After August’s silk blouse bonanza, I was expecting September’s issue of the Brazilian pattern magazine Manequim to be a disappointment in comparison, but hoo boy, was I wrong! This is a fantastic issue, as evidenced by my enthusiasm with the scanner…
First off there’s a pattern for a simple leather envelope clutch. My friend Cindy recently sent me a tutorial for a similar leather clutch bag, so the need for a pattern is really up for debate!
What a great jacket with such interesting seaming! I’m not so convinced about the dropped waist sheath dress though…
No, not deja vu just yet – I wanted to show you the tech drawings for the cover look, as the skirt is just lovely!
I know there are instructions for a similar twist dress in one of the Pattern Magic books, but I really like that Manequim took an extra step in the instructions for this dress and gave a secondary drawing showing how the pieces fit together. It’s almost like they saw what I did for the Vogue DKNY top and thought they’d do the same!
In the “Inspired by a designer” section, I really like the details on this Balenciaga raglan jacket.
In the workwear feature, I absolutely adore these trousers! Love! They’ve got amazing, curved seaming, and some triangular flaps that wrap round to the back, too. I think this might well push me over the edge as my first Manequim trouser pattern…
And I’m about ready to scream “unkle!” at Manequim, because they’ve gone and given us two more amazing silk blouse patterns!
Don’t they know I haven’t even had the chance to sew up any of the amazing blouse patterns from the last issue!? Enough, guys! Give me a bad issue so I’ve got time to catch up! (ok, not really…)
At this point in the magazine, I was thinking “oh wow this was a really good issue”, expecting to turn the page and see the mix & match section which signals the end of the new stuff. Oh, but no.
Manequim went and did the most awesome idea for a feature ever – A dress for each decade from the 1920s to the 1970s, showing the original style alongside a current catwalk look that’s inspired by it. All of the dresses are great, frankly (and I’m usually allergic to anything 70s!), but take a look at the 1930s, 1940s, and 1960s dresses for example:
I’m amazed that I haven’t seen any of the other magazines do this feature yet, really. What with Burda doing safari and folklore features three times a year, you’d think there were no ideas left or something…
Oh, and there’s are a few new free dress patterns up on their site, including a Plus shirtdress, too. Manequim tend to take these down after a while, so get ‘em while they’re hot!
I’m away in Hungary this week, so I won’t see your comments until I’m back. Or stumble into a free wifi hotspot!