A diary of all my mad projects.

I am glad that you stopped by - welcome to my world. Its a little mad and hectic as I sew, knit, embroider and generally craft my way through life. My newest resolution is to spend more time sewing - less time dreaming about it. I love to read comments so I am looking forward to hearing from you all.




Monday, May 20, 2013

Burda Magazines and questions answered.



I thought I would start with answering the questions about my relationship with Burda patterns.

My wonderful mother used to make all her childrens clothes as was common at this time.  Money was tight so she often remade garments from handme downs and cast offs - at this time this was not chic and fashionable but rather a necessary part of survival!  When there was money available she would purchase fabric and reach for a Burda magazine and sew us beautiful dresses, trousers, shirts and tops.  My sisters and I spent hours pouring over the magazines, often handed on by our grandmother, dreaming of the outfits that might be created for us.  I fondly remember a bright red corduroy jacket and electric blue and red plaid bell bottoms with cuffs.  I was fortunate enough to have a pair of red patent lace ups given to me to wear with this outfit!  I thought I was the bees knees wearing this getup!  It was a sad day when the outfit  had to be passed down to the next sister.  I do not have any photos of this but here are two wonderful dresses that my mother made, I am wearing them to show off at Calf day.

Fast forward to the 1980's and I am sewing with Burda myself.  I still have a few of these magazines but they are very much of that time with big shoulder pads and dropped shoulders - I am not sure that they are really much use for anything but interest.


At this time Burda produced a variety of pattern magazines, Miss B had fashion for the young woman and was often very fashion forward - this was a fav from this time.  Sewing made Easy was also another favourite as each pattern was illustrated with step by step photos.  My sewing skills were greatly improved by these magazines and I still have a large number of them.






At present I have a large collection of Burda and as previously mentioned was gifted most issues from 2000 to 2010.  This is a great timewaster as I often spend time pouring through the magazines to find that perfect shirt or blouse, shades of my childhood!  I also have a large collection of Burda Plus magazines and have made numerous garments from these.  In addition I also have paper patterns which I have purchased when the thought of tracing the design was going to hinder the creative urge.

I have often thought that I needed to be more organised and file each magazines black outline section in a folder to make searching the right pattern easier but then...no that would destroy some of the process for me. 

Here is the latest tagging for this sewalong!!





6 comments:

  1. Looks like you have plenty to choose from, I love looking through my burdas too. What are you planning to make?

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    1. Hi Petal - I have just finished a coat that I am about to post about. I checked the wardrobe out and find that I need more shirts and tops. I am trying to find that "perfect" shirt!!

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  2. The black and white photos are so sweet, very kiwi! :) I have given up trying to order my Burda mags because you have to flick through each one to find anything anyway so I agree it is part of the creation process :)

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  3. Thanks curiouskiwi, I am enjoying your burda posts.

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  4. I have some treasured issues of Miss B and Sewing Made Easy (wonderful pictures) and I had a subscription for a short time to another version called Burda International, which had patterns for very dressy, designer type clothes. I love looking through the old issues for design details or fabric ideas to incorporate into newer patterns.

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  5. Lovely post! After many years not skipping a magazine edition, I stopped bying Burda (I currently wrote a post about this) but I am thankful to the magazine that helped me start sewing. Like you, going through my old magazines bring me good memories!

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