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#sewvintageburda2020 or what have I got myself into?!

Have you ever embarked on a journey that you can’t quite figure out how on earth you ended up there?

I am now the custodian of several vintage Burda sewing magazines. This in itself is not the surprise. Its the fact that I am somehow committed to sewing from these dated magazines. Quelle surprise? Me too.

Let me explain.

In 2019 I have consistently created magazine commentary videos on my YouTube channel – I like to think of them as “Burda and wine club”. We chat about the styles and the patterns, we chat about the styling choices and the fabrics – you know all the fun things about fashion sewing magazines.

Internationa Burda Sewing Community

Burda is an international publication that is translated into 17 languages and in that regard is a truly international community. By virtue of Google translate I have found myself making acquaintances all over the world with whom we share a love of Burda.

I think its safe to say that I am a Burdaphile. Despite some of the issues with the magazines – I still do prefer it over other offerings in the sewing sphere.

The Burda – skeptics

On the other hand, there are some hardcore Burdaskeptics, nay, Burda haters for want of a better word. As far as I can tell the criticisms of the magazine seem to fall broadly under the umbrella issue of the designs being diluted and dumbed down.

After a while, I decided to engage with the critics when I tried to explain that since I had been sewing for 6 years I had no way of hating what Burda is now since I wasn’t there when Burda was “good”.

The conversations turned to me wondering what era it was that BurdaStyle was actually at its best – its “golden era”. I had always perceived that fashion taste as prescribed by how we create our own wardrobe was a matter of subjective opinion.

However, I noticed that there seemed to be an almost complete collective agreement that Burda standards had dropped. This fascinated me. Through these exchanges, I slowly built up a picture as follows – 

Number 1. That the styles have lost the couture roots that Aenne Burda, the founder of Burda Magazine envisioned.

Number 2 – That the drafting changed around 1999/2000 and anything past that is not as well drafted. Something to do with changes in the home sewing arena. It is unclear to me exactly what this is attributed to despite much research on my part.

The Great Age of Burda – is it real?

I am a committed lifelong learner always seeking knowledge to further my craft. I am also a curious person. I started looking at the “Great Age of Burda” issues on eBay and Etsy.

It was a fancy that overtook me one day to look at it, fully expecting to giggle at the old fashioned styles.

Much to my surprise, I found myself seeing interesting looking designs that seemed….timeless. Quelle surprise!

I do not like sewing with vintage patterns!

Let me make it clear – I am not a fan of vintage sewing patterns. I had an ill-advised vintage sewing experience in my first year of sewing that soured me of vintage patterns. I have since relegated them to the “been there tried that” compartment of my sewing life experience.

Now, imagine the resistance I put up as I realised that “Wow – these vintage Burdas might just be like what the Burdaskeptics were saying.”

All this is bases on my thinking – I am yet to sew up anything but my eye for design line tells me that some of these are great designs.

2020 Sewing Goal #1

And that’s how I now come upon this possibly Sisyphian task of making my first sewing goal of 2020 – to sew with vintage Burda magazines.

Aka #sewvintageburda2020

#sewvintageburda2020

And look, there’s even a badge 🙂

Hashtags are a necessary form of digital communities – its a way for us to find each other. If anyone wants to join along then please feel free to use this tag as a meeting point.

I’d love to do round-up posts and would love guest posts around sewing with vintage Burda – get in touch if that is something you might be interested in doing.

If you do share something that you make from vintage Burda, i.e. pre-2000 I’d love to be inspired by your make. Drop a link to your post so I can include it in a round-up post.

Conclusion

So there I have done it – I have put my accountability into the public space. I am committed. My next step is to decide which vintage Burda magazine I’ll use first. 

I hope you enjoyed this post – now its your turn – I’d love to know if you like sewing with vintage Burda patterns?