On bitchy reviews and out-of-the-norm clothes

I was reading the comments (despite my cast iron resolution not to read the comments on things on the internet because of the likelihood of a red mist of rage descending, I often find myself reading the comments. Fail, self, fail.) on this post about sewing magazines at Male Pattern Boldness. The blogger was questioning whether people used magazines or found the tracing/seam allowance work that has to be done made it too much like effort. I have loads of magazines, as you all know by now, and although I also have loads of envelopes overall I prefer pattern magazines for both price and style reasons. Let me tell you, live in Europe and pay $15+ for a single envelope pattern and you would prefer it for price too, which Americans living in the land of $2 pattern sales I don't think can really appreciate.


There were a lot of comments to that post though saying how much commenters hated the bitchy reviews of Burda that bloggers write and now I feel kind of guilty. I don't think I'm the bitchiest reviewer on the internet, but I do laugh at Burda's styling, and I laugh A LOT at some of their wackier designs, and their Giant Rectangles. However, I also know I can be proven wrong with Burda: sometimes I look at a pattern and just go "Crazypants!" and move on, but then I'll see it made up and think, no, wow, that's actually really great on her. I kind of want to be proved wrong on this month's Ghengis-Khan-as-diner-waitress dress, for example, though I'm reserving judgement on whether that is even really possible. I also cringe when I see reviewers just outright call a pattern hooker-wear, or critique the model's body. There's a line I try not to cross between amused aesthetic critique, which I don't represent as anything other than my actually very shallow and unfashionable opinion, and sort of contemptuous commentary that would make me angry if I read it.

I don't know. I like writing my Burda reviews and I know there are people reading this blog, but with all due respect, I'm really not writing this blog for an audience. I just needed somewhere to put all the non-stop sewing thoughts and commentary that run through my head, and I have literally nowhere else. I am happy to know that there are people reading and sometimes commenting, but I wouldn't stop writing even if you all vanished overnight. The truth is, I'm not ever going to be a a big name blogger. I can't really imagine how I'd ever monetize this blog. I feel bad enough linking my Etsy shop (currently down, as my inventory is, like everything else fun in my life, all in a box in Cumbria), to be honest. Does it matter if someone, or even several someones, I don't know thinks I'm kind of a bitch for suggesting that one dress pattern looked like it had a deconstructed kangaroo pouch buttoned to the front?

So there's that. On the other side of the coin, I was thinking last night about clothes I would make for an imaginary life in which I was not myself excessively self-conscious about my body and my clothes. This was brought on by the fact that I was looking at some of the things I've pinned to my Outfits I Like board on Pinterest and observed to myself that quite often these are of outfits that are just slightly different than the norm. Not like, way out there, crazy artist style, but just a bit different. I keep hoping I will suddenly grow into the sang-froid that many women seem to acquire with age, where they just go, no, I WILL wear my [insert oddball garment here] and screw you if you think I look weird. However, I'm creeping up on 40 and I've not achieved it yet. Alas. Part of the problem with sewing though it's that it's hard to just try something out. Like, if I wanted to try a style of dress, I could notionally just go try on loads of dresses somewhere and see what looked good (in practice, I don't do this because I have so many sizing problems with dresses and I hate shop changing rooms with their lighting tricks and their mirror games). With oddball garments, you have to make them to try them because you CAN'T buy them anywhere.

Source: alreadypretty.com via Calathea on Pinterest

At any rate, let me show you the photo I am currenly OBSESSED with. It's not really all that oddball, but I also don't think I've seen a pattern for it anywhere. I really love this lady's oufit, but what really catches my eye is that drapy kimono sleeved cardigan thingy over a 3/4 sleeved dress and the toning colour. I don't wear that shade at all (skin is too yellow-y in tone, that mid-brown colour next to my face makes me look like death) but I could imagine this is toning shades of colours I do wear (like green, maybe. I just don't know whether I'd wear it if I made it.

On a similar theme though, I have this great vintage pattern for a really long sort of waistcoat thing:

I go back and forth between OMG CUTEST and BUT WHEN WOULD I WEAR IT. Alas, probably doomed to never be made up.