In which I binge on patterns

As it turned out, my illness last week turned into a full-blown and generally grim relapse. Since this is a sewing blog and not a boring-you-to-death-with-my-health-issues blog, I will just say: I really hate this illness, and I really hate the side-effects of the medication I take (I had to triple my dose to get myself back into something like a non-relapsed state, which is appalling) and I could really do without any of this. >:( Ugh.

However, I have now recovered sufficiently to at least blog about sewing, if not actually sew quite yet, and I am very sad (or at least, my bank balance is very sad) to inform you that one of the ways I distracted myself from misery over the last 10 days or so was to buy a great many patterns, mainly on eBay. Most of them were cheap vintage patterns costing only a couple of quid each including postage, or back issues of Burda from a few years ago. The vintage envelope patterns are mainly jackets (in my never ending and probably fruitless pursuit of an ideal that I have yet to abandon) and blouses, because I'm also kind of obsessed with the idea of continuing to make my own woven tops. I may not have made many of them, by volume, but I really love the tops I've made and I'm imagining a lot of similar sewing in the future.

One exception to my vintage jacket/blouse purchases: this older Vogue wrap dress pattern (Vogue 2764, probably from the 70s, based on the hair). I might give the GIANT RUFFLES a miss, but I like the understated look in view A and I think the non-contrast shawl collar version (B, on the left) is pretty cute too.

I also really love my Burda back issues. I only buy magazines from the last 10 years, and I always look at the images/tech drawings on that one Russian site to make sure I actually want the issue, but even though I have a LOT of back issues now and I still manage to pick up one or two more when they come up for sale. Generally speaking, I find I don't want to buy the midsummer issues. Apart from the June/July issues I've received as part of my regular subscriptions since 2012, I've only ever bought 1 July issue. This is because, as is well-established, Burda summer issues tend to be much more ridiculous than other times of the year, and also living in the UK does not incline me towards owning a lot of beachwear anyway.

At any rate, in pursuit of a project I may or may not follow through on in 2015, I was looking through a whole pile of Burda magazines last night. There are seriously so many gorgeous patterns in those magazines, it really made me want to sew ALL THE THINGS, forever and ever. I feel like more sewing from Burda in 2015 is called for.

I love these trousers from a recently-acquired back issue of Burda (01-2005-120, to be specific). Some really nice, albeit barely visible in this photo, details especially in the way the belt carriers/waist are put together.)

In more contemporary pattern news, something I have dearly wanted to happen for ages has come to pass, and Style Arc have started to sell their patterns as e-patterns via Etsy.  I was immediately BESIDE MYSELF with glee because I have wanted their Nina cardigan pattern forever and ever but could not make myself pull the trigger given the price/shipping thing. And now it's for sale electronically, hurrah! Needless to say, I bought it immediately. At the moment they don't have all their patterns up, but given the shop has been up for 10 days and they've made 250 sales already, I am pretty sure it is going to stick around and grow. I feel like a LOT of Style Arc's recent top patterns would make for fantastic e-patterns and I have everything crossed that those will start to go up online. There have been several recently that I've really wanted to buy but couldn't justify paying for the paper version + shipping. I am more than happy to pay the digital prices they are charging right now.

I don't often buy Big 4 because they're expensive here but also exciting to me is that this week (until November 30th) that Leanne Marshall coat that everyone went nuts for is the Simplicity/New Look UK pattern of the week (i.e. for sale for £2.95 instead of £8.15). I jumped on that so fast I almost sprained my mouse finger in my eagerness to click BUY IT NOW. I don't have anything like a suitable fabric for this and I am rather put off by the fact that every review so far is like, "it's fine until you get to the zip and then DDDD:". However, I just love that collar/hood and had to have it.

Technical drawing of My Image S/S 2015

By contrast, something I am not sure at all I have to have is the latest My Image S/S 2015. I saw the announcement on Facebook last night that it was out (or is due to come out very soon and is available to view/pre-order). You can browse the magazine to see the garments, but the technical drawings kind of speak for themselves. For me personally, I feel like this is rather repetitive of previous Spring/Summer issues of My Image, and there's nothing in there that I feel like I have to have. I probably most like M1507 in the magazine images, but I am thoroughly underwhelmed by the technical drawings.

And thus concludes my pattern binge! Or, that concludes it for now at least. /o\