A little more on Burda.

Here are three of the new patterns I picked up the other day.  These are from the "retro" line - man, I'm a sucker for these reproduction vintage patterns!  According to the catalog, these are all vintage 1960's.

First up, 7113:  A-line shift, short-sleeved jacket and cape.  The jacket buttons up the back!  Love!!

Here are the line drawings:

Next, 7114: relaxed A-line shift with French darts and optional welt pockets.  I could really see this in a summery printed silk twill.   On a patio.  With tiki torches.  And a Mai Tai.

And the line drawings:

And lastly (for now!), 7115:  gored A-line dress with double-breasted jacket.  Swooooon!  I love a dress and jacket combo.

The drawings:

Note that the dress has pockets!

While I had the camera and patterns out, I thought I'd take some extra pictures to show some of the ways Burda patterns differ from the other companies, since there seemed to be some interest yesterday in these patterns and I don't see them coming up on sewing blogs a whole lot.

The patterns themselves are multi-size like most other companies, and the envelope patterns do contain seam and hem allowances, unlike the magazine and download patterns from Burda.  But the information needed to sew the pattern is arranged differently from other brands I've used.

Let's start with the envelope.  First off - and I love this - the publication date is just above the logo on the envelope back.  There are also some fitting clues for the garment.

Yardages are given for two fabric widths for each size of each garment:

However, you have to know your European size to begin with for this information to be useful.  Don't know your size?  Where to find it?  Inside, on the pattern tissue:

 

I have to admit that although I do know my European size, I still find this kind of tedious.  Anyway, back to the envelope:

You will also find on the back recommended fabrics and notions needed, just above the line drawings.  On the drawings of the garments are some of the finished measurements, to help you figure out what size you need.

Inside, on the instruction sheet, each page has four columns:  to the left are the instructional drawings, followed by directions in English, French and Spanish.  I'm not really sure why German isn't included - perhaps they publish separate patterns in German only?

 

The first bit of information here is how many pattern pieces you need for each view:

But:  Curses!  Foiled again!  "See pattern sheet for cutting layouts!"  This one really irks me!  I don't know why, since I rarely follow the cutting layouts anyway!

On the pattern pieces themselves, you'll find the finished measurements for hip, bust, etc. like you would on any other commercial pattern.  They're even listed in both inches and centimeters!  OK, I'm not so irked any more.

One of the things I like about the Burda patterns I've used so far is that they seem to match my measurements a little better than most American patterns.  Must be my European heritage.

I'll be back with at least one more post about Burda patterns, because the other two I bought are things I'm thinking of starting on right away!