And now for something a little different

Burda 121 04 2020

Continuing with the blogging about frivolous sewing, because I need a break from thinking about the real world. This unusual t-shirt design is from the April 2020 Burda. It’s style 121 which is the Trend pattern for the month. It reminds me of various Vivienne Westwood designs, and also some of the Drape Drape patterns. Here’s the technical drawing.

Burda 121 04 2020

The pattern is unusual in that there is only one pattern piece. It is cut twice, but with both pieces oriented the same way up, not mirrored as pattern pieces are normally cut. Here is the pattern piece. I’ve made my usual length additions so it’s not quite shaped like Burda’s.

The model photo made me think of a piece of fabric that’s been lurking in my stash for a long time. It’s a lightweight single knit with wide grey and black stripes, and a silver glitter coating over that on the right side which makes it look like dark and light silver stripes. I bought it on Goldhawk Road many years ago and foolishly only got 1.5m. Even though it was a generous cut that worked out more like 1.8m I’ve never found anything to do with it – if I’d bought a little bit more I would have had loads of options. The Burda pattern calls for 2.1m but that is for a with-nap layout. By rotating the pattern piece 180 degrees before cutting the second copy I was able to get it out of the shorter length.

I know in general one should always use a with-nap layout for knits, especially ones with a sheen, but I think this pattern is busy enough that any difference between front and back will be lost in the noise.

12 thoughts on “And now for something a little different”

    1. My magazine sub is in English so I have English pattern instructions but I’ve started linking to the Russian site on the blog because it is much easier to find things on than the US and UK sites – and I don’t speak a word of Russian which says something about the usability of the websites. I’ve just tried searching the US and the UK sites and can’t find this pattern on either. The US site doesn’t look to have the April patterns at all yet, and the UK site is so difficult to use I can’t tell if it has them or not. I expect they’ll turn up on both eventually, and I suppose there’s always the option of buying a single issue of the magazine. Frustrating that there is no good English language site for Burda.

      1. So true! The Russian Burda site is great, actually. I love that they have so many users involved, modelling their makes, their archives go quite a way back, a lot of the patterns are available as downloads…. inexpensively.
        On a slightly different note, the seaofteal blogger recently put up a blog post where she showed a roundup of styles that interested her. I loved some of the Knipmode styles, and checked them out on their site. Is it just me, or is that site pretty good? Opinion? Many of the downloads even include several variations, on top of being fairly reasonably priced in the first place.
        The new McVogueButtkwik site owners apparently can’t do math. They just announced a half price sale… 30 dollar pattern reduced to 21 dollars. I may have bought my last pattern from them, once you add in shipping…. eek!

      2. I haven’t used the Knipmode site, but I will definitely check it out. I do still buy the very occasional Vogue or McCalls pattern when there is something really special, usually a designer Vogue, but otherwise I agree that Burda is much better value. The designs in general also seem more appealing to me than most of the Big Four.

    1. That is very cool! Clever to make the best use of the fabric in the way you did. I hadn’t thought to make this one in a solid but it looks great.

  6. I may have to consider subscribing to Burda for some more interesting and fun designs. Meanwhile, I do have a backlog of patterns fabric and ideas…. semester is almost over, and I will only be home schooling the 9 yo. I will have time then, right? (Our veg garden looks great, because he likes working in it, sewing-not so much.)

    1. Heh mine quite likes to help sew, although that mainly means bringing me water for the iron every five minutes and emptying out every box in the sewing room. But it’s nice that he joins in at all 🙂

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