Burda Style For people who sew

As many of you know, one of our members, Gedwoods, has undertaken quite the cool and large task of making a wiki that covers all types of fabrics, prints and garments from around the world.

Fabrics International is aiming to be the most comprehensive source for fabric information online by not just focusing on the definitions of fabrics but also on providing information about the special challenges of sewing these garments, using these fabrics and prints, and providing links to creations that have been made using them. The information Gedwoods has collected is from across the web as well as classic reference texts such as Sandra Betzina or Claire Shaeffer.

Fabrics International is aiming to be a multilingual site, so all of you to whom English is not a first language, you will have the most complete resource out there, though this part is still in the making. Gedwoods is looking for volunteers to help translate an article or two into whichever languages. Because this is a wiki, the information comes from you. So if you speak more than one language and want to contribute to the early stages of this wonderful site, message Gedwoods or go onto the Fabrics International site.

We are so excited to have watched this grow as quickly as it has and we can’t wait to see it develop further.

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Next weekend i will be attending the Sustainable Living Festival here in Melbourne. On Friday the 20th you will find me in the Federation Square Atrium at the Design Market where i’ll be promoting Wardrobe Refashion and BurdaStyle and will be there from 10 until 6.
On Sunday the 22nd i’ll be at the Fashion Jam hosted by Craft Cartel which is being held in the Federation Square Play Dome from 1:30 until 4pm.
Come say Hi if you’re in the City.

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Since all the gifts we plan to give at Christmas time are handmade (they’re handmade right? Right!), it seems a pity to wrap them in commercially made wrapping paper. Think of the impact on the earth that stuff has, it’s torn into and stuffed into the already overflowing rubbish bins the day after Christmas. You know where it goes right? Yup, straight into a hole in the ground. And how many trees are used to produce it? A ridiculous amount that’s right! So maybe you’d like to try alternative ways of wrapping your gifts this year. One option is to reuse packaging, i keep paper from gifts given to my family, i just flatten it out (sometimes i iron it) and reuse it. Another option is to make reusable bags. These can be made in any size and are really easy to make, I have made up a simple how-to which you can see here. All you need is a rectangle of fabric and some ribbon for the drawstring. Once Christmas is over the recipient of your beautiful handmade gift can reuse their drawstring bag for something else or pass on the handmade love by using it for another gift.

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Well my plans for the sustainable fashion show were put to an end when I rang up for tickets and they were sold out. Note to self: don’t wait, book well in advance! I did however get to the Thread Den’s 57 Chevy laneway fashion show earlier in the evening. A fabulous 50’s style show held in the laneway at the side of the Den. The show was also a launch for Biddy Bags in Australia. Biddy bags connects socially isolated nanas and mature-aged ladies through craft, economic participation and social networking. Check out their site for more details.

It was my first night out without Heidi since before she was born and as you may be able to tell I was pretty excited about that so I dressed up for the occasion. I was given a black dress by a friend sometime last year, sort of 50’s style with a tuille skirt underneath, I think she wore it swing dancing. I thought it was perfect to wear to the show and was fine as it was but I thought it needed a little something to spice it up. I used some black fabric scraps and made a binding to add to the hem then made a few yo-yo’s (or Suffolk puffs) and hand stitched them on near the hem. The whole thing took about 45 minutes, a quick and simple but effective refashion I think. I didn’t have to spend anything on my outfit since everything I wore was free or something I already had. I wore the dress with a thrifted coat I’d bought back while I was pregnant and a bag I found years ago at a car boot sale in the UK for 50p. The shoes came from my wardrobe and some cute handmade jewelry.

After the show I met up with a friend. We saw a cheesy show at the theatre, which was bad enough that we left halfway through and went for coffee and cake at Pellegrini’s, an old Italian coffee shop. I need to dress up and get out kid free more often, it was great fun!

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I know that many of you live in my neck of the woods so I wanted to let you know about Melbourne Fashion Week. It runs from the 1st to the 7th of September and has over 100 free and ticketed events showcasing the latest and hottest Spring-Summer fashion and a few events on the program have caught my eye. The Gorman Organic Ship Shop is made from a 20ft used shipping container, constructed from recycled ply and other sustainable materials and it moves!! There are no plastic bags and no cash register. You try on then buy online at the ship shop and have your purchase sent to you. All of Gorman’s clothing is organic. The Ship Shop will be docking in the City Square all week long. I’ll be taking a trip into the city to check it out.

