BY DESIGN : Home-Sewn : Drapes. Slipcovers. Duvets. These are not your mother’s home-ec projects.

Lee Herzlich’s Miracle Mile apartment is a mini-museum of industry. Her friends like to give tours to show off her talent for decorat ing and sewing, which flows from the living-room drapes to the curtain that disguises the “gross” sink in her bathroom.

She rescued the huge lounge chair in her bedroom, a 1920s castoff with “wonderful wood arms and round wood ball feet,” from her neighbor’s trash and reupholstered it in a striped off-white damask. Oh, she also made a duvet cover, the six pillows on the bed, the box-pleated dust ruffle and, from scratch, a boudoir chair that’s “gathered like a little bubble with bullion fringe on it.” And that’s just the bedroom.

“I’m sure I was some kind of master upholsterer in another life, because there’s no rhyme or reason as to why I know how to do this,” says Herzlich, 43, a paralegal and former interior designer who seems to have sewn or upholstered every square inch of her apartment with the aid of her Riccar sewing machine, picked up at a garage sale.

Herzlich likes to get her creative juices going by sewing for her home, and she likes the money she saves by doing so. More than 9 million people have started sewing since 1989, bringing the number of serious sewing hobbyists to more than 30 million, reports the American Home Sewing & Craft Assn. And these sewers aren’t creating wrap-around skirts, the traditional first sewing project in home economics.

They are outlining their windows in casual swags, then covering the rest of the house with pillows, chair pads, quilted wall hangings, duvet covers--even slipcovering chairs and sofas--and doing their part for the $3.5 billion a year spent on sewing, according to the 1992 Census of Retail Trade.

The easier a project is, the better it sells to a group of women, now well into their 30s, who represent the last of the home-ec generation. Home-ec classes, now a rarity but still offered in the Los Angeles Unified School District, began to vanish in 1982 after the state Legislature stiffened graduation requirements, thereby curbing electives.

Indeed, the absence of sewing skills among young adults is reflected in one of the biggest movements in using fabric for the home--the creation of drapes without sewing at all. Fabric is draped over decorative rods, and iron-on seam binding is used on the edges.

The trend toward sewing for the home began about 10 years ago, said Emily Cohen, manager of education and promotion with New York-based McCall’s Pattern Co., but it has grown particularly strong in the last five or six years, aided by advances in sewing machine technology (see related story on this page), the wide availability of affordable upholstery fabrics and the rediscovery of sewing as a relaxing hobby.

“Remember cocooning? The more time people spent in their homes, the nicer they wanted them to look,” Cohen said. “When the bottom fell out of the housing market in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, there was yet another reason for them to fix up their house as they stayed put. And add to that telecommuting.

“As people started investigating the cost of hiring a professional [decorator], they were shocked by the prices. They started looking for patterns, and sales started to shoot up,” added Cohen.

In response to the demand, McCall’s has just released a new line of patterns called Home Dec In-A-Sec, which emphasizes easy valances and cafe-style curtains that are showcased with decorator hardware by the Dritz notion company, and now sold at fabric stores.

Home decorating patterns, which typically retail for about $10, are also one of Vogue’s fastest-growing categories, and the company’s top sellers include window treatments and packages for living rooms and bedrooms. Vogue has a history of fashion alliances with designers, and early next year the company will introduce patterns by Mario Buatta, also known as the Prince of Chintz, said Joan Watkins, vice president of New York-based Vogue Products. McCall’s also is planning to take some of its home-decorating patterns in a couture direction--more complicated and luxurious-looking--starting with a line of window treatments.

Abbie Small, vice president of home decorating and crafts at Simplicity Pattern Co., also based in New York, agrees that all types of window treatments are popular, especially swag valances, as well as kitchen decorating and easy slipcovers.

“We have a group of young mothers, 20 to 35, who are setting up a first household using hand-me-down furniture. We also have the experienced sewer who wants to spruce up the house. The two groups are doing it for two different reasons. But it’s also for the value of it and the ability to make a statement,” Small said.

Originality plays a part in Karen Utke’s sewing. “By degree, I’m an interior designer, so I like something really unique. I wanted to have what I was visualizing and couldn’t find in the stores. I do everything from clothing to slipcovers to curtains,” said Utke, 35, an architectural illustrator in Sierra Madre who learned to sew in fourth grade from her sister.

She covered her couch with four fabrics--three solids for the frame, and a wild “Technicolor” print for the pillows--figuring she could always change the cushions.

Those without design degrees or advanced sewing skills are seeking out advice from their local fabric store, then plunging ahead. If you can sew a straight line, chances are, you can sew for the home.

A lot of young people walk into the Pasadena outlet of Calico Corners, a chain with eight stores in Southern California, with the Crate & Barrel catalogue or a picture from a magazine in hopes of copying a window treatment, said saleswoman Chris Robertson.

About four or five people a day come into Michael Levine Inc., a fabric store in Downtown Los Angeles, to select slipcover fabrics. “A lot of people will redo a couch because they like the shape, the feel,” said Surena Fisch, the store’s general manager and buyer. “Home decorating for the average person is scary. It’s not so scary to choose a new fabric as it is to choose a whole new set of furniture.”

Inspiration often strikes Herzlich while she is watching a movie, especially one with Gothic sets. She turns to Diamond Foam & Fabric in Los Angeles for its “fantastic selection and prices that are cheaper than wholesale.” She also flips through the pages of such magazines as Elle Decor and Metropolitan Home.

