I’m taken a brief moment to poke my head up from under my enormous pile of BurdaStyle Book sewing, wedding gown dismantling and bodice muslining, running, gardening, wedding planning, and some seriously busy office day-jobbing to bring you an overview of the summer KnipMode magazines… I’ll show off what I’m actually sewing if and when I can, I promise!
June 2010
This dress and skirt are ok, nothing to really grab me, but they’re nice enough basics. I mostly just liked that the model has wrinkles!
Woop! Another origami dress!
I rather liked this one shoulder dress…
But the highlight and entire reason for buying this issue is that they’ve got a pattern for THAT famous Badgley Mischka swimsuit!!
And not only that, but the large step-by-step instructions this month are for the entire construction of the swimsuit (not just a few tricky steps like most months).
July 2010
I feel a certain kinship with the Dutch people when I see that their summer holiday clothes also contain jackets and sleeves! In particular I love the draped jersey dress and this little banded sleeveless tee. That tee takes less than a metre of fabric and would be a perfect Quick Knit Top if I can squeeze it in!
They have a plain version of this blouse also, but I loved the pleat detail on this placket. What a lovely pattern to show off some special silks…
There was another feature on a summer street party that had a bunch of very wearable, casual summer patterns, so you can get another look at that sleeveless tee, this time in solid purple.
July 2010 – Fast Fashion supplement
This entire “no pattern” magazine aimed at teenagers was full of utterly repulsive sad sacks no self-respecting teenager would be caught dead in. I mean, look at these horrible bedsheets on the right!
I get the idea of customising teeshirts, but what’s with these captions?? “Kate Moss sucks”? “Fun Factor 10”? “Cut the Crap”? WTF?
And just another random example of the fashion FAILs in here… oh god, my eyes.
I mean, I applaud that they’re trying to encourage teenagers to sew, but the execution here is just awful. I can’t imagine anyone, at any age being inspired by the designs in this. Let’s forget we ever mentioned this supplement and move swiftly onto August…
August 2010
The first issue of my subscription! Yay!
Ugh I still don’t feel fully recovered from the supplement and now we’ve got some hideous patchwork “happy hands at home” stuff. Looking at these, I just feel bad for the poor woman who must’ve been so excited to be picked to be in her favourite magazine, only to have her heart sink when she saw the ugly patchwork crap she’d have to wear. It just seems unfair they didn’t swap outfits at some point and share the Ugly around a bit…
Thankfully, though, this is actually a really great issue so that’s the only downer this month! From a feature showing us all how to dress for our body type, we get this nice blouse and awesome sailor trousers (though Dutch ladies clearly have much more varieties of shape than the rest of us – the cone? I don’t know anyone shaped like a weeble-wobble, but I like the clothes)…
…and a jacket made of jersey (squeal!) and a nice pair of jeans.
In the cute Mother & Daughter section, I actually found the first pair of “new shape” trousers I’d actually consider wearing! Notice that the mom is wearing these trousers, too, and they look just as great on her!
I also like this skirt, though the back zipper placket seems a little Kriss-Kross:
Now, I really like this surplice, belted top, and I’ve been squinting at the tech drawing over the past few breakfasts trying to work out exactly how it’s pieced together, when I see that Sigrid has made it already and says it’s a bit disappointing! Boo. Well, I suppose I haven’t got time in my sewing schedule for the next few months anyhow…
And last of all, there are a ton of bag patterns, in pretty much every style you can imagine…
Coming up next, the July La Mia Boutique, which has a To. Die. For. draped knit dress reminiscent of my birthday dress!