Hooray! The first issue from my 6 month gift subscription from Magazine Cafe has arrived!!
The first feature of the magazine is nautical-themed (and not terribly subtly at that!). I absolutely love this tie-front teeshirt – I’ve got a ton of annoying “too short for a shirt yet too small for scraps” knit yardages so I’m quite keen to mix those up like they did here. That gajillion-gored skirt just scares me, though (yeah, those are all individually pieced!!).
I fell in love with this navy blue top from its tech drawing, but I’m actually less keen on it in real life. I think it’d look better without the central pleating, as it seems a bit over-designed. One thing to note, though, is that there are no shoulder seams – the top portion of the front actually wraps over from the back.
Next up is an Africa feature. Unlike Burda’s casual racism*, LMB prefers to celebrate the birthplace of humanity by sending their model down for some face painting like the cast of The Lion King musical…
(*Aww, they removed the “proud white Masai” line from the online view!)
I like that this top has an above-bust sheer panel and the blouson look is starting to grow on me. I’m not as keen on the trekkie bottoms but the seam lines are cool and they wouldn’t be half as bad without the gathered ankles…
This frilled dress kinda reminds me of the dress I made for my little neighbour, and I really like this dainty coverup with sheer sleeves.
Hooray for the Plus section! Not only do you get three awesome workout basics, but you also get a very versatile jacket and capris (not shown here). Most LMBs only have two or three Plus designs so to get five is quite special…
I ran the text accompanying this next feature through Google Translate and it’s apparently inspired by a 1930s painting by Tamara de Lempicka of the Duchess de la Salle, which is very interesting! But really, it just means a bunch of black clothes, which isn’t a bad thing, but it seems a lot of effort to go through just say “it’s black clothes!”
I rather like this cutaway sleeveless top. How nice would this be under a linen jacket for summer business wear? (and omg I really want some parquet flooring…)
This top (minus the embellishing) and the skirt are both really nice, though this is the most we see of the latter, having to otherwise rely on the sketch and tech drawing.
Also included in this issue were some toddler clothes for girls and the usual recipes and horoscopes. All in all, not quite as good as February’s issue but still plenty of worthwhile, wearable designs. And it pisses all over Burda’s lacklustre May edition! Ugh, absolutely nothing for me in there…
Ciao, bellas!