Women, who make up 75% of all sewers, according to the American Home Sewing & Craft Assn., are turning to an increasing selection of niche magazines and books for ideas. Woman’s Day will publish 39 special issues this year, and at least a dozen will feature articles on projects to make for the home.

“Every cover we produce has the word quick or easy on it, because that’s what people want to do. Instant gratification seems to be a byword of our lives. People want to create perfectly handsome projects in just a weekend,” said Carolyn M. Gatto, Editor in Chief of Woman’s Day special interest publications, who puts out two magazines a year on window treatments alone. Magazines that include sewing projects have increased by 50% at Woman’s Day in the last two years.

To buy fabric these days, sewers don’t even have to venture into a fabric store. Ikea and Pier 1 Imports carry upholstery-quality fabrics, and yardage is sold through catalogues, including Pottery Barn, where prices run from $18 to $25 a yard.

Because customers asked for fabrics to go with the bed pillows or furniture pads sold at Pier 1, the store introduced more than a year ago upholstery fabric that sells for $15 to $20 a yard, and it has been very popular, said a company spokeswoman. At Ikea, a new window treatment area is being set up to show ways to easily use the fabric.

“We know a lot of people don’t have the time to sew in a major way. We try to take away the obstacles if someone is not a sewer. Mostly young moms are coming in. They want their home to be original, not just an off-the-rack kind of thing,” said Pam Diaconis, an Ikea spokeswoman. The store carries fabrics from lace sheers to 18th-Century authentic reproductions and ethnic patterns that go for $3 to $15 a yard.

The fast pace of the modern world is sending people to the fabric store, then home to create something with their own hands. It’s therapeutic and rewarding, they say, and can even be a social event when done in a class or group.

At Piecemakers Country Store in Costa Mesa, quilt-making is “steadily growing,” said Joanna Nelson, who helps coordinate the 225 classes offered. “People kind of feel a need to get back to the basics and find contentment in simpler things.”

Silk embroidery, often used to make pictures and pillows, is also big at Piecemakers. “We’re teaching 40 students a week, which is an incredibly high number,” Nelson said. Piecemakers published a book on silk-ribbon embroidery in July and has just come out with a video on the subject.

A new clinical study commissioned by the American Home Sewing & Craft Assn. brings to the fore something sewers have known for years--sewing is relaxing. Just ask the women who gather at Sew Fun in Torrance for a monthly sewing fest that stretches from 5 p.m. till 2 a.m. They arrive with a casserole dish in one hand and a sewing project in the other--and relish the chance to converse in complete sentences and get uninterrupted sewing done.

Coni Dowskin, Sew Fun’s owner, calls it “the psych ward.”

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Threads of Knowledge A sampling of periodicals that focus on sewing projects for the home:

* Sew News, (800) 289-6397; includes tidbits on where to shop for hard-to-find items, sewing Q & A, instructional techniques and patterns for home sewing.

* Sewing Decor, (800) 926-9868; decorating Q & A, techniques, trends.

* Martha Pullen’s Sew Beautiful, (800) 547-4176; regular features include heirloom sewing for the home.

* Threads, (800) 888-8286; design and techniques.

The Most Wanted List

An Indian fabric with elephants and palm trees in oranges and rusts has been wildly popular, at a whopping $50 a yard, at Diamond Foam & Fabric in Los Angeles. “I really think a lot of stuff is influenced by the movies,” said owner Jason Asch, who traces the popularity of the fabric partly to the recent movie “A Little Princess,” which had colorful Indian fairy-tale sequences.

Except for the over-the-top popularity of simple window treatments and accent pillows, popular projects and fabrics vary from store to store. There seems to be a move toward the tailored look with an increase in the use of decorative trim, but shabby chic (sloppy slipcovers) is still going strong. The ruffled look, in pillow trims and valances, is definitely out, along with chintz.

Here’s what else people are making, and what they are making it from, based on a sampling of local stores, sewing teachers and national pattern companies:

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PROJECTS

No-sew swag drapes

Pillows with decorative cord trim

Shabby-chic slipcovers

Tailored slipcovers with bows

Table toppers that go over tablecloths

Duvets

Chair cushions

Quilts, especially seasonal quilts

Silk ribbon embroidery pillows and wall hangings

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FABRICS AND TRIMS

Woven damask

Naturals, with texture

Florals

Sheers for windows

Ethnic prints

Denim, printed and patterned

Decorative iron and brass window hardware

Bullion fringe and other decorative cord

Trims, tassels, tiebacks on curtains, pillows, couches

Buttons on slipcovers and window treatments

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COLORS ON THE WAY IN

Reds

Browns

Sage green

Yellow as a ground color with more red

Rust

Sewers’ Circles

A sampling of the frequent haunts of home-sewing shoppers:

* J.P. Discount Fabrics & Draperies, 331 N. San Fernando Blvd., Burbank; (818) 845-0862.

* National Fabrics & Foam, 1368 N. Lake Ave., Pasadena; (818) 798-7337.

* Calico Corners, in Studio City, Torrance, Northridge, Pasadena, Huntington Beach, Orange, Laguna Niguel, San Diego; (800) 633-7474.

* Diamond Foam & Fabric, 611 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles; (213) 931-3626.

* F & S Fabrics, 10629 W. Pico Blvd., West Los Angeles; (310) 475-1637.

* Bart’s Interiors, 359 S. Robertson Blvd., Beverly Hills; (310) 289-0213.

* Michael Levine Inc., 920 S. Maple Ave., Los Angeles; (213) 622-6259.

* Oriental Silk Import & Export Co., 8377 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 651-2323.

* IKEA, citywide

* The Pottery Barn, citywide

* Pier 1, citywide