Back in the 60s, my mom and I would head into the Loop on Saturdays to take classes on how to use my new Kenmore sewing machine at Sears Roebuck.  Sears took up the entire block between State and Van Buren (now Robert Morris University), its windows were dressed with such fashionable mannequins.

Some Saturdays we occasionally watched a parade come down State.  It made it impossible for my father to easily pick us up and we had to walk to a designated corner.

Later in the Summer my parents enrolled me in Sewing classes held at Davis Square Park.  The Clubhouse had a stage area on the 2nd floor and a Sewing room with machines and tables to cut fabric.  I was the youngest student in the class.

One day two older girls pulled me from my workstation eager to show me something.  It was another room with a window overlooking the outside pool.  A large mahagony desk with a leather chair was positioned in front of the window.  I didn't think much of it until one of the girls opened the drawer and pulled out a small 4x5 book of nude women posed in a number of suggestive positions.  We were quickly caught by the sewing instructor who made it clear that that particularly room was off limits.

I made a polka-dotted sundress (pink, blue, and yellow dots) on a white background.  When the class ended, Davis Square Park held a fashion show where I modeled my sundress.  My mom kept the clipping of the write-up from the Back of Yards neighborhood paper.

The Red Dress

My paper doll is dressed in a red layered dress designed by Roberto Capucci.  It's Valentine's Day and she attends a party hosted at a Garden, not in Chicago of course, the weather is simply too cold, and snowy, and icy.