I will buy any and all sewing magazines published. There I said it. HOWEVER, I have bought two lately that have me rethinking this practice.
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| The guilty parties |
The first magazine is the latest edition of Sewstylish, which is published by Taunton Press, the company who also publishes my beloved Threads magazine. You would think with a lineage like that they couldn't go wrong. Well, IMHO you would be, well, wrong. I don't buy this kind of magazine to make the items shown in it, I buy them for inspiration, and while there are some things that I think I can use in this issue, there are others that are
Oh My Dear God What Were They Thinking? The worst (IMO) is the article "The Piece Movement". Fugly, really fugly. Loving hands at home look. They look like something your vision impaired, taste challenged Grandmother would make for you and you would never wear. Ever. They make a suggestion that their inspiration comes from Seminole patchwork, and that may be where they started, but they made a bad turn somewhere. I think Seminole patchwork done well is Art, this is Not. The other really bad one is "Bows Galore", which basically consists of putting multiple bows any where at all on t-shirts. Definitely Dorky.
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| It would take an awful lot of work to make something this fugly. |
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| Really? Do we need instructions for this? |
The second magazine is Sew It All. It should be called Never Sew Any Of It. Maybe too harsh. Okay, definitely too harsh. I have looked through it again and there are some good ideas in it, but the one that really sticks with me is this:
Why would anyone want to do this to a nice pair of jeans who never did anything to hurt anyone? Why? There is other things that I think are equally hideous, but I am going to allow for differences in taste and not post pictures of them.
The moral of the story is: Take your time looking over magazines before you buy. I have already saved myself $15.99 by not buying the current issue of Stitch magazine. It was almost all crafty sewing, and I can find plenty of ideas for that on the interwebs. Of course I immediately went and bought more fabric with the $15.99. Now if I can find more magazines not to buy, I can buy more fabric. Makes perfect sense.
Ha...I picked up both of these the other day in JoAnn Fabrics, and thought the same as you. Needless to say, I did NOT buy them. Looks like first grade art class to me.
ReplyDeleteYou are clearly smarter than I am! 8-) I actually paid for both!
DeleteThanks for providing a seriously good giggle... are these people insane? Who is going to spend time making stuff like that when they could be making something SO much nicer?
ReplyDeleteI'm a sewing magazine/book addict myself so I do understand. I definitely love Threads - I was so glad when I discovered it. Coming late in the game after I discovered it I went on a MAD chase to collect all past issues. I finally got tired of that chase (because I ended up with too many duplicates) and was so glad when Threads came out with it's annual DVD. I do like Sew Stylish too and am usually able to find at least one tip or notion featured that I didn't know about. It all makes for interesting reading although some of the things they show - I would never make.
ReplyDeleteOh Faye, we may have been separated at birth! I was only missing 20 or so issues of Threads, I was so grateful when the DVD came out. I am completely addicted to sewing books, I keep track of which ones I have on Pinterest so I can check and see if I have a particular book when I am in a 2nd hand store. I usually feel the same as you about one tip being worth the price, but both of these (IMHO) were almost complete crap and it annoyed me.
DeleteLOL! I actually have a really hard time with sewing magazines. Except the pattern-only ones, which I'll eat up like they're going out of style. Hmm.
ReplyDeleteMy kids would've totally dug those jeans a couple of years ago. I could probably do something like that for my little nieces... :)
The jeans would perhaps be cute for children, but they were on an adult!
DeleteI only wish I could buy Burda and other pattern magazines here, I can't convince any/both of the bookstores to bring them in.
Okay, in high school I liked jeans with patterns up the side. In my defence, it was the early 90's, there were a lot of strange patterns going out there. My favourite had piano keys. Even at that point, I wouldn't have worn either of those things. Wow. I will give the model in the decked out in denim article credit, she may actually have an acting career ahead of her.
ReplyDeleteyou are so right about the model!
Deleteoh man, those *are* brutal. especially the bows. And I usually think of sewstylish as somewhere I'd send people who expressed interest in learning to sew too.
ReplyDeleteLOL! Oh dear, I see what you mean! My own tastes run towards the unadorned and unembellished, so I wouldn't make any of these either! I think Burdastyle sewing magazines with all their patterns are great, but only once in a while. Get one and you're pretty much set for that season, imo.
ReplyDeleteIsn't this the SewStylish with the article on the painted lace? I saw it at a Barnes&Noble bookstore, wanted the lace article, but hated the rest and left it there. I went back a week later and bought it anyway, just for the article on the lace painting (which I could probably figure out on my own, BUT it had info on where to buy fabric paint). I thought the painted lace *could* look tacky BUT I also thought that it could perhaps be useful for some of my skating costumes. Usually I think appliques look tacky because they are either white (and the dress is not) or are a really weird/ugly/boring shape and covered in sequins. And yet I had this vision of an applique covered dress (currently in-progress and it is gonna look classy I think), and I wanted that lace-painting article in case I had to get white ones and color them myself. Luckily, I found black ones instead. But I still want to try this lace painting at some point in the future...
ReplyDeleteThe rest of the magazine sucked.