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KnipMode February 2012

1 February 2012, 14:26

The February issue arrived a week or so ago, and thankfully it’s a lot better than January’s lackluster offering!

The first feature in the magazine teams blue with a bunch of other colours. I especially liked this blue & orange combination since orange is just SO hot right now. I quite like a lot of these separates but I love the seamed jeans!

Ooh, four basic trousers – I really like the first three (the last, not so much)…

This little cropped jersey cardi reminds me SO MUCH of one that was published in the Jan 2010 (#11) issue that I actually traced off at the time but then didn’t have enough fabric to make….

Here’s another shot of those trousers I like so much, plus a jacket which uses a border print really well. KnipMode may have stopped using the reader-models, but I’m glad they’ve continued using a mixtures of races and ages – I think this older lady is just stunningly beautiful and poised (it doesn’t hurt that she’s using an old PowerBook, either!)

Another of their “best basics” selection – four black jackets. I only liked these two, and especially the idea of making a blazer in leather…

On the Plus side of things, this parka pattern looks totally RTW and the jeans with the front leg seaming are just excellent! These are the sort of patterns I never seem to see in Burda’s Plus sized offerings…

And finally, since it’s Carnival time, there were a bunch of costumes for children and parents, but the difference here is that they’re all pattern-free – you get diagrams and measurements of rectangles and you can draft the designs based on this. Most of them are quite simplistic but I was impressed this kimono and cheongsan were only made of rectangles!

Coming up – my Burda February dress! The first version, anyway!

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Morphing the Manequim sweater pattern to my size

20 January 2012, 13:56

If you remember from earlier in the week, my next project is to make this collared sweater from the June 2011 Manequim magazine:

Since the pattern is only in one size, “Small”, my strategy was to take an existing long sleeved teeshirt pattern that I know fits me well, trace that, then trace the neckline area from the Manequim pattern overlaid onto it and morph the two together. For simplicity’s sake, I wanted to keep the collar piece as unaltered as possible.

Here’s that wonderful diagram again showing how the Manequim pattern fits together, so we all have an idea in our head of what we’re aiming towards:

While overlaying the Manequim pattern onto mine, I wasn’t quite sure what I should use as the “frame of reference” to align the two patterns together – should I use the Centre Front & Centre Back? Or the shoulder seam/armscye corner?

In the end, it turned out that sorting out the Back first was the key to making the bigger changes on the Front piece work, since the Back of my teeshirt and the Back of this pattern were much more similar.


I’ve shaded my final pattern shapes in blue here to try to make it clearer. The original teeshirt pattern is (mostly) at the cut edge of the paper. Ignore the red lines – they were misaligned tracings!

First, I placed mark 1 at the shoulder/armscyce corner, then measured the distance between 1 and 2 on the Manequim pattern and placed it the same distance apart on my pattern. Then I measured the distance between 2 and the corner on the collar pattern (I labelled this “a” for my own sanity), and marked this distance on my pattern as the edge of the shoulder seam, also marking this “a”. I then realised that the distance between “a” and the Centre Back (5) was absolutely going to be longer than between “a” and 5 on the collar piece, so I drew a nice neck curve there, measured it (with my Japanese pizza wheel tool), and had to add a bit of length into the collar piece to make it match. C’est la vie.


Addition to the Collar piece…

Having completed the Back piece, I then moved on to the Front, which only has a very short shoulder seam (between marks 1 and 2), because the collar takes up the rest of the width there. This is actually really similar to the shoulder seam on Paco’s Draped collar tunic pattern actually!

So I aligned the shoulder/armscye corners of the Front and Back, and marked that 1 on my Front piece. I then marked 2 at the same point where it matches up with the Back:

On the Front neckline, there’s a mark 3 midway down which shows where the collar overlap stops, so I measured the Collar piece between 2 and 3, and drew a line of the same length on my Front piece. Then I measured the Collar piece between mark 3 and mark 4 (the Centre Front), since I knew that whatever neckline curve I drew on my piece between marks 3 and 4 had to be this same length (unless I changed the Collar piece again, which I didn’t fancy doing).

