Apologies for the late review of this issue, but considering the March edition hasn’t quite appeared on newsstands here in London yet, I think I’m technically still within the right timeframe. I know how much you all enjoy these roundups so I’m trying to post them whenever I can, but I hope you appreciate that my book posts take precedence (and a huge amount of time!).
So let’s dig in to this issue and see what we can find…
Apologies for the delays in posting this review of the first issue of Burda for 2018! I know a lot of you use these reviews to decide whether or not to buy this issue while it’s current, but the newsagent by my office where I tend to buy these didn’t have it before we broke up for the holidays, and, well – I’ve been very busy with posting all about the designs in my book recently!
But the good news is that this issue is worth the wait IMHO! I won’t be signing up for the Burda Challenge this year (been there, done that back in 2012!!), as I’ve already got way too much on my sewing plate already, but I’m not going to feel bad about not sewing much from these issues, either. I’m just going to enjoy the inspiration and talking points they provide, and hope that one day I’ll actually get to sew everything on my list!
Has it seriously been another full year from Burda already? I swear it only feels like yesterday that I was completing my “Burda challenge” to make one pattern from each issue, but that was five years ago!! Looking at my schedule for next year, I doubt I’ll be able to do that again soon, but I really would like to start making more from my magazine archive. I’ve decided to do a roundup post of my favourite Burda magazine patterns of 2017, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, let’s take a peek inside the last issue of the year…
It’s November! It’s Burda magazine, aka “Burda Style” or “Burda World of Fashion” to us old-school sewists (shout out to my old-school sewists!)! I’ve run out of ways to introduce pattern magazines anymore so let’s just skip over this intro and show you my picks, shall we?? 😂
We’re not overly enthusiastic when it comes to Halloween, but give us an occasion and my god, we’ll rise to it! So when we found out that our favourite cocktail bars, Merchant House and its sister bar Merchant House of Fleet Street, were going to hold Halloween parties this year with a prize for best costume, we started scheming… After a few weeks deliberation, we decided to go as a fox and a badger, the two mascots of the bars which represent the two owners (who kinda look like a fox and a badger each!).
Wow, what a whirlwind few weekends I’ve had recently! I’ve barely cleaned up from the Great British Sewing Bee Live show and suddenly I found myself jetting off to northern Portgual to run up and down some mountains in the unseasonable heat! I’ve written up a full race review on my running site, but it may interest some of you to know I wore the cycling shorts pattern from my book for the race, too (minus the padding and silicone elastic hems, of course!).
It might also interest those of you in the southern hemisphere to know that there’s a new activewear fabric store in Australia – Sew Active Fabrics – and they’ve got a bunch of wicking prints, too. I’ve got a few of their fabrics to road-test over the next few weeks, but you can save 10% with code LAUNCH10 til the end of November if you want a sneak peek for your spring and summer activewear makes.
But enough about me – let’s look inside the latest issue of Burda magazine and see what delights await us!
I’ll be honest with you – I wasn’t expecting to review this issue. I’ve subscribed to Burda for years now (and bought sporadically before that), but I’ve been increasingly been disgusted by their wasting an entire issue on dirndl dresses every September, which are a waste of my money, tbh. So when I got a notice that my subscription was ending with July’s issue, I thought “a-ha! I’ll outsmart you this year, Burda! I’ll buy August on the newsstand, skip your awful Dirndlpalooza issue, then re-subscribe with October!”
So I bought August (which was the best issue of the issue so far IMHO!), and then I tip-toed to the newsstand on my lunch hour last week to look through September… and no dirndls! Hurrah! A regular issue for September for the first time in at least five years! (Seriously though, if you want to sew your own dirndl, more power to you, there are loads on Burda’s site to help you with that.) I’ll still probably buy October from my newsstand just in case, but I think we might’ve escaped with much more usable patterns this year, hurrah!
oh. my. gorgeousness! Are you ready for, what’s in my humble opinion, the best Burda issue of the year, or possibly even the past few years? Seriously, there are SO many patterns in here that I want to make immediately that I can hardly stand it! In my eyes, I’d have to go back to the Japanese-style feature in June 2014 to find as many designs I’m utterly crazy about! But don’t take my word for it – let’s show you some of my picks!
We may be in the peak of summer here in the Northern hemisphere, but in Burda’s world July is the last of the summer issues, normally full of floaty beach wear and rectangles-masquerading-as-clothing but there’s surprisingly a lot to like in this issue, too…
No sooner had I shared my picks from the May issue and suddenly June turned up in my postbox! The cover declares this to be the dress issue, and with my proclivities towards separates, I wasn’t expecting much (especially since it’s a summer issue!), but there were a few treats inside…
