Sunday, April 29, 2012

Spring Sewing

Vogue came out with new patterns this week and I managed to buy a few on sale.  I missed the last day of the regular sale but gave in and bought a Club BMV membership. They have finally included 15% off on Marfy patterns which was an incentive. With the decline of Burda's offerings I am having to branch out and sew more Vogue.  I used to sew Vogue almost exclusively until I was introduced to Burda World of Fashion, as it was then called.   Times change and the new direction at Burda Style mostly doesn't work for me.  I was hoping that the excellent May issue was a turning point but the previews of June are pretty dismal.  I also bought two dress patterns from Hot Patterns catching their 20% off sale, which runs through the end of the month.  I run hot and cold with them. The fitting seems to so uneven across the line.   That's one of the things I've loved about Burda, the fit consistency was better than average.  I love wearing easy dresses in the summer.  We don't have ac and the loft I work and sew in gets pretty hot.  Dresses are comfortable and cool.  I was looking for semi fitted dresses and decided on these two.  The Plain and Simple Dress and Top for some lovely linen I've got and maybe even a casual LBD in some silk linen blend I have. 
I have two pieces of fabric in search of a dress and I think that this one will fill the bill, finally.  The shorter version with the v neck would work for me better than the round neck or the maxi dress. I can see that one getting caught in the wheels on my chairs. 


How many unmade patterns do you own?  I have quite a few, but that doesn't count the Burda Style magazine patterns I haven't made.  The cheap sales make it easy to succumb to patterns that really don't either work for our bodies or our lifestyles.  I've been trying to be more discriminating lately so that I might actually make them up!
Here are my picks.  This is not to say that I didn't like some of the others quite a bit, but these meet my criteria of fitting my lifestyle and being flattering or at least having the potential for looking great on me.  I am very careful to buy patterns that work on  my body, not patterns that I love but won't love my body. All those unmade patterns in my drawers have taught me a lesson.  Finally.


The round neck on this isn't the best for me, but I wanted the 3 piece sleeve and the jacket instructions.  I will have to take a look at Chanel and see how I can change this to make it more flattering for me.  I don't think that I'll get to this one until late summer for fall.


I wasn't interested in the fuller top, but this princess seam version looks interesting as well as flattering.
Finally, I bought this peplum blouse a style I've been looking for to knock off a blouse I have up on my idea board.  I like the second view in this one as well.  The high round neck has to change though.
I've got fabric in my stash for most of these and that's good for the budget.  
Add pants from my tnt pattern, a skirt or two and at least one more cardigan and you have  my spring sewing goals.  The leather jacket is on hold till summer for fall. I've got some reservations about the neckline on that one so I'll have the summer to decide.

8 comments:

  1. I think you are right about the inexpensive price of patterns driving our buying habits. I bought 4 more too and I'm trying to be more discriminating. That Vogue color blocked dress is a very popular dress, can't wait to see all the versions that are going to pop up!

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  2. I understand completely. When I am in Florida visiting my mother, if her local Hancocks has a 99 cent sale on patterns, I go hog-wild! They seem so cheap that I just buy everything. It's silly.
    I'm looking forward to seeing what you make out of these new patterns.

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  3. As envelope patterns are expensive to buy from Europe, I don't own that many. But enough that I haven't made yet. But magazines.... loads of them, and a lot not used.

    Your picks look very nice, hope you will show some of them soon.

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  4. I am with you--I have way more patterns than I could ever sew up. And yet, they are so hard to part with! I went through my drawer of woven dress patterns trying to pull out enough to be able to stuff the newly purchased patterns in and it was way more difficult than it should have been. I have tried to slow down pattern-buying as well, though I just ordered 7 in the BMV sale....

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    1. I have a whole bank of file cabinets in my studio. Too much room is just as bad as too little. I just don't like all the waste. There will always be another sale, at least these days.

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  5. I've ordered the Claire Shaeffer jacket, the colour block dress and the Marcy Tilton t-shirt and a few more as the postage to Australia is the same for 1 or 7 patterns.

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  6. Those are all great pattern picks and age appropriate. It gets harder and harder to find patterns that are wearable for anyone over 20!

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    1. Absolutely true which is one of the reasons I am so disappointed in Burda. They seem to have two types of clothing these days, either shapeless and boxy or super fitted with lots of exposure.

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