Burda May 2011 Picks

My love affair with Burda had ended ( though I still bought the magazines religiously). Issue after issue was put out with nothing remotely tempting. I think I continued buying the magazine out of habit. Its just one of those things you do, even though you know you should not.

Maybe the peeps up at Burda are pyschic, and sensed my displeasure with them because the may issue seems to be different. I have seen a few things that I know I will definitely be making sometime this year. The holiday section looks really interesting, so an added plus. I am contemplating these:

I love the collar, and I think its perfect for work.

Another nice work outfit

A little va-va -voom never did any harm did it?

I can see myself in this in Mallorca this summer.

I can totally see myself in this dress. This is perfect for both work, and fancy events. With different fabrics of course.

A nice casual look, I could go without the pockets.

The thing I hate about Burda is the extra step of tracing the pattern pieces before cutting them out. When I was younger, my mom used to make me trace out her patterns. Not something I used to look forward to I must add. My poor knees almost gave out before I even got to 15. Its funny how she used to sew clothes for herself, but I was never interested in sewing...not when I had boys to giggle at. Might I also point out that I spent 7 years in an all girls Baptist boarding school, so looking at boys during holiday time was a very serious event.  We used spend term time looking forward to the holidays, and then spent the holidays looking forward to going back to school to compare notes on the boys we saw. Gross, I know, but at that time, that was the highlight of our teenage lives. Girls with bothers were extremely popular in school. I on the other hand, had 4 3 older sisters, and a multitude of female cousins, so that was not cool.

Back to dear old Aunty Aenne Burda. I'm glad they are slowly but surely getting back on track.

What about you? Is anyone considering Burda Mag this may?

happy Easter

Dibs

Threads Magazine give away

In my overzealousness, I bought 2 copies of the current Threads Magazine. Not at the same time mind you. I bought one last month, then forgot that I had it, and bought another one last week. So I figured maybe one of you has not bought this yet. So if anyone is interested, let me know. I don't have many people reading my blog so its only a handful of you. I suppose it will be fair to give it to the first person who puts up their finger. So, if you need it, could you just drop me a note? or, if possible, could you raise a finger? lol.

Happy Easter

xoxo

Dibs

New patterns for summer holiday wardrobe

I went to the Darlington town centre today to check out what the charity shops there had to offer. I always love rummaging in charity shops for stuff because you can sometimes find interesting things there. Though sometimes its like a mad house, with people donating items that are clearly unwearable.

I did not really see anything I liked, so I went into another shop to look at their fabric selection. I mentioned in an older post, that I was going away this summer, and would be making my holiday wardrobe, so I figured I could start with a maxi dress. So, when going through their fabric collection, I noticed they had a half price deal on simplicity patterns. I like simplicity patterns, but I rarely buy them as I get Vogue, Butterick and McCall at half price all the time courtesy of my sewdirect membership. Talking of which, they have a 50% discount promotion going on right now for all McCall patterns to non-members.

I bought this pattern

I also bought this fabric to make it. It is 100% polyester, so it was not expensive. If I like the finished outfit, I might consider making it in silk.

I bought non-static polyester lining, which was the only lining they had. I asked the sales rep if it was ok with the type of fabric I bought. Now, I don't know if she knows much about linings, but she assured me it was the best for the fabric I have( I suspect she just wanted to make a sale). This interaction made me realise I had no knowledge about what type of lining to use for what fabric. That merits a post I suppose. So I will have to update my fabric knowledge. Any thoughts on which books to look at?

I also bought 3 Lisette patterns (distributed by Simplicity). This is a new pattern line, from the makers of the Oliver and S pattern line. Oliver and S specialise in children's wear, and presently, they only have four patterns in their Lisette line. For anyone who is on Burdastyle, you will notice that Oliver and S is always present on your page, as the sponsor of projects. I have not really seen many people posting pictures of their completed projects. But then again, this line was only launched this year, February I think. I did find one though, by nightknitter. She has made about 4 or 5 items with these patterns, so if you are interested in seeing how they are finished, you might want to go to her blog. So far, I'm loving their instructions. They have little tips called "Lisette tips" included in their instructions. This comes as a huge relief because Simplicity pattern instructions can sometimes be very vague, assuming that everyone knows what it means to "staystitch". I hope they will be easy to carry out, as they are to read.

I was so happy when I went to pay for these four patterns, and was informed at the till that I qualified for a free pattern. Apparently anyone who bought 4 patterns, got the 5th one free. So I selected this one

I chose those patterns because I will use them for my holiday wardrobe. So, these patterns should give me about 4 dresses, 2 tops and a pair of shorts. 