So with a bit of finagling with my French curves, I got a line that was the same length, though you can see my neckline will be slightly higher and wider than the Manequim pattern, but I’m thinking that shouldn’t be a big deal.

Here’s the pattern pieces again:

I did all of the above on Wednesday night, but I also went and traced that Burda February dress at the same time. You may have seen me tweet about it at the time, but this was a total beast to trace. I must’ve traced at least a hundred Burda patterns in my day, but following red lines printed over pink shaded areas was really tough, even for me. If you don’t normally trace your patterns with the pattern paper on top, you may want to make an exception for this one!

And finally, a link for your Friday afternoon – I’m totally fascinated by this interactive analysis of US and UK high street clothing brand sizes! Give it your measurements, and it’ll show you how you correspond to various brands’ sizes. Though I found it kinda unnerving that my exact measurements were the default! Am I really Ms Average??

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KnipMode January 2012

19 January 2012, 14:39

I’m totally bored with this issue, so I apologise for going through the motions here. KnipMode have really taken a turn for the dull over the past few months, as far as I’m concerned, and this issue really just highlights what’s wrong with the new leadership at the magazine.

This issue is almost entirely comprised of “mix & match” garments – if you’re familiar with the Simplicity Project Runway patterns, then it’s the same concept here: choose a bodice, choose a collar, choose a sleeve, etc, and put together the garment you prefer. In principle, this is a great thing, and I’ve been enthusiastic when they’ve done this with cocktail dresses and blouses in the past.

The problem here is that every single one of these garments is b-o-r-i-n-g to start with, so choosing between several boring customisation options just doesn’t make it any better. It’s like someone at the top heard the concept was popular with readers, but didn’t actually go so far as to make sure the underlying patterns were desirable before running away with the concept…

Case in point – the jackets. I’m not particularly a jacket person anyway, but I swear KnipMode have already published princess seamed jacket patterns for every single one of these variations in the past six months anyway. And the sleeves – changing the length is NOT a variation, as far as I’m concerned. I mean, why aren’t they changing the sleeve cap to gathered, or making one a wide cape sleeve, or a cap sleeve on one or something?? There’s so much you could be changing here but they’ve just missed the opportunity.

Dresses – again, those bodices and skirts are just not different enough. This is the same freaking dress across all the options.

Trousers. These are all wide-legged trousers, and tucking them in at the ankle does not hide the fact that it’s the same damn trousers pattern over and over again! Seriously, there was way more variation in their January 2011 “Trouserpalooza” issue than in this.

Complaining is really hard work. I’m just going to post the rest of the mixes and let you fill in the rant.

The only part of the magazine that wasn’t mix & match was the “Take 5” feature, where they show a pattern made up in five different fabrics. But I’m not even fond of the top or skirt here, bah.

In fact, the only reason to buy this issue is to get the enormous, fold-out, poster of all the tech drawings from 2011 (this scan is just a very small portion of it)

They started this in 2010 and it’s a really useful reference – already I’ve seen some patterns from early 2011 that I’d forgotten about, and it’s nice to see everything categorised by garment type rather than issue.

My subscription still has about 7 or 8 months left, so I still hold out hope that KnipMode can turn things around the way Burda did at the end of 2011 after an entire year of “Blah”. I mean, the February 2012 issue is amaaaaaaazing!

UPDATE: My February Knip just arrived this week, after writing this post but before it went live. February’s issue is a little better, thankfully.

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Upcoming January sewing

17 January 2012, 14:36

I’ve finally emerged from the craptacular flu (which then turned into bronchitis) that I’ve been under since Dec 28 – thank you for all your well wishes! For me, it really feels like the new year, 16 days late!

The Ruby Slip was my first garment of 2012, but my second and third aren’t far away…

Grey flannel trousers


Just before Christmas, I met up with Claire for lunch and she gifted me a massive length of wonderful dark grey flannel. It’s so soft and lovely that initially I thought a dress, but then realised I’m likely to get much more wear out of a really chic, comfortable pair of dress trousers. So on Friday night I traced and cut Burda Jan 12 #122, mostly because the issue was handy, but also because they looked to be a great basic. These have the illustrated instructions for this issue, but I could sew trousers blindfolded by this point, so the instructions didn’t make much difference to me.