The other event that I’m interested in attending is the RAW Sustainable Fashion Parade. The parade will promote sustainability in fashion with the use of organic, vintage and recycled fabrics. Australian designers will demonstrate that fashion can be stylish and sustainable. It will be held at FIX Docklands on Friday the 5th of September from 9 till 11pm and costs $15. Of course I’ll have to come up with a fabulous refashioned outfit by next Friday, I have a few ideas and will show you what I come up with. Would anyone care to meet up with me there? I’d love to get together with some of you so email or message me if you are interested.

I’m still working on the Jorinde jacket for the sewalong. My second muslin is almost done then I can get started on my final piece. I’m taking it slow and making sure I (hopefully) do a good job but more on that next time. I also have a new mini challenge planned for the very near future so keep you eyes peeled for that.

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I am so glad I am making a muslin for the Jorinde jacket. It seems the pattern needs to be changed in many places for it to fit me properly. I’m pretty short (5’2”) and have found that the jacket doesn’t fit quite so well in length especially between the armhole and the neck, the armhole is a little too big which feels uncomfortable when I lift my arm. To remedy this I will shorten the front and back pattern pieces between the top and bottom of the armhole and also at the corresponding location on the sleeve cap. Doing this will also raise the hemline but I may raise it a little more to sit just on or below the hips.

A few other alterations I’ve decided I will make will be to shorten the sleeves; they’re about oh 6 inches too long! I’ll also change the shape of the collar; I’m not quite fond of the shape it is in the pattern. I’ll sketch out a few ideas before deciding. The back of the jacket is also a little ‘poofy’ so I need to come up with an alteration to fix that and I’m undecided about whether to keep the pockets as they are, change them or not have them at all. Suggestions please!

I’ll be making a second muslin this week to test out these alterations before starting on my final jacket. I’m using the book Fast Fit to help me with my alterations, it’s a great resource for easy pattern alterations for all figures. I’m also going to be researching interfacing and lining a jacket.

There’s still time to take part in the sewalong!

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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)

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Hi there!
Heidi is now almost 6 weeks old and she has grown so much, time is flying by. Now rather than time dragging by like towards the end of my pregnancy my weeks seem to go by in a flash, usually with me accomplishing only half the things i’ve wanted to. I promised myself that i would take some time out once Heidi had arrived so i have decided to take some time out from writing my column for BurdaStyle. I love working on BurdaStyle and have done so for over a year now! But, it takes up a lot of my time, i spend many hours sewing and then 2 evenings a week writing and editing my posts which leaves little time for anything else. I’m going to spending my time looking after and playing with my girls, trying to keep my house relatively tidy and start some of the many things i have lined up that i’ve been wanting to do for myself but have just not had the time. Basically i’m getting back to basics, making making time for the small things and doing them at my own pace.
For now this is just a break for me from writing my regular column and i will be around on the site uploading my creations, participating on the forum and organising the sewalongs and you’ll also be able to see what i’m up to on my own blog.

PS. How cool is it that Heidi has a dress named after her!?

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Being a Mum of almost 3 small children under the age of 4 and all of my extended family living in the UK means I don’t work outside the home. Instead I choose to work from home. As you know I write and sew for BurdaStyle which is my main source of work, I run MixTape Zine with my partner in craft Justine of 62Cherry and I’m working towards selling my handmade creations this year.

Working from home has its pros and cons and these are different for everyone that works from home depending on their lifestyle, family commitments and work. For me the pros are that I get to be with my family and I can work at my own leisure. I can choose to roll out of bed and start work in my pajamas (which I do a LOT!) and I can work my timetable around family commitments. Before children I was a Patisserie Chef working long hours, sometimes 12 or more hours a day in stressful restaurant kitchens, there is no way I could do that sort of work now, I much prefer the laid back lifestyle I live now. I’m lucky enough to have my own sewing room from where I do all of my work which is most often messy like you can see in the photo above. My projects do tend to move around to other parts of my home too though, like my bedside table or the sofa. And of course I couldn’t live without the internet, my laptop and my digital camera!

