Manequim May 2011

I must admit, I’m feeling a bit of pattern magazine fatigue at the moment, but I’m only halfway through my pile, with a bunch more Brazilian ones to go. Having a glut of patterns come in all at once means I’m feeling like I want to sew loads of things all at once, which is great for inspiration, but not necessarily production when you’ve got a full time job!

Good luck, then, that the latest issue of Manequim is a really good one! It’s not just me, either, as Arielle and Jacquie have both been raving about this issue, too!

This white sheath dress is such a simple idea, but one that results in a very elegant shape. I know it’s winter in Brazil, but this is a totally beautiful summer dress. And as my friend Holly pointed out, this neckline shape is great for broad shoulders!

This red dress has a pretty basic princes-line bodice, but it’s paired with a great cross-pleated skirt.

A silky Manequim pleated shell top

Despite my nonstop Work Sewing during the week, I still often get an itch at the weekend to sew something quick and Not Work for myself, often using up some fabric or pattern which I’ve been meaning to make for ages.

A few weekends ago this took the form of a shell top with a pleated neckline from the Manequim August 2011 issue (though I totally failed to spot its potential when I reviewed it!) and one metre of printed polyester satin which I’d picked up at a London sewists swap last summer.

I really liked the colours in the fabric and the abstract quality of the print, and the fabric is nice enough that I had to do a quick burn test to determine that it wasn’t actually a silk! As for the pattern, it was one that I traced some years ago, but then never quite got around to making, so it got folded up in a drawer before I finally pulled it out a few weekends ago.


Worn here with my orange Sinbad & Sailor O’Keefe skirt from earlier this summer!

It’s a very basic shell top with four pleats at the neckline, and in hindsight I probably should’ve just drafted it up myself! The pattern includes a half lining – the back just uses the same pattern piece as the exterior, ending at the waist, but the front lining is a separate pattern piece with bust darts from the armholes so the exterior neckline pleats are held in place.

Manequim magazine February 2014

Wow, everyone in Brazil must’ve been partying their bums off at carnival because my February issue was really late – I’d normally be expecting to see March any day now! But I’m just glad it arrived at all, because it’s a really good one, and features one must sew for me in particular!

First up are the Plus offerings for this issue. They may not seem like much, but all three look to be very wearable and versatile, and those bermuda shorts are offered in multiple sizes, too.

The designer style section this month is Victoria Beckham, and, all Spice Girl and WAG celebrity-BS aside, I actually really love a lot of her designs and find they intersect with my own personal style an awful lot. Here we get patterns for a really nicely shaped sheath dress, narrow trousers, and – the one that made me bolt upright when I turned the page – a draped, crossover blouse.

OH. MY. GOD. I adore… freaking adore… this blouse! That I can’t quite immediately work out the construction of that drape from the pattern pieces makes me want to make it even more. And, umm, it’s also in my new size, too. LOVE!

Morphing the Manequim sweater pattern to my size

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!

My Image Fall/Winter 2011

The newest issue of My Image Magazine came out a few weeks ago, and since I’ve liked their previous two issues so much, I went any bought this new one without much hesitation! Besides the fact that they’re a new magazine with a great small business story, they’re always really friendly over email, and keen to improve things like translation and note any corrections on their website. In other words, they’re exactly the sort of company I want to support! I’ve only made one of their patterns so far, but there’s quite a few in this issue which are begging to be made!

And scroll down to the bottom for an exclusive discount for FehrTrade readers, too!

My Image is published twice a year, so this is the Fall/Winter issue:

First off, I really like this colourblocked knit dress! They have you use two different knits in the pattern layout, and I like the effect here with a print and a matching solid. I also really like the floppy collar and the skirt shape (which kinda reminds me of my Manequim egg skirt!).

The grey marl Manequim big shirt

I chose the title “big shirt” as an homage to Burda’s strange predilection for calling any oversized top a “big shirt”. Looking at the size of this top, I think it definitely applies here!

This Manequim top was printed twice, as July 2010 #307 and again as May 2011 #259. I liked it enough the first time around to trace it off Susannah’s copy, but then when I saw it the second time, I knew it must be a keeper to be repeated and be in my size, so I gave this a go in some drapey, viscose grey marl jersey I’d bought from Totally Fabrics a while back.

You can see it’s a roomy fit from both magazine photos, but you can’t really tell exactly how large this runs – I measured the hem circumference at over 150cm!! I always make Manequim size 44, but this is over 50cm of ease! OMG! I’d say that if you are usually a Manequim 46, 48, or even a 50 or 52, you’d be absolutely fine in sewing this up, even though it’s marked as size 44.

Manequim say to pull the hem in with elastic in a casing, but I chose to apply inch-wide waistband elastic instead. I measured the elastic to my hips and then stretched it as much as humanly possible and it only just stretched to the fabric hem.

But the adventure doesn’t stop there – I had to introduce gathers in several places not indicated on the pattern in order to get pieces to line up. Namely, the bottom edge of the sleeve where it meets to sleeve band, and also around the neck edge. So in reality, I gathered all four edges of that sleeve piece. With all the gathers plus the bubbled hem, it’s vital that you have a lightweight, drapey knit for this top.

Manequim June 2011

If you’re reading this and sweating, then you may wish to imagine yourself instead in chilly Rio de Janeiro for the latest instalment of Manequim magazine. Brrrr along with me now…

First up is a rather useful two-page spread on how to customise your accessories with fur. I quite like the idea of adding fur to existing gloves, though the way they’ve added it to a dress here seems strange. Surely it’s better to create a detachable fur collar, a’la this coat tutorial?

I really like the dress on the left, with its cool peplum side panels and the wide, cross back straps:

Moda Moldes magazine – April 2011

I only recently discovered that there are more Brazilian pattern magazines than just Manequim, and so when I learned a good friend was going to Brazil on holiday over Easter, I sent her on a mission to find as many as she could to bring back to me.

Not only did she find two Manequims for herself (she’s one of my beginning sewers so I told her I’d write up instructions for her for whichever of the patterns she wanted to make), but she brought me back three other magazines, too.

The first I have to show you is Moda Moldes magazine (which roughly translates as “Fashion Patterns”).

This magazine has a lot of celebrity-influenced fashion like Manequim, and I really liked the tech drawing for this draped, jersey maxidress, though I’d definitely shorten it to suit my tastes.

There’s clearly a limited pool of Brazilian celebrity outfits to choose from, because MM have chosen the same white dress that was also featured in the May 2011 Manequim (though in this case, I like Manequim’s pattern (on the right) better!).

Fait Main magazine – May 2011

While we were in France, I came across this new-to-me sewing pattern magazine! Curiously, it’s a Hubert Burda Media publication, but it’s only published in French, and with a totally different tech drawing and instruction style from the other “Burda” magazines. Fait Main also contains four or five knitting patterns, a few sewing patterns for kids and plus sizes, and some sewing crafts at the back. The sizing is very similar to the rest of Burda’s sizes, with only few centimeters difference between a Burda 42 and a Fait Main 42, but close enough that I’d wear the same size in both!

I can’t find a definitive official page, but it seems to have been going since at least 2005 according to this archive list. Maybe a French reader can help shed some light?

This waterfall knit cardi is nothing new, but I quite like the ruffled blouse, and the tulip skirt is really cute!

Here’s another look at the cover dress with its fantastic draped collar. I think this would make a really nice, easy to wear summer day dress in a breezy cotton or underlined linen.