Burda Style For people who sew

I admit it. I’m a fabric junkie, a material-holic – I strive to reach SABLE (Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy), although I probably already have. I’m reluctant to show you my fabric stash, but if you peek here, you’ll be able to get a glimpse of what I currently own. I don’t really have a ‘system’ for organizing my material, but this article, although meant for yarn, but should work just as well for fabric, might help get met started. How do you organize your stash?

Cecilia from Pamoyo pointed this out to us. It’s a nifty little thing along the lines of the sewpedia but on a grander scale. Drittofilowiki is a giant wiki for people in the pattern making and textile design sector. It is designed for people who care about clothes and where they come from. It seams like it would be right up our ally. So, thanks Cecilia!

Pamoyo, the Berlin based fashion house has gone open source. They have decided to make their designs available under the under the creative commons law. The patterns from this fashion house can be downloaded for free and printed out on your home printer. From the BBC

Ever since I saw “The Virgin Suicides” by Sofia Coppola in 2000 I have wanted a vintage white nightie like the sisters wear in this macabre film. Though the inspiration behind the true story is a bit dark, I was stricken by the pureness & innocence of a crisp white nightie.

My week has been a busy one, full of kids, friends, sewing, creating and meeting up with other crafty ladies yesterday for some chatter, food, sewing and gift giving. I finally managed to get started on my muslin today and all started off well until I got to the collar and my mind fell to pieces. I think a combination of tiredness and text instructions did it, I’m more of a visual person preferring diagrams with text explanations. The instructions for sewing the collar onto the Jorinde jacket seem different to what I have done before and I just can’t quite grasp how to do it. I decided to take a break and go back to it tomorrow with fresh eyes when I may be able to figure it out otherwise I think I may use the instructions I know work for me and go from there. Thank goodness I didn’t just dive right in and start with my $40 a metre fabric, I’d have been crying into my jacket right now!

If you are sewing along here are some useful links for this stage of the process.

Sew Mama Sew-Making a muslin

Useful info for making a muslin

beSewStylish how to video

Fast Fit: Easy pattern alterations for every figure (book)

Metric Pattern Cutting for women-Winifred Aldrich (book)

Do you know the difference between the warp and weft of your fabric? Knowing this and the types of weaves your material has will help you true up you fabric. Learn more from True Up’s tutorial and stay tuned to their blog to find out how to true up your material!

Most of us place a lot of importance on sewing, but often forget that cutting, as boring as it may seem, is just as important – if not more. This article that appeared several years ago on Fashion Incubator reminds us of it’s importance as well as transferring pattern markings. And all this time I thought I was correctly cutting out my patterns!

Hey there! I’m finally getting back into the swing of things after the craziness of having a baby in the house. Heidi is now four and a half months old; time seems to have really flown by but it has been a pleasure, she is such a good baby.

I feel like I can now start sewing clothes for myself again after so much shape changing. I made a few skirts while I was still pregnant which fit for a little while but soon they were too big on me and needed to be altered. The sewing machine ended up gathering dust and I took to knitting for a while but now I’m almost back to my pre pregnancy weight I’ve decided it’s time to start sewing again!

I’ve had fabric ready to make the Jorinde jacket for about six months but was scared to cut into the expensive fabric until I knew my body shape would not change too dramatically. So now is the time to make it I think. I have suggested this pattern in the forum for the next sewalong; I figure we could all use a jacket in our wardrobes whether we’re heading into autumn or spring. Some members seem to be keen on the idea and there’s not been much interest in any other patterns. So I thought this sewalong could use any of the jacket patterns here on the site so that those who have already made Jorinde or have plans for another jacket can sew along.

Over the coming weeks I will document each step of making the jacket here on the blog and in the forum. I will post regular how-to’s for each step for those members taking part in the sewalong that need them. This pattern may be a little advanced for some but please don’t be scared, I’ll be going through it slowly step by step and I encourage you to give it a go, heck I’ll be learning a lot along the way too so if I can do it I know you can too.