Then there are the cons. I can’t get away from my kids, they like to ‘help’ so more often than not I’m stepping over them while I work and they’re sitting on my sewing room floor making things with the scraps of fabric, glue and paper. I’ve learned to live with it since getting stressed and trying to keep them out of the room is a huge waste of time. I can end up spending the whole morning in my pajamas which is ok sometimes but some days I just need to make that little bit of effort and get dressed otherwise I may never leave the house! And that creates another con, sometimes I don’t leave the house because I just don’t need to and that can get a little boring.

I live by lists! They keep me semi organized and I always have a notepad with me to scribble down my ‘To-Do’s’ and ideas. The last thing I do at night is write a list of things I need to and want to do the next day, of course they don’t always get done but if I don’t write the list I can lay awake at night thinking of all the things I need to remember for the next day.

I’m a messy person and my sewing room is small so it inevitably becomes untidy after a day of working in there and 2 small children bringing in various toys and craft supplies. I try to have a quick clean up every day or two and once a week I give the room a good sort out and vacuum to keep on top of it. Of course if I didn’t have so many things on the go at once it may not get so untidy but I just can’t have one project at once, I get so much inspiration from everywhere that my mind is buzzing with so many ideas but there’s just not enough time in which to bring them to fruition! I could do with some good storage solutions for my room, in particular for my BurdaStyle sewing patterns. At the moment they are clipped together with bulldog clips and hang from nails on my shelving unit. This worked for a while but as I sew more and more garments I’m collecting more and more patterns that just don’t fit on there anymore and prevent me from seeing my fabric stash behind, any ideas to solve this? Another storage solution I could do with is something I could hang all my bits and pieces from such as scissors, rulers, threads, etc to get them off my work table and create more space. I’m thinking a pegboard storage wall and a BurdaStyle Tory organiser will come in very handy.

Do you work from home? Leave me a comment and tell me all about the pros and cons you face, how you organize your time and your work space and anything else relating to this topic.

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I have recently been wondering about the copyright of patterns and decided to look into it further and share with you what information I found. I by no means think I’m an expert on this subject; actually I’m very far from it and encourage you to comment and share your own knowledge on the subject.

Copyright protects a designer’s work from the moment it is created until 70 years after the last surviving designer’s death, 70 years!!! Designers are making a living from their work so by purchasing their patterns you are supporting them and the fact that they are selling their work indicates they expect people to use the patterns and make items from them. This means they are giving you permission to use it but for personal and domestic use only, they are not to be used for your own personal gain, i.e. making a profit.

When can you use a commercial pattern to make a profit? One way is when sewing custom garments for customers but you must buy one pattern per person; you can not use the same pattern for multiple customers. The pattern can be reused for the same customer though if they require more than one garment from the same pattern. Another way is to license the patterns for which you will pay a fee. To do this you must contact the publisher for permission or the creator and they will inform you as to whether they allow this and what the requirements are. The same goes for out of print patterns, get in touch with the publisher and ask permission, I know I have a few I would like to share with you all so I will be getting in touch with the appropriate people and will go from there.

Information, styles, techniques and methods are not covered by copyright. So by using a particular sewing technique created by someone else or creating something in the same style as someone else has etc you will not be infringing copyright.

Now as you know BurdaStyle is an open source website. What does this mean? Well, Burda is the first established pattern publisher to release its designs without copyrights; this allows members of the public to market their BurdaStyle creations in limited editions. Remember, limited editions!! The patterns are not to be used for mass production nor are the patterns themselves to be reproduced and sold.

Since I’m no expert pattern maker I find this to be a fantastic concept as it allows me to sew garments to sell without having to go through the whole pattern making part of the process. I have been working on a limited edition of denim Sidonie skirts to sell in a local store and in my online store if I ever get it up and running (so many things to do, so little time in which to do them!). It’s a great way for me to use my skills and make some extra money at the same time.