I sewed this on and off over the weekend and nearly completed these despite hardly being at home. As a nice tie-in to my previous garment, the pockets, fly underlap, and waistband lining are all done in the pale green silk leftover from my Ruby Slip.

These are finished apart from the hem – I added 11+ cm onto these to be full length rather than “my god my ankles are cold” like the original pattern…

Manequim sweater

Mentally, I’m already on my next garment – the collared sweater from the June 2011 Manequim magazine:

The pattern is only offered in size “Small” (whatever that is, I doubt it’s me!), so I’m going to trace the collar piece and the neckline shape, and morph these onto a standard long sleeved teeshirt pattern (either my KnipMode one or BurdaStyle’s Lydia, whichever traced pattern I find first).

Happily, last year there was a discussion thread about this pattern on PR, during which there was a lot of discussion about its construction. User aonori made this super useful diagram, which really gives me an “Ah-ha!” moment for how the collar goes together:

I’ve got some awesome ex-Versace sweater knit from Ditto in Brighton that I’ve been wanting to sew since I bought it last winter, but it’s really narrow so everything else I’ve tried hasn’t fit on my 2m piece. I did a preliminary, pre-tracing layout and it looks good for this, though.

(No, I’m not sick of grey yet, thankyouverymuch!)

February Burda dress

And finally, like a ton of other sewing ladies, I am head over heels in love with this dress from the February 2012 Burda magazine. My issue arrived this weekend and I want it even more now. LOVE. Because I’m trying not to buy more fabric, I’ll be making it (probably) in some royal blue viscose jersey from my stash (also from Ditto), though temptation to buy some nice ponti roma from Tia Knight is strong!

PS: A big hello to my granddad, who’s learning to use the internet for the first time and apparently checks FehrTrade every day. Hi Pop!

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Manequim November, December 2011 and January 2012

16 January 2012, 15:17

I’ve got a bumper stack of Manequim magazines to show you! A few turned around the same time in December due to the holiday post office disruption, and then the summer styles didn’t really inspire me to review these right away, and then the flu struck me down for a full fortnight… but it means you get to see a bunch of Brazilian summer fashions all at once!

There actually should’ve been a fourth issue here, too, but the other November issue (629) never turned up, and was presumably lost in the post. Bummer. I don’t really understand why Manequim always do two issues in November, but it seems that this one was lost for a lot of people – when I requested a replacement, they didn’t have any more in stock, so my subscription was extended instead. I’ve since seen that Melissa‘s copy of this issue was also lost but turned up months later, so I still live in hope! In any case, if you want to see photos, you’ll have to check out her review…

November 2011 (630)


I quite like this teeshirt with the draped hem, though I have no idea why they decided to hide its defining aspect by tucking it in…

I really like the cut of this relaxed tee, especially the shoulder seaming, but I’d love to see this in an unexpected fabric, like a silk crepe or linen instead of the usual jersey.

Manequim and Patrones tend to produce a fair amount of bikini patterns each year, but I hardly ever see interesting one-piece patterns – I really like the gathered detail on the straps here, though I think most women would want to raise the neckline a bit.

And finally, I really like the asymmetric mesh insert on this otherwise basic teeshirt pattern – it’d be a great use for swiss dot or stretch lace, too (like I’m so fond of!).

December 2011 (631)


The way the model is standing pulls this sheath dress in a rather distorted way, but I like the sleek lines in the tech drawing.

If it were hot and summery here now, I’d be all over this floaty, chiffon top with its cute ruffle sleeves…

These look like a great pair of basic trousers – I’ve not tried any of Manequim’s trouser patterns yet, but the fact that this one is multi-sized is a big plus, especially for anyone who’s different sizes at the waist and hips!

