Macrame Accessories: Patterns and Ideas for Knotting
Meilach
1977
Submitter: Having seen the pictures, I am happy that I did not experience the 70s. I think that the pictures pretty much speak for themselves. But I will say that the guy in picture 5 does scare the crap out of me, I think its the hands on the hips…..
Holly: Wow. Just…wow.
I totally forgot about hot pants until this post. I gotta say I think the belt makes this look “work”.
Mary
The woman on the cover in the macrame (jumper?) doesn’t look too bad, but … gasp… is that a… a… macrame… corset?!?!?
Naaah, it’s a cummerbund.
The great thing about macrame was that EVERYTHING looked like a plant hanger!
That “guy” with a hand on “the hips” is a woman. Men didn’t wear hot pants.
Love the way the tablecloth has another 70s icon on it: the fondue pot. My parents got married in 1980, but that was just an extension of the 70s, and they have that same fondue pot in that exact color of green, that my dad still uses to make cocktail wienies.
I think macrame is kind of pretty and I wish I had experienced the 70s. I recently saw Blacula & Scream Blacula Scream – I’m totally in love with Tina’s purple shoes from when she first runs away from our vampire prince. Cannot find a screenshot of the closeup of her shoes to save my life. 🙁
Seriously, I’d totally make macrame if I had this book.
I wasn’t born in the 70s so I don’t know if everyone back then was blind or insane or what, but that was a decade of some seriously questionable fashion choices.
I lived through the seventies and I actually made a macrame plant hanger (of course, as someone has pointed out, it wouldn’t have mattered what I had intended to make, it would have ended up being a plant hanger). Ah, those were the days–no primary colors at all, just lots of tangerine, avacado, harvest gold…just watch a “Brady Bunch” rerun to get an idea of the color scheme.
Macrame can be lace-like and beautiful, but not from books like this.
I lived through the seventies and I must say it was a relief when another decade came along.
I’m a seventies survivor, so I know what it’s like to wear purple & orange, yellow & green – all in the same outfit. I rather think the phrase “shy hot-pants wearer” is a contradiction in terms.
LOL @ “macrame corset”!
So that’s what Macramé is ! I heard that word so often, not knowing what it was…
I think I would rather let my belly bulge show than try to camo it with the belt.
We’re missing the absolute staple of macrame: the macrame owl wall hanging. the house i grew up in had TWO of them.
That hot pants belt makes me think of the flag football games I played in school. I’d be tempted to rip one of the “flags” off and run away. Or ask what happened to her skirt; it seems to be missing some pieces.
I have a version of the macrame owl on my wall. Someone gave it to my husband, whoo is a teacher, for a holiday gift last year. It, seriously, looks like a macrame owl that someone untied, then tied back together to make its body wavy. It’s unique…
@Lauren Eve Pomerantz: Guy with hands on hips is a newly inserted picture as of today (1/19/11). No clue why those last three pictures didn’t save with the original draft. That’s by FAR the best picture, though! WTH is that guy WEARING??
1. Aw, the Seventies were fun. Much more fun than the uptight, glitzy Eighties.
2. Right now, ALB, please mark this book as a contender for “Best of 2011.” I know there are 11 1/2 months to go, but I doubt many pictures in the coming months will top these!
And yes, even though the Seventies were fun and we did macrame, I never saw anyone dressed like the pictures in this book.
I went back and forth between thinking “nnnnng!!” and “Hmm, that’s kind of interesting, if I changed this and tweaked that, that’d be pretty cool!”
Then I saw the last picture, and my brain made sort of a strangled sound and withered up and died.
At least macrame clothing was an equal-opportunity fashion statement. I don’t know whether to retitle this book “Macrame Mania” or “Manic Macrame”! Seems like once you make the owl hanging you just can’t stop yourself!
Hey…I wonder how Burt would look in something macrame…
i like that bodice, tho,..and macrame bikinis…mmm hhmm.
These new pictures are epic 😀 And I thought just like Angel : imagine Burt Reynolds wearing one of these… JUST one of these !
MacraMania!
I can cut 70s fashion a certain amount of slack, but I’m having a real hard time accepting that belt as “clothing”.
I’m pretty sure that I checked this book out of the library when I was a kid and made that plant hanger on the cover…
Fantasio–maybe ALB should be blocked! 😉 Where’s sunglasses dude’s Woodstock hair? It really needs to be a couple of yards longer with a headband. Must be over 30…
I had a girlfriend in the ’70s who made me a macrame plant hanger and gave me a nice plant to go with it. She was pretty good at macrame but I don’t think she ever made any macrame clothes. I certainly wouldn’t have worn anything like that. Sadly the plant hanger long outlasted the plant (and the girlfriend).
Are there any recent macrame books? The projects are horribly out of date, but I’d like to be able to go to the library and check out a book on macrame, then make something more, um, subtle.
I grew up in the ’70s and the only people I can recall wearing macrame were my teachers (usually sporting vests). I think we even had some macrame art projects. Maybe it was a cool teacher thing back then…
Re. the macrame for men… That probably wasn’t so out there considering that people in the ’70s were predicting that in the future (i.e. by now), men would be wearing dresses.
