#springsewing

BurdaStyle April 2023

This issue has us moving into the summer season, so if you are not already sewing for hotter weather, you will start thinking you should be. There are sleeveless tops and a fuller skirt and pants for the seasonal look.

See Skirt 127 for one with a shaped and fitted yoke and then gathered below the show it in a striped terra cotta print, and various border prints might work well too. Since gathers can create mass, a rayon challis or a silk crepe or some other fabric with lots of drape would be a good idea. Trousers 125 A and 125 B would also work well in drapey fabrics as they have multiple pleats. You do want to wear them cropped as they show you as very wide legs worn long will catch on your feet at you walk.

You can always shorten Maxi Dress 119 if you don’t want such a long hemline. In fact, they shortened it into Top 120. Both have little pleats at the front neckline, and then gathers at both the collar and the waistline which has a drawstring. Again, gathers mean that a soft fabric with drape will work nest and also show off the little flounce in the sleeve. The pleats and the sleeve flounce do not exactly harmonize, so you might want to swap out a different sleeve, or simply take the sleeve and use it elsewhere.

There are sleeker looks as well as you can see in the sketches knit Dress 111, pleated Dress 116, and Top 109.

All of these patterns are included in this issue, printed out in overlapping lines on the pattern sheets. You then copy your garment and your size onto your own paper. Most of these come in sizes from 36-44 and some come in a few more sizes on either end of the size scale.

BurdaStyle Magazine, February 2023

This issue has both sporty and businesslike patterns, and some of them appear in both guises.

On the cover you see Blouson Jacket 110, a sporty model which uses stretch cords and snaps. Dress 117, a sleeveless sheath is shown both in white, looking like a tennis dress, and in a green boucle as you see here. It has an interesting flange feature at the shoulder line, but the welts are merely decorative and it doesn’t have pockets under them.

There are multiple knit tops including Top 123 which has a gathered detail at the neckline which is a little hard to see in the sewn model because of the print, but which you can see well in the sketch. It has a tie at the waist as well. See the sketches for 108, 120 and 121, and 106 with cut-outs that they also offer as a long dress 105. For making a top in a woven, the Tunic 103 makes for an adaptable piece which would drape best in a rayon or silk with some weight to it.

There are two Masterpieces—which are Burdaspeak for advanced sewing—one is Blazer 104  which they show in both white as you see here and in the more traditional pinstripes for office wear. The other is the Short Coat 111 which is only in the sketch here which they made in coated cotton canvas so as to make it waterproof. Both are detailed and should be planned and made as garments that will stay in your wardrobe for a while.

Many of the patterns now come in a wider range of sizes from 34-42 or 36-48. This will keep women who wear smaller sizes from pining after plus-sized garments and vice versa. In total, there are 7 dresses, some with sleeve or other variations, 3 jackets, 1 coat, 7 tops with variations, 2 skirts with variations, 2 pairs of trousers, 1 pair of pleated shorts, and  2 menswear shirts. The full sewing lessons—the instructions for all the rest are written but not illustrated—are one of the men’s shirts and one of the short jackets.

In short, a lot of patterns for the price. You do have to trace out the pattern pieces from the overprinted pattern sheets, so it is a tradeoff of time and effort.