Burda Style For people who sew

Actually, it’s top nine, readers! The first one doesn’t count – it is, in fact, a 1959 Soviet book with a title “Conversations About Housekeeping”. Forgive me, as it was my first and most precious sewing reference, inherited from my Siberian grandmother!

Photos: Chance or coincidence? My first sewing reference was printed in 1959, when USSR sanctioned the first ever couture show in the country’s capital Moscow. Yes, it’s Dior!

Hey, BurdaStyle members! I am so excited to be here guest blogging about my new online course, Sew Retro: Perfect Bombshell Dresses! The course was produced by Craftsy.com, and it features a fantastic BurdaStyle pattern.

I am often asked how I learned to sew and what advice I would give beginners. Since I started sewing only two years ago, it’s all very fresh in my mind!

So here, in no particular order, is my entirely subjective, highly biased top ten tips list:

Jeremy Fordham is an engineer who is excited about encouraging dialogue in unique spaces. He contributes to resources promoting Ph.D. programs and is an advocate of sustainability and green energy.

Fabrics are an essential part of everyday life. From their functional purposes as clothing, carpets and curtains to their to aesthetic incarnations as wearable art, fabrics have enriched human existence for centuries. While cotton, wool, silk and linen have been utilized by cultures around the world for generations, scientific research over the last century has yielded a plethora of new, synthetic fibers. While these innovations have made lives infinitely richer, they have also greatly complicated the arts of sewing and fabric design.

Readers, summer has arrived here in New York City and it is definitely having an effect on how I dress.

In my heart of hearts I long to dress elegantly — head to toe linen, white shoes, maybe even a vest, like a dapper 20s dandy sailing on the Ile de France (that’s an ocean liner) en route to, I don’t know, Capri or something.

Do all garments you sew fit perfectly, readers? Pockets are where you wanted them to be, the neckline is not gapping and is high enough, and there is no ugly pulling on the back of your pants?

I have to confess, my early sewing attempts had a rather low success rate. Whatever didn’t end up in a UFO bin, was worn once at most. This is when I started this self-imposed couture challenge – I really wanted to wear every project I cut, with dresses that fit, trousers that don’t pull, and jackets that have flattering proportions for my figure. Have I achieved it? Yes! With the help of a toile [twal], or trial garment.

Madeleine Vionnet was a revolutionary designer for her time; not as universally well known as Coco Chanel but just as influential to the world of fashion. She is credited with creating the bias cut, a technique of cutting on the diagonal grain of the fabric which creates a sinuous and slightly clingy silhouette. The designer regularly had fabric custom made for her as wide as 180 inches to cut her dresses from.

Readers, I am a huge vintage pattern fan and spend more time than I care to admit searching online, usually on sites like Etsy and eBay, for treasures. There are so many to be found! Vintage patterns are a wonderful window into styles of the past as they were actually worn — even in the relatively unchanging world of men’s fashion.

Men’s shirt patterns are generally all pretty similar, but I have discovered quite a broad range of shirt styles, some of which I actually remember as the fashion of the day, others from old Hollywood movies, and others still from a recurring nightmare where I’m watching nonstop re-runs of I Love Lucy.

One of my favorite things about living in Brooklyn is the informal recycling program that takes place on the city streets. Instead of trashing unwanted items, people often place them on the stoop of their building for others to take. My natural tendencies toward being a scavenger find it impossible not to at least take a peek, especially when it comes to the books!

It was through these means that I came into possession of Needlecraft of the Baker Lake Artists 1974 Engagement Calendar.

How a dream led me into quilting.

One night I woke up from a dream with an idea to do Quilted Photography. The idea was how to make photo pixels out of fabric and then sort the fabric by color value – I thought that my idea was either crazy or genius! It took me a week to try out the idea and I found out that my dream was a real gift…because it worked!

In my first career I was a fashion industry professional…but I had never made a quilt. In fact, the only thing I knew about quilting was what I saw on Simply Quilts and Quilt In A Day television shows. I had also never seen anything like this new quilting style, so I was inspired and very excited by it and my excitement grew with every new quilt I made.

Readers, when you sew all day and write a sewing blog like Male Pattern Boldness, it’s easy to lose perspective on the popularity of home sewing.

Before I learned how to sew, I didn’t know anybody who even owned a sewing machine. Today, I think it’s totally normal to sew your own boxers and snicker at the men who don’t. I just assume everyone sews!

Ok, let’s start with a cliché: Chanel jackets are one of the most coveted garment pieces for women all over the world. Check! Their Haute Couture versions reportedly sell for some $30,000, while a ready-to-wear version sells for around $5,000 and up. Check! It inspired countless imitations, by runway designers as well as home seamstresses. Check!

Pictured: The jacket that spawned a thousand copies – a Chanel tweed next to jackets by the likes of Marc Jacobs, Milly and Tory Burch which have obviously been inspired by the original.

BurdaStyle readers, a question: How do you feel about tattoos?

I’m on the fence about them, especially as their popularity has grown and almost everybody seems to have one. Tattoos can certainly be stunning works of art, as above. And they can make a powerful statement — every day and for the rest of your life. I’m not sure there’s any statement I’m THAT committed to making, but that’s me.

I’m an avid collector. Or, an obsessive collector, depending on whether you ask my family or not. I’ve happily come to terms with this part of me, although I can’t say that the storage space in my house has in equal measure. As well, I have also come to terms with why I love to be a collector: I love the thrill of the hunt. I love finding a missing item from a collection, running across a Mary Brooks Picken’s-related piece or finding something completely new that charms me from the minute I see it.