What a blast from the past, right?? Some longterm readers may recall that I used to subscribe to the Dutch pattern magazine, KnipMode, but the quality of the designs really went downhill when they appointed a new editor and I let my subscription expire back in 2012. It was an easy choice, since it was the most expensive of my magazine subscriptions, but when I get the opportunity, I still pick up the odd issue from continental newsstands.
Well, we were in Brussels shortly before Christmas for a festive weekend at the Christmas market, and on our drive back we stopped in at a Belgian supermarket. I was surprised to find KnipMode on the magazine rack, and I couldn’t resist seeing what KnipMode were up to these days. Clearly loads has happened since 2012, as they’ve not only had a complete redesign, but have a new publisher as well! The editor I blamed for the downhill spiral is still there (grumble grumble) but the designs look decent in this one, so I’ll hold out hope…
“Knip” means “cut” in Dutch, so I think the new scissor logo is quite cute!
First up is a green party dress with lots of gathering and a nice surplice neckline. It’s not a million miles away from my 30th birthday dress, which is probably why I was drawn to it!
This tie-hem shirt is styled for a party here, but I think this could be a really great casual top, too. It’s made for wovens, and with the kimono sleeve it means there’s only two patterns pieces plus the hem binding, so it’d be super quick to sew it! It reminds me a little of a Pattern Magic design that I drafted and muslined but haven’t quite sewn up yet, though the tie on that is in a different position.
There are a bunch of nice Plus-sized designs interspersed amongst the regular sizes, and I think this blouse and trousers are really trendy and flattering. Both are styles I’ve seen around a lot, but not really in larger sizes.
The skirt suit on the left is a little too “old lady Chanel” for me, but I really like both the seamed trousers and the sweater on the right. It’s hard to tell from the Front/Back tech drawings, but the trousers have a side panel that wraps along the front waistband, so I think Knip have really missed a treat in not showcasing this better!
Here’s the same sweater as seen above, but without the half zip and horizontal seam. Taking out the zip really turns this into a 2 hour make, tops!
And finally – this is my absolute favourite design from this issue (even though it’s partially obscured here), a dress for two different types of scuba fabric! The other version in the magazine showed the seaming better (the wide, round collar and cuffs use the contrast scuba), but it had some ugly embellishment that detracted from the design. I love that the side seams wrap around creating a flattering diagonal in front, too. I may well have to take a selfish trip to Goldhawk Road, as I noticed that A-One Fabrics had a ton of great scuba when I was there a few weeks ago, including some textured ones!
And just for fun, here’s what the instruction sheets look like these days – still in Dutch and without illustrations for individual designs, but they’ve added a lot more illustrated illustrations for common techniques, and the pattern sheets still appear to be the same as when I compared them to other pattern magazines years ago (ie: less dense than Burda or Manequim!).
KnipMode release a selected number of patterns from each issue to their download store. the All of the downloadable pdf patterns from this issue are here to purchase at €5.99 each. Though annoyingly for you all, the link for the scuba dress which I love is broken so it redirects to a maxidress instead. Maybe someone who speaks Dutch can alert KnipMode and have them fix it? Thanks, Sigrid! The scuba dress download is here.