Macrame art and clothing can be beautiful. The pictures from this book do not do the craft justice.
It looks like Xena in the 70s, especially the vests that “bodice”? Good gravy …
@Brian, on men in dresses
Kilts are being worn by several young fashion/punk guys these days. My thought on this is as long as the style of the skirt fits the body type, it looks quite nice.
Wish I could show you a picture of my (now ex-) husband at a business-happening at work, with a long-tailed coat and matching ancle-lenght black skirt (sorry, “kilt”), he looks really formal and proper – and quite yummy as well.
Yeah, I’m rambling off topic, but really, men in dresses can be quite masculine and nice when it’s a men’s dress, not something frilly and dragish. honestly 🙂
Most of these clothing projects look like they would be regarded as the battle armor of the day, if they were recovered in an archaeological dig 1,000 years from now. If “Barbarella” had been made five or six years later, I think her costume designs could have been sourced from this book!
Someone on another post that referenced macrame (one of the crazy decorating books) mentioned the difficulty of deciding to weed old craft books, but was reminded that if those crafts came back “in,” there would be new books and projects, and so on. I would suggest that you look for examples of really stellar diagrams for specific stitches (especially for the beginner), because those are quite difficult to create. The great ones are few and far between and, regardless of whatever horrifying project the book might suggest using them for, their relevance is timeless.
I’m thinking in particular of “Creative Bead Weaving” by Carol Wilcox Wells. This book came out about 13 years ago and the projects may be getting a bit dated (not sure – I haven’t looked at it recently). But the stitch diagrams are so excellent (clean, clear, obvious in intent), I would hate to see it go.
I loved the trip in the way back machine. It gave me quite a chuckle. I wore it, did it and hung it. Loved the 70s!!!!
OH MY GOD, I OWN THIS BOOK!
I am not kidding. I just came across this on Craft, and I knew from the inside photos that it was my book. I clicked over and saw that most recognizable of brown covers.
I bought this from the Salvation Army when I was about 19 and was making hemp necklaces to sell at Phish shows and other places, LOL (circa 1996, maybe?). I have just recently started a major decluttering project, and I decided it was time for this book to go. I’m so happy you’ve immortalized it here :).
Jaimie
What’s wrong with me? I actually WANT this book! Maybe I *am* a shy hotpants wearer? Or maybe it’s because I’m a child of the ’70s?
I too made plant hangers in the 70’s. Took a class in community college that was taught by my 6th grade teacher Mr Lange.
I sell a lot of 70s macrame instruction books — at least one a week. I guess you had to have been there! A macrame owl is a must have along with a hanging glass top end table.
I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s…. I LOVED doing macramé! I didn’t make big things, but I learned the knots and once you learn them I don’t think you ever UN-learn them LOL… I have been thinking of taking it up again, and actually if you look around you see some of the boho necklaces are macramé, just done in finer thread. I too grew up with a plant holder and owl in the house LOL… ooo and remember “Thread Art?” now THAT was something LOL GROOVY!
Hahahaha! This is real fashion humour! ^^ Hahaha! This is way too funny, is it possible to see/download/… the entire book! I definitely want to see everything! Hahahaha!
Wow. We had a huge and hideous wall hanging that was macrame, and I know how to make the easy and ugly bracelets, but… wow. The dress on the cover, if only knee length and made from something EXTREMELY soft like silk cording, would be fun for a renaisance festival. But remembering the “good cording” used in macrame in the seventies by my grandparents and others…. I’m considering that SCARY plant hanging corset thing (last photo) and thinking of the old scratchy cord they used to make those projects and– OUCH.
I actually love the dress on the cover.
I grew up in the 70’s and I made a macrame plant hanger (everyone did) and also a belt that hung down on one side. It was really cool! It is definitely an art form that is under appreciated, especially by the younger generation.
This makes my day! Hilarious! 🙂
Hey! What’s wrong with macrame, anyway? Why has it never been resurrected? People have been making things with string for thousands of years. Well, maybe not as hysterical as these ‘garments’. I lived for macrame in the 70s – I made wall hangings, curtains, sculptures, even the odd plant hanger, and I sold them too. My house was ankle-deep in jute fibres. It’s a textile art and everyone makes fun of it. I’d be happy to have that book when it’s de-accessioned.
My mum has still got that book, I’m sure of it.
I agree the fashions are silly and way outdated. But I’m also one of those people who continue to buy old macrame books. Mostly to pick up on technique. Years ago Munro Crafts in Berkely used to have stacks of them in the back room on the bottom shelf where I would sit on the floor and take my pick. They’re probably all gone now. Today my macrame is comparatively micro.
The author of this book, Donna Meilach also wrote a much less dated book on macrame, which is easy to find in second hand stores. Macrame is best when it looks like basket weaving–it looks less like a cheap plant hanger then.
I like these picture. I would wear the dress and mini pullover. I am trying to learn how to do macramé .