Speaking of Plus, the larger ladies get some amazing evening gowns in this issue, and omg one of them is actually a free download, too!

January 2012 (632)


This issue is actually my favourite of the three!

In the “Inspired by soap stars” section, I rather like this Grecian-styled draped dress, and unlike a lot of maxidresses, I think this one could be shortened without ruining the look.

I really like the tech drawing for this little blue sheath dress. The feature was entirely miniskirts, but it’d be really easy to extend the hemline on this to add some extra coverage. I mean, how many of us really like our cheeks bare when we sit down? (if you’re keeping track, I’m in the “Not me!” camp!)

The Designer inspiration this month is Celine, and I quite liked the linear colourblocking on this top, though the sleeves/bands remind me a lot of the original sleeves on the Burda September cover dress (which I made twice and loved, but I never used the sleeve flap/bands).

This skirt remind me a lot of the La Mia Boutique pleated skirt I made last year – it’s even got pockets hidden in some of the pleats, too! The main difference here is that the front is open, though, but it’d probably give more walking ease than my LMB skirt.

This one-shoulder dress is by far my favourite pattern in all these magazines! I absolutely love the way the back extends over and the pleating and overlay hide the seam. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that the dress is is the same muted, pale gold colour as my high school prom dress, either! This is only available in a 40, but it would be pretty straightforward to morph the shoulder detail onto a size 44 dress elsewhere in my magazine archive, even adding a standard strap to the other side if I wanted!

And finally, this blue top doesn’t look like much until you check out the tech drawing – the sleeves are ever-so-slightly different, but I think it’d be enough to really dress up your average pair of jeans.

Phew! That was a lot of Manequim! Next up, I’ve got some updates on garments, both in-progress and coming up, plus a quick rundown on the January KnipMode.

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Patrones 309 & 9

5 January 2012, 13:52

Happily, I got a chance to catch up on my magazine scanning over the holidays (expect to see a boat-load of Manequims and a rather boring KnipMode as well), so I can finally show you some highlights from the two Patrones issues my inlaws very kindly picked up for me while they were holidaying in Spain at the end of last year.

First up is a new(ish) issue, full of fall and winter fashions!

Patrones 309


I think this Cos coat is really interesting, though with it open on the model and a vague tech drawing, I’m not really sure how the finished coat would look. I mean, I like asymmetry, but does this mean one thigh would always be cold?

I love the cut of this motorcycle jacket and mixing the leather and tweed together like this, but omg did they have to use just a cheap and nasty pleather here? I can practically smell the petrochemicals from here, and the sleeves just make me want to cry! Still, how nice would this be in good leather?

There was a pretty funny feature in this issue with rainwear, though on closer inspection it was mostly trenchcoats (I’ve got too many patterns for already!) and capes/ponchos (bleck), but I rather liked this traditional, hooded raincoat.

And finally, there were a lot of great pencil skirts in this issue, but my favourites were these two, which I could equally see myself wearing!

Patrones 9


This is one of the “greatest hits” issues which reprints patterns from earlier issues.

It’s difficult to see in the photo since they used black fabric, but the tech drawing here shows this little sheath dress has some amazing angular seaming in the front. I can see this would be so flattering, and can you imagine how lovely this would be if you did an ombre effect with slightly different shades of fabric for each piece? (Shame the “coffin back” is so boring, though, but that could be easily fixed by extending those seam lines around…)

File under: Things I’ll never sew, nor wear, but just like to admire.

Whereas this is something I have made, holy crap! Look, they’ve reprinted the Toypes top I made in purple silk back in 2008! (back then Patrones could name the designers…)

Now this is probably my favourite design of both issues – I just adore the draped insert panel here, plus the weird pleating. I’ve shown the pattern pieces here as well because I found them really interesting, and not at all obvious from the tech drawing or photo.

And finally, just for a laugh, I had to include one photo from this awful, stereotypical 90s Versace-style photoshoot. That hair! That makeup! The excess! You can almost be forgiven for overlooking the rather classic coat pattern hiding under all that…

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Happy 2012!

