In many of my handmade wardrobe posts i speak of “burda magazines. This week i thought i would show you what i am talking about and that Burda is still very much publishing these. The following magazines are the one’s i got from my mom – they are from the 80′s and have some pretty interesting stuff in them.
Only recently I found the Burda magazines again (not because they stopped publishing, but because i wasn’t looking), this is what the look like now:
The images alone make me want to make all the things in the magazine. There are more than 20 patterns in each issue of the magazine – and for R110 i think it is worth it as one single pattern these days cost about R60+. The magazine only gives text descriptions of how to put the garment together and not the step by step images like a single pattern would – but you get use to it. So i’ll use the July issue to show you how easy it is to use the mag.
Extra info: The magazine sometimes feature a designer and in July’s issue it was Dice Kayek who gave a pattern to make this pink dress!
So you’ll be paging through the magazine and you’ll find something that you like and really want to make like this dress with the little cape-collar:
Simply look out for the dress number and what sizes the pattern is for… Then go to the centre of the magazine where are the technical pages are and look up the dress number – 131 in this case.
All the instructions will be here as well as the location of the pattern on the pattern sheet. Look in the block after the dress image. This pattern is on sheet C of the pattern sheet – they usually have 4 sheets; A, B, C, D. The instruction also tell you that you need to follow the black pattern line and which line type you need to follow for the size you want.
This is what the pattern sheet looks like (folded), it’s about an A0 size sheet when you fold it open. As you can see all the patterns are all over each other – so YOU ARE NOT MEANT TO CUT THEM OUT OF THE PATTERN SHEET. Please. You have to find the pattern pieces you need to use and trace them. This is why they tell you what colour the pattern line will be and on which sheet – you have to go look for it. But that’s about the toughest part of using this magazine – not hard at all.
Items i made or adapted using the Burda Magazine are : farmer’s daughter dress, pretty woman dress, rainy day, my floral fynbos dress among others.
So go forth and find an issue of the Burda Magazine. Happy sewing.
