This is the last of the three Brazilian pattern magazines that my friend very kindly brought back from Brazil for me. I’d love to say that I saved the best for last, but, err, no. To be perfectly honest, I struggled to find anything in this magazine to scan. I don’t really want to make anything in here, and most of it isn’t really bad enough to mock, either. But I’ll do my best with what’s here.
I have no idea what month or year this issue is (or judging by the designs, which decade!), but the cover says “Anno 1, Numero 8”. I even did some eBay searches to try and determine what number the latest issues are, but there seem to be a million different types of “Figurino” magazines and no consistent numbering….
Here’s a really unflattering and dated-looking lime green jumpsuit, for formal occasions where you want your skin to appear neon orange!
My first thought on seeing this was “Why is that Brazilian woman wearing an NHS nurse’s uniform?” (UK readers, you know what I mean, right??)
There’s a whole feature on just swimsuits, and this is the only one piece. The bikinis were pretty average, but I thought the idea of a crocheted sailboat on your stomach was just a little odd. And I’m not entirely sure whether you’re supposed to crochet it yourself or buy it (and where would one buy a crocheted sailboat motif dyed to match your swimsuit lycra, anyway??).
One thing that Figurino Moldes does have, though, is a handful of children and men’s patterns. In particular, the cargoes for boys and the zipper-off shorts/trousers for men look better than average…
But I’ve saved the best for last. Oh boy. Besides the fact that the clothes are pretty awful (a Juicy Couture-a-like tracksuit? Really?), the blue screen beach and tacky poses just make me cringe. And the blue eyeshadow!! Did they just take over an amateur porn set for this photoshoot or something?
And finally, here’s an example of their pattern sheets. Strangely, the lines are pretty blurry like they’ve been colour photocopied instead of printed, but the lines don’t seem quite as dense as the other Brazilian magazines. Unlike Elena/Sabrina/Modellina, the magazine pages are quite robust in this magazine, so it’s just the pattern sheet printing that just lets it down here…
To me, this definitely feels like the ugly stepchild in the Brazilian pattern magazine world, but I’m grateful that my friend brought it back for me so I can see the full range of magazines on offer! It also helps to bring a dose of reality that Brazil isn’t entirely a magical sewing wonderland!
I’ll do a handy Guide to Brazilian pattern magazines post in a bit so you can keep the various options straight in case anyone in your life is jetting off to Rio soon!