More Crack Smokin’ Fashion Madness

So I don’t normally feel compelled to comment about Burda Style. It’s a goofy magazine at the best of times, with an oddly eclectic assortment of fashion “points of view” as they say (ad nauseum) on Project Runway. I mean, this makes sense: it comes out once a month and it has an average of 25 patterns in it. That’s a lot of magazine to fill and a lot of patterns to design. And let’s be honest, there are only so many things that can be reasonably done with a jacket. I expect to not love every issue. Some things are going to be more appealing to me than others. Fair enough. And then yesterday the December 2009 issue showed up in my mailbox.

All I can think is that the good people at Burda have finally succumbed completely to what used to be an occasional crack habit and they are now living in a box under the bridge and shouting incoherently at people who walk by.

First, there’s the “Party” section. Fine. Clearly they’re aiming for the young 20’s market. But really, is this something that’s appropriate for any party that isn’t one where you’re working as the “entertainment”?

And then, there’s this.

But wait, here’s what the text said: "Our extravagant brocade evening blouse with big, shoulder-puff sleeves is particularly flattering on tall women."

This actually left me speechless for several seconds.

They think a tall woman would be better off in this thing? Right. Because that’s what all the tall women I know want, to look like a linebacker.

After that rather breathtaking weirdness, I decided to just skip ahead to the “plus”-sized section. Compared to the rest of the magazine, they usually have pretty dull offerings in this section so I figured, “How bad can it be?”

“Hey Sailor, want some company?”

Seriously? And it just goes on from there. I mean, really: this month they have four different styles of capes. Capes, for crying out loud!

I just can’t get behind this issue. Maybe next month’s will be more inspiring.

edited to add: I saw this review by ALY at PatternReview and while I still can't really get behind the linebacker garment (or this entire issue, for that matter) I will say that she did a really spectacular job sewing this up and it looks pretty good on her. So you go, ALY! (And she's tall, too, so there you go what do I know?)

Ah, Farewell Sweet Polo, We Hardly Knew Ye.

Here is the LAST THING I AM GOING TO POST ABOUT POLOS.  Ever.  Or at least until I think of something else I might want to say about polo shirts.  I am way sick of them at this point.  Also, my neighbor just gave me two shirts and a dress that her daughter outgrew.   We have enough polos to last awhile.   And speaking of dresses, here is the dress that she gave me:

Here is the dress that I made.  This was my last polo effort to date.  See?  It's a polo.  It's a dress.  It's a POLO DRESS.  Oooo.

(Sorry about the wacky skewed image, it's that stand-at-the-table-with-the-camera-over-my-head thing again.  I have to find the stepladder.)

BORING TECHNICAL DETIAILS: Basically, to make the dress pattern I took the bodice of my KwikSew polo pattern (aha!  something useful came out of it after all) and added extra width on each side seam tapering from nothing at the armscye to a half-inch at the bottom hem.  Then I added a big rectangle of gathered fabric for the skirt.  (I created the A-line shape for the bodice because I was afraid it would be too narrow for easy movement if I left it straight.  In retrospect, I didn’t need that added width at all.)

I didn't do much with the skirt on this one and it's a little floppy.  This particular article of clothing combined several "firsts" for me and that was just too much for my brain to deal with.  I couldn't add the extra brain-drain of trying to calculate even pleats with the very specific length of fabric I had.  Which leads me to my first "first".

Question: "Can you make a dress out of an adult-sized (albeit pretty large) polo shirt?"

Answer: "Why, yes.  Yes, you can.”

Not only was I able to squeeze all the bodice pieces into the top half of the old shirt, but I cut the sleeves from the old sleeves (thus utilizing the pre-made knit cuffs)

and used the collar (see this post about cutting down a collar). 

All that careful squishing gave me juuuuust enough fabric left over at the bottom to make the skirt. 

 

This photo is from the beginning of the school year.  SuperGirl here has grown a little since then so it fits her a little bit better.  It's still pretty floppy, though.  When I make more of these (like in the far far distant future) I might have to just cut them from actual yardage so I can have pleats instead of gathers.

So, what were  the other "firsts", you ask?  Honestly, I can't remember now.  Ack.  My brain is melted.  I have Polo Brain.   Clearly a case of Polo Brain requires extensive rest.  And possibly hot chocolate.

Oooo, but here is another “first”":  I just used Windows Live Writer to create this blog page and it is so cool!  I thought it would be dumb, but it’s way easier to do it this way than with Blogger’s tools.  So “Yay, Windows!”  Who woulda thunk?

Well, we're not Russian but...

We are shaped like peasants. It's genetic.

There are about fifty things in the 4-2009 issue of Ottobre that I would like to make. I especially like the Russian Peasant section, but then I've always been a sucker for Eastern European stuff (you know... vodka, borscht, that guy named Boris that I dated for a few weeks).



I started with pattern #21 "Anemone Stripes" tunic. This isn't a great photo, but it's what I have.



I made two versions of this t-shirt for TLo several weeks ago. I have to say, I'm really pleased with this pattern. I wasn't totally convinced about the sort of faux layered look from the magazine photos. But this shirt is just cute! It has a very nice shape and the faux layering thing isn't as tacky as I thought it might be. I know, I know... I should never have doubted the great Hepola design instinct.



Version 1 was made with that stripey black fabric as the main body and then two different scraps of orange and peach/orange knit. I wish that part showed up better in photos, I really like the subtlety of the two oranges. The peach is the bib and sleeve fabric and the orange is the sleeve and neck binding-- the picture above shows it a little bit better. Since I apparently have acres of the black stripey fabric on hand from a three-year-old FabricMart purchase, you could say this entire shirt was made from stash scraps. I still have acres of that fabric.



I like this t-shirt so much I'm tempted to make a few more, although it's sort of a very obvious look. I don't suppose you can really have too many of these in one wardrobe. Too bad, because the style fits TLo especially well (not that you can tell from the bad photo above), but it looks pretty good on The Big One too. She's worn version 2 twice already. Speaking of which:

Here's version 2.



I did a sort of fake triple coverstitch on the hem (despite the fact that I have an actual triple coverstitch machine). This is because my first pass at the hem missed about 75% of the actual hemline. Doh! So I just ran over it again. This actually gave the hem a nice weight, the shirt hangs nicely now. The fabric is really heavy and has a lot of lycra in it so it could take the extra stitching.




I think that's about all I have the strength for tonight, I'm off to bed. I am so glad it's Friday tomorrow. Although Saturday would, I suppose, be even better.