My fabric is too expensive to cut into without checking the fit of the pattern first. So this week I’ll be making up a muslin, I have cut out the pattern in a size larger than I normally would and once I have it sewn together I will make markings directly onto it for alterations I may need to make. There will be more details in my next post about how to do this with tips and links that may be useful.

There have been some wonderful variations of the Jennifer blouse for the last sewalong. I wasn’t too keen on this pattern to begin with but I think my mind may have been changed. The Anda mini challenge entries have blown me away! I think each and every one of you that took part deserves a prize. I love how these challenges bring out the creativity in you; it’s amazing what talent we might find lurking in our members. Watch out for another mini challenge soon.

If you feel like taking part in the jacket sewalong head on over to the forum and let us know your plans. Tell us which jacket you intend to make, show us your fabric and let us know of any alterations you may like to change.

I am not a novice. I went to Parsons, worked in Couture and am now spending my days trying to think of ways how to offer sewing instructions and patterns that are easily replicable by our community on the site.

As I attended my daughter’s final softball game this week and started shopping for school supplies, I realized, fall is almost upon us. When the oldest goes back to school, I find myself organizing and redecorating the house (after the blurr of summer activities I often neglect housework) – this includes the sewing room. If your like me and are in need of a few supplies to spruce up your area, try a few of these: keep your machines dust free with a reversible sewing machine cover, ironing won’t seem boring when you have this super easy ironing board cover and pressing ham, store your needles in style with this needle case or pretty pincushion.

There’s only 1 day left for the Sewalong MiniChallenge! There are some amazing entries so far as you can see.

If you haven’t uploaded your entry yet, you still have until 11:59 pm U.S. Eastern Time on Sunday July the 27th! Don’t forget to upload it into the MiniChallenge Entry category!

RULES:

• You need to be a registered member to take part.

• You must use the Anda dress pattern.

• You must upload your creation into the new ‘Mini Challenge’ category by July 27th.

• When you upload your creation you must give a detailed description of how you made your version of the dress, the alterations you may have made and materials used etc.

• How-to’s and pattern alterations are encouraged and may earn you Brownie points!

The mini challenge will be judged by you the members. Voting will start on Tuesday the 29th of July, more details about how to vote will be given at a later date. When voting you should take the following into consideration:

• Creativity and variation

• Difference in appearance from original

• Skills and techniques used

• And of course your favourite!

• You can vote once only

Can’t wait to see the rest of the creations!

If you are having any troubles uploading your creation, please let us know by emailing answers@burdastyle.com. We will do everything we can to help out!

As you can see, we are working through the many incredible designs for the technical drawing contest. We are narrowing the entries down to one and let me tell you, this is not an easy job. The 23 sketches that were entered were done in every medium possible (except sculpture) and they were all the top level of talent. We are going to get back to voting and leave all of you to sew your Andas. The winner will be announced soon!

There’s nothing more heartbreaking than creating a gorgeous knit top or dress only to try it on and find that it doesn’t fit. The problem? Not enough stretch to your fabric. This article that appeared in Craft Stylish will help you tell if your fabric has enough stretch for the pattern you’ve picked out.

BurdaStyle is busy, busy, busy. Things have been crazed around here lately with all the travel and ideas and production that’s been going on. The office certainly has been a buzz with creativity. Last week we had lots of meetings talking about everything from events, to blogs, to site design, to advertising; our board was just full of ideas! What this means is a lot of great stuff coming up for BurdaStyle and this community. We are so excited, we just want to tell you all about it, but then where would the surprise be? We will reveal one surprise; keep a look out for the week’s pattern. I know that this happens every week so it’s not really a surprise but what is the surprise is the fact that it is a member-designed pattern. On that note we will leave you wondering what else could possibly be coming up. Keep your eyes peeled, have a great week and enjoy!