Are you using BurdaStyle patterns to make a profit? Tell us about what you are making and how you are using the patterns in the new thread I have created. And as I said at the beginning of this post, please contribute your thoughts and knowledge on the copyright subject here in the forum. It’s a topic we should all know about, especially if we intend to make money from what we create. I have discovered a lot of people don’t know much at all about copyright and I’d like to prevent them from getting into any trouble by sharing what we know.

Copyright symbol in image found here

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Have you seen the newest pattern?
Jorinde is going to be just perfect for my Autumn/Winter wardrobe and I have my muslin cut out all ready to sew up! I do plan on making changes though. Instead of the flap pockets I am going to give my version bound pockets. A bound pocket looks like a large bound buttonhole from the right side, see the picture above. Making bound pockets can take some patience and a little practice which is why I have uploaded a
step by step how-to. I suggest you practice a few times on scrap fabric before attempting to try this on your intended fabric; we don’t want any tears now do we? I may also consider changing the collar but I will wait until I have my muslin sewn up before I decide on that.

As much as I like the wide-rib cord that BurdaStyle have used I have decided to go with the 100% wool olive tweed you see in the sample above. I want it to be plain enough so it will go with many of my outfits. There won’t be any elbow patches on my version and I’ve yet to decide on my button choice, this will probably be decided once the jacket is finished. I may take a trip to the button shop in the City where they will help me find the best match. They have an abundance of delicious vintage buttons there, I’m sure to find something.

This week marks the end of the
JJ blouse
sew along. I still haven’t managed to finish mine but I do have a few days left before February is over! This past week I have given in to taking much needed naps in the afternoon instead of sewing, I figure I need the rest more than I need the JJ blouse at the moment. I am impressed by the many versions that have popped up on the site though which you can see in the
creations section of the site. You can also read all about what each member thought about this pattern and any changes they made etc in the
forum.

The next sew along will be the
Nichola pants; they were by far the most popular vote. I personally won’t be taking part in this sew along since I plan on having a baby in the next few weeks, plus I think I should wait until I’m back to a regular pre-pregnancy weight before attempting these since they are quite fitted. I have started a
new thread in the forum for this sew along and the same applies as all the others, tell us your plans, fabric choice, pattern changes you may make etc. Feel free to ask questions and give tips too.

Oh and I just wanted to let you know that all of the maternity alteration how-to’s I have made throughout my pregnancy have been organized into
their own category, if by chance you need them!

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I was recently sent a copy of the book Subversive Seamster for review. Subversive Seamster follows Sew Subversive and is published by Taunton Press. It is the creation of The Stitch Lounge Girls: Melissa Alvarado, Hope Meng and Melissa Rannels. The Stitch Lounge is an urban sewing studio in San Francisco, where you can rent time on a sewing machine or take classes.

Subversive Seamster shows you how to refashion your thrift store buys using many simple but effective techniques. It shows you how to take those tired and unwanted clothes and turn them into something funky, wearable and individual!

The first chapter gives you tips and tricks about thrift store shopping. Tips such as planning ahead, carrying a tape measure with you and what to look for in clothing such as stains and smells. It also tells you how to look out for sales and ask for deals.
Chapter two shows you simple but effective techniques that are used throughout the book. Techniques include patches, Lettuce edging, ruffles, pin tucks and Darts. There is also a section for how to make your very own Ms. Double Trouble: The Duct Tape Dress Form.

The next three chapters are dedicated to various projects including making mittens from an old sweater (I have a <a href"http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikkishell/514188900/in/set-72157600266962712/“>pair of these made for me by a fellow Melbourne blogger ”http://onegirldesignwrks.blogspot.com/">’Onegirl’ and they’re great), making a bolero from a turtleneck sweater using a lettuce edging technique, cuffed city shorts from old men’s pants and a checkbook cover from an old tennis racket cover.

As you may know I run the website Wardrobe Refashion so this book seems very appropriate for me. What do I think of it? Well, I think it is well laid out with great instructions and enough images throughout to help you with the techniques. The techniques themselves are simple enough for those starting out in sewing and refashioning. However I’m not too keen on the actual refashions but this is a personal preference, they aren’t garments I would particularly wear myself. I also feel that from the images in the book that the projects are not quite built to last, the finish of the garments look rushed but this could be overcome in your own creations by taking your time.

Do you have this book? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

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