clothing qualifies as craftulence.

[soursugar]

This review made me laugh. I had this book out from the library as soon as it was available and quickly discovered that it definitely wasn't for me. I also would rather have some of the before clothes, especially the pretty dresses.

[Anonymous]

Basically I don't have a problem with repurposing if it means reusing instead of the item going in a landfill. I do have a problem with repurposing if it means you are using sweater sleeves as leg warmers. Because, honestly, no one will be able to pull that off and have people believe it a)is cute or b)actually looks like leg warmers and not cut-off sleeves.JenL