Wednesday 26 November 2014

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\

8 comments:

  1. I felt the same way about the most recent My Image. I've cut the pattern tissue and started on my standard alterations for the Leanne Marshall coat. I'm hoping to get it at least partially muslined this weekend. I haven't looked at the zipper instructions yet and am debating what to do about that. I normally wouldn't insert a zipper in a muslin (just mark the CF and pin), but in this case, I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile to do so to wrap my brain around the construction aspect. (Full disclosure: I haven't even looked at the instructions yet to see if the zipper instructions are as bad as people are saying.)

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    1. Yeah, I personally feel like MyImage were interesting when they first started but the last 2 issues or so haven't done much for me at all. I might buy a copy of it when they do they put it on sale later in the year, but I might skip it altogether.

      I will be watching your coat progress with great interest! What kind of fabric do you have for the final version? :D

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  2. I love this! Lol!!! It's fun when you're not the only one :-p

    I just started my Burda sub. I'm thinking I'm going to do the Burda a month challenge or whatever it is. Sew something from each issue. Right now I mostlu flip through and imagine!

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    1. I want to do a pseudo-Burda-a-Month challenge. Rather than sew from the new magazines, I will commit (hah!) to sewing some Burda magazine pattern each month. Hahaha. I amuse myself. =)

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    2. I actually made a half-assed attempt at a similar Burda challenge this year, but in the end I was stymied by illness. However, it did make me really look closely at my issues for things I wanted to make from the magazines which is all to the good. :D

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    3. Some people were doing that on PR I think this year! You can do it L! LOL!!!!

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  3. I have many a "sad face + credit card =" stories. =) I hope you feel better soon so that you can get cracking on your sewing list.

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    1. Me toooo. I have spent the whole of today miserably hiding under a fleece blanket and occasionally doing some knitting. Worst. :(

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