I’m a tad late with my review of the latest Burda magazine (or as it’s known these days “Burda Style” – but that just makes it too confusing with the other zillion things they do with the same name), but a) it arrived in the midst of my World tour, b) it’s competing with both the April and May Manequim magazines, and c) well, I have made something from it already so I think I’ve earned a pass!
In any case, this is a surprisingly good issue, despite being a summer one!
First up is this sheath dress with angled side panels and hand-stitched details. On first glance it appears quite vintage-inspired, but the sharp seaming in the line drawing actually shows it’s a pretty modern draft!
I chose this next image not really for the batiste skater skirt (which isn’t really my style), but because OMG is this the first black model Burda have ever used?? And I realise this is the “street style” section so she’s not really a model per say, but seriously, I cannot believe how white Burda’s models are, even when they’re showcasing African or Moroccan or Asian inspired patterns they still use white models!*
A bit of an aside, but as I was travelling the other week I saw a massive advert for the German Wings budget airline with three cabin crew ladies: a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead. To which I chuckled to myself “oh, it’s German diversity!”
Next up is a nice figure-hugging knit dress with a cowl neck and gathered side seams. It’s also available as a top, which I think would be an excellent summer basic, or even for layering under jackets.
We get a vintage pattern this month in the form of a 1960s pantsuit! I like that the top has a bit of a peplum silhouette without being overly peplum-y.
This next dress has some interesting seaming going on, but if you look at the instructions, those bands are actually applied over top (so you could easily choose not to have the curved waist one, for example, as it’s just placed on top of the main dress pieces). It’s not immediately apparent, but this uses the same main pieces as the scuba top below.
Burda have styled this top and shorts set as a scuba set, but in my mind it’s the perfect running or cycling combo! Again, those neon bands are just applied over top of the main pieces, so you can easily leave them off. One thing that’s not apparent in the photo or line drawing is that this has side panels rather than side seams, which I love in running tops, and it’s a great use of jersey scraps, too.
In fact, I’ve actually made the top already, out of some old race shirts – it’s just awaiting a photoshoot! For exercise gear, it’s great, but beware if you’re making the banded dress or teeshirt views, because this is very snug, with little to no ease, so you probably want to size up for a more relaxed fit!
Also, it was Google Adsense payment time again, so thank you all very much for your continued support through your readership! This time around, I used the payment to renew my Burda magazine subscription for another 6 months, plus buy some fabrics and thread from Minerva!
I actually ordered two of the fluorescent yellow spools and I thought one was missing until I realised it was hiding inside one of the big blue thread cones! I even shook out all my fabrics to be sure, ha!
* To be fair, I’ve still not seen any black models in Manequim magazine either, but KnipMode used to use different ethnicities all the time…