1 January 2012, 13:44

As is traditional, I like to take the opportunity at the start of a new year to look back on what I’ve sewn in the previous calendar year.

Somehow I keep getting more and more prolific each year… and it’s a bonus that you get to watch my hair grow as you skim downwards, ha!


(Click the above to en-biggen, or right-click here to open it in a new tab to get a better look

You’ll notice a few at the bottom that I haven’t shown you yet (seriously I only just finished the maternity maxidress with mere hours to go!), but all the rest can be seen by clicking the Gallery link on the top left of the site, then clicking through to the full article.

To make a few statistical analyses of my own, by my count:

Plus, I err, work a full time job that has nothing to do with sewing, we spent the majority of weekends from May-Dec doing “galley slave work” converting the hold of our boat, and according to my running site, I also ran just over 2000km this year (whoa!). And I cook dinner from scratch most nights and bake at the weekends, too (but no matter how I say it, that either sounds like bragging, or something that everyone should do anyway without even mentioning. hrm.).

Biggest disappointment was the Burda draped suit jacket. Blah.

Favourite and/or most worn of the year:

Wow, this was really difficult! I could’ve picked about ten things here, easily!


The Burda September cover dress, both winter and summer versions. LOVE both of these. In fact, I’d probably venture to say this was my pattern of the year, even though it was published in 2010 (whatever!).


The turquoise and silver motif dress, which took hours of handsewing all around France. True to my word, I wore this all summer long, and the prickstitched lining made me smile every time.


My entire March mini-wardrobe! I’ve worn the jeans, bolero, leather skirt, and silk blouse more times than I could count. I pulled out all the stops on this, and I’m still kinda amazed I finished it all in under a month and got such amazing wear out of everything.


I wasn’t even sure if I even liked my foldover wool trousers when I first tried them on, but slowly but surely, I began to love them. It didn’t hurt that being underlined in silk made them my most comfortable and warmest trousers ever!

Colour of the Year:

Most definitely grey! From the grey lace dress to the grey leather skirt to the charcoal grey sheath dress and vintage skirt, three separate knit tops, plus an entire suit, I think my love affair with the most underrated neutral is plain to see!

I’m not a “resolution” person, so I won’t be making any bold claims for 2012 – all I ever do is look to the near future and sew what I like. With a bit of luck, sometimes I even like what I sew!

If you’re curious to see how 2011 stacked up to previous years, you can have a look at previous roundups here: 2010, 2009, 2008, and 2007.

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Sewing Christmas Gifts

30 December 2011, 21:06

I know this is sure to shock you (ha!), but I received a fair few sewing-related Christmas gifts this year…

The Colette Sewing Handbook – I’ve only cracked the surface of the content here, but I love it already. It’s so comprehensive and ends up being greats for beginners as well as old hats like me. And how chuffed was I to see FehrTrade.com in the Recommended Reading List??

I received a slew of novels and cookbooks from my WishList, amoungst those were the sewing-related novels Pleating for Mercy and The Seamstress of Hollywood Boulevard. I’m just hoping they’re better written than Laura’s Handmade Life, which I struggled to even finish earlier this year and is now on the charity shop pile (god knows why it has so many 5 star reviews on Amazon – it was so bad it was almost insulting)…

I also received a really cute ModCloth spool headphone keeper – it’s made of silicone to look like an oversized thread spool, but to keep your headphones tidy (my earbuds are tucked inside).

And I got a tiny travel speaker to use in my sewing room – like the one Karen was going on about, only mine’s green!

But that wasn’t enough – then I went and bought a present for myself! I’m enrolled in Morley College’s weekend course on the Pattern Magic 2 book in February! Tracy attended the first class and I was so jealous that I just had to sign up for the second. And at less than £50 for the whole weekend course, it’s much more reasonably priced that other courses out there (which tend to be around the £300 mark).

As far as sewn gifts, you’ve already seen Rory’s waistcoat, but other than that, the only other sewn gift was another pair of PJs for James, this time in the striped jersey I bought at Saeed’s in Walthamstow. I won’t put him through a photoshoot, so you’ll just have to believe me when I say I aligned all the stripes nicely.