I started cutting the maxi dress today, but had to stop halfway because we went out for a family meal. So I will continue it tomorrow, and hopefully should finish it by Thursday night. Just in time for the barbecue we will be having on Friday. Its not very hot up here in the North of england, but I INSIST on suffering for my art. 

take care everyone,

xoxo

Dibs

1st attempt at Crocheting a hat

Please don't laugh at this ( lol). My family have been laughing at me all morning, and there's just so much anyone can take.

Yesterday I took it upon myself to learn how to crochet. I've been seeing a lot of knitting and crocheting going on in awesome blogs, and feeling soooooooo jealous that I could only create with the help of a machine, and not with my bare hands. To make matters worse, I saw Donna's blanket  and Kestrel's stripped socks, and I just knew I had to do something about  it.

So armed with four hooks I bought after church in the church fund raising table for the grand sum of 50p each, I harassed my mother-in-law for some yarn. She gave me what she had left at home, and I went on youtube, to see if I could learn from any videos. Now there are loads of helpful people out there, willing to help people like me, who have no idea on what to do with a hook, but sometimes, the willingness to help gets lost in translation, and the videos are anything but helpful. Anyways I managed to piece two and two together by looking at many videos, and started my crocheting journey. 2 hours later , my mother-in-law and I went shopping, so I was able to buy more yarn from hobbycraft, which was 50% Merino wool, at £1.99 on sale. Apparently that was a bargain. I have no idea if its true.

So, after watching countless hours of videos, and undoing everything about 6 times,  I managed to make this hat. Its is supposed to be a cloche hat, but to be honest, i think it looks anything but.

Are you done laughing? Good. 

Hopefully next time I will do a better job of it.

I really like crocheting, especially as I am on holiday, and I am expected to do stuff with the family, so I have not had time to sew anything. At least with crocheting, I can crochet in the car, or when we go to the park, or sit with the rest of the family and crochet, and participate in conversations. Thats not quite possible when sewing, because the noise from the sewing machine is more than enough to drive everyone from your side.

So though I do miss my machine, at least I was able to satisfy my creative urges by learning something new.

Now what can I make next?

xoxo

Dibs

Online Fabric Shopping

For someone who loves sewing, fabric shopping is one of the things you look forward. In my case, entering a fabric shop is similar to a kid entering a candy shop. I get all excited, oohhing and ahhing when I see something nice. When I went to Berwick street (off Oxford Street, London), I oohed and ahhd in the first shop I entered, but that quickly turned to "huh?", and "oh dear", when I was told the price of a metre of a gorgeous cotton print. I quickly ushered myself out of the shop. Needless to say, I have never gone back.

Fabric shopping in London is quite interesting, but stressful, because London is so big, and you spend most of the day travelling from one end of town to the other. Sometimes its not worth it. I'm fortunate that I have my beloved Goldhawk road close to my house, but its really difficult discovering new places if you don't venture out of your area.

Cue in online fabric shopping.

Though I love fabric shopping, I have never bought fabric online. Well I did buy a lace trimming once, but I don't technically class that as fabric shopping. I think I'm much too scared that what I ordered might not come through, or that I won't love it when I see how it really is. Plus I always like to touch fabric and make a connection with it before buying. Also it does not help that some of the online fabric shops do nothing to really promote the fabric they sell, and sometimes the information provided is so confusing and the sites are so headache inducing that I'd rather not go there.

I've discovered one online shop though, which is really tempting me into buying some fabric. Its called My Fabrics. Its a German company I think, because they have their outlet store in Germany, and the prices are quoted in Euros.The site is well organised. They give care instructions for each fabric, as well as pictures of items you can make with the fabric.

Their sale prices are also very good. With prices going down to £2/metre on all sorts of fabric, like this pure 100% pure Italian cotton fabric, which went from 16.95 euros to 3.26 (£2.76).

Their shipping rates are not bad either. Anything up to 100 euros is shipped through DHL at 5.95 euros, and anything over that is free. Very tempting.

They also welcome visitors to their fabric outlet store in Halstenbek, near Hamburg. Which is good to know, especially if you find yourself in Germany. I wonder if it will be mad to plan a trip to Germany purely to visit this factory. Come to think of it, it might not be that bad, especially with cheap flights from EasyJet ( yes I know, my husband says I'm crazy too)

Ohh, so much to see, and touch.

Right, I better get off and start looking at possible targets for my sewing projects. Its a good thing there is the Goldhawk Rd. meet-up on the 14th of May. That way, I won't go wild on the My Fabrics website.

Take care everyone.

Xoxo

Dibs