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New Year's Progress Report

29 December 2011, 19:07

Back on the 17th I set some bold goals to finish by New Year’s:

I thought it was time for a little progress report, seeing as how I only have a few days to go…

  1. Paco’s Drape Collar Tunic – I sewed this up in an evening before Christmas. Though I had to get very creative in order to get long sleeves out of the 2m of sweater knit I bought… Note to self: Buy more yardage, or shorten the body length next time!
  2. Clover jeans – I just finished these! I’m totally loving the fit and the (IMHO) improved pockets, too.
  3. Holly’s maternity maxi-dress, Burda 08/2008 #125 – Having no place to cut the fabric of the enormous skirt pieces, I actually took it along to work yesterday and cut it out on the big (and empty) lunch table at lunchtime! The few guys left in the office already think I’m weird anyway. Shrug. In any case, this is now ready to sew!
  4. Ruby Slip – I wanted to cut the skirt pieces at the same time I cut out the maxi dress, but the low table height was killing my back by the time I finished with the maxi dress. I don’t think this will take long to sew together if I can ever find somewhere to cut the single-layer, bias layout… A good cutting area is my new productivity choke point.

So there you have it – two down, two to go. If I’m looking at it objectively, the jeans and the maxidress are the most time consuming, so I’m halfway through on those, too.

We’ll take some photos of the cowl sweater and jeans at the weekend, but until then, I thought you might enjoy photos of Bosco “helping” me sew my jeans*.

God, I love my vintage hand-crank Singer for topstitching! It really is a beautiful piece of engineering…

*When in doubt, post cat photos.

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Piling up...

21 December 2011, 13:24

The number of posts I want to write is piling up at an alarming rate, and I have no time to do anything about it, what with work being crazy busy (I hate all of you who get tons of time off at Christmas – I only get 3 days off in total! And my days have mostly been solving one problem, and having five new problems pour in while I was fixing the one, then moving on to the next in a To-Do list which never, ever gets cleared.) and us spending all our weekends working on the boat (last weekend we spent 15 hours building the subfloor down there. No, don’t feel jealous – the boat blog is being neglected, too).

So rather than stress about the amount of things piling up, I’m going to present my pile to you in pictorial form.


This is what James’s desk looked like this morning. It’s supposed to be my temporary cutting table while we’re building in the hold. How can I possibly cut the bias Ruby Slip or Holly’s maxi-dress fabric on this?? I’m pretty sure Bosco isn’t responsible, though he does look a bit shifty there…


I finished my vintage midi skirt ages ago, but have had zero time to document, or photoshoot or anything. So here’s two photos to test the hem length (which is why it’s just basted here)


I sewed a little waistcoat for James’s nephew out of this Tardamask fabric on Spoonflower. It’s got hidden pockets inside! He’s 7, and the biggest Dr Who fan ever, so we’re excited to see his reaction on Christmas.


My pile of pattern magazines to scan is threatening to consume us all. And one Manequim issue went missing, too. grrr (my subscription has been extended, but I would’ve preferred a replacement).


This is the gorgeous (and spendy!) lace I bought at MacCulloch & Wallis on Friday for the bodice of my Ruby Slip. It’s a seafoam green and brick-coloured stretch lace, at 18cm wide.


I met up with Claire (Seemane) for lunch last week (was it last week already?) and she gifted me this wonderful grey flannel which is just so soft! Yayy, you all know I love grey flannel! She also gave me a sticky ruler for when I have a cutting table again (see above).


My copy of the BurdaStyle book finally arrived, along with the dress I made for it last summer. Since I got to choose a size, it’s a 44, so I’ll photoshoot it at some point here. But yes, it’s very exciting to see all that hard work in physical book form!

And to end it off, the obligatory “I’m really sorry I’m crap at replying to comments right now” line. But it’s true! Seriously, it’s not just you guys, I haven’t got time for anything apart from work, sleeping, running, and boatwork right now.

Can I ask Santa for some chillaxation time please?

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