More cute freebies for summer sewing

[UPDATE #2: Yikes, Für Sie has totally redone their website since I posted this over the weekend, and now I can’t find any of their sewing or knitting instructions anymore! I’ll keep hunting and post a new URL if I find them. Sorry!]

Well, seeing as how I’ve made zero progress on Burda 8.2009.128, I may as well just blather on about other sewing-related stuff to you, right?

I just discovered a couple more new cute freebie patterns for some easy, drapey garments for summer.  They are this darling little drawstring tank dress, a knockoff of a current season Tim Hamilton dress:

And a drapey wrap overblouse and tank combo, a knockoff of a current season Maurizio Pecararo outfit:

And now for the catches. Yes, once again the instructions are in German, put out by the magazine “Für Sie.” Hey it’s not my fault that German women’s magazines make an effort to give you lovely designer knockoff DIY projects and English language magazines don’t! But really, the patterns themselves look so simple (one or two pieces per garment!) and there are some illustrations to the instructions, so you can handle it, right?  Oh yeah, and you have the scale the patterns up as well because they’re not full size.

Hey, don’t shoot me, I’m just the messenger.  And wouldn’t you rather I share my freebie findings with you than keep them to myself?  :D

The patterns and instructions (as well as instructions for a couple of other projects) are here in this pdf. Good luck! I’m off to go do some sewing.

UPDATE:  Okay, because Meredith P. asked, and Meredith P is a lovely faithful reader, I’ll help you out a little bit, even though helping goes against everything I believe in. The scale is a one square to 1 cm (apparently you can get pattern paper with a 1cm grid, though I’m not sure how readily available this would be in an American sewing store?)

For the Hamilton dress, you need 1.6 meters of ribbed silk (faille perhaps?), two large silver beads and two small silver beads, or two silver-toned “endpieces” for cording (basically something to put at the end of the drawstrings.) They suggest adding 2cm seam allowance and 5cm hem allowance. For the arm openings, you need 4 bias strips of 55 cm each, and for the neck opening you need 4 bias strips of 70 cm in length. For the four drawstring pieces, you need 3 x 60 cm bias strips.

For the Pecoraro ensemble you need .85 meters of light blue crepe de chine, and 1.2 meters of green crepe de chine for the overblouse, and two hooks and eyes. Same 1 square = 1 cm ratio. Seam allowances are 2 cm everywhere except on the arm and neck opening, which is 1 cm. For the tank, you need 2 bias strips of 4 x 50 cm, and 1 bias strip of 4 x 70cm.  For the wrap blouse you need 2 bias strips of 4 x 55 cm and one bias strip of 4 x 30 cm.

Gorgeous Burda freebies

Back when Burda revamped their website a few month ago, a bunch of their free pattern downloads disappeared from the German website (which had always had more free downloads than the English one). I read on a German sewing discussion board that Burda was planning on discontinuing free pattern downloads altogether. Sad!

Well, it looks like things have changed! Burda has been releasing a few free patterns for download from the magazine (appears to be at a rate of about once a month thus far) as a “Perwoll-Wohlfühl-Look,” which I’ll translate (perhaps incorrectly) as “Perwoll Comfort Look,” with Perwoll apparently being a detergent brand. Any detergent that sponsors free sewing pattern downloads is cool in my book. I bet it keeps your whites whiter and your colors brighter too. 

Look at the gorgeous pattern that’s now available for download (this one is from the May 2009 issue):

I’ve seen this one made up a bunch of times and it’s gorgeous. And if you didn’t happen to buy the 5.2009 issue, well, it’s your lucky day! And yes, since you’re probably wondering, the instructions are in German.  But surely with so many blog posts written about this pattern, you can piece it together, right? :)

There are a couple more cute freebies (not really my style, but could look great on you!):

 

You can find all of the downloads here. Have fun and here’s hoping for more great Burda freebies in the future!

Manequim: Free pattern treasure trove

If you spend more time surfing the web for sewing-related goodies than actually sewing, you’re probably already well familiar with some of the popular sites for free pattern downloads, like Burda, BurdaStyle, and Fitz. But if you’re like me, and you spend more time surfing the web for sewing-related goodies than actually sewing, eating, sleeping, making friends, attending to basic hygiene, or otherwise engaging in normal human activities, then perhaps you have also hit upon the treasure trove that is Manequim’s free pattern page.

Manequim is a Brazilian fashion and sewing magazine, and I have to confess, I’ve never actually seen an issue of it.  It is unclear to me what percentage of it is regular fashion magazine, and how much of it is patterns and sewing-related. (Anyone know firsthand?) But never mind that- check out some of the amazing downloadable patterns they have for free!

I haven’t tried any of them (yet!) and the instructions are all in Portuguese. Some of the patterns are multi-sized, but many of them only come in one size, usually somewhere between 38 and 44. I haven’t been able to find a size chart, but I’m guessing that the sizing is similar to Patrones, based on those numbers. It looks like they have some plus sizes too. Here are some line drawings from some of my favorites of their pattern offerings:

And there’s a lot more where that came from and they add new patterns frequently. Jackets, evening gowns, blouses, skirts… even clothing for kids, if one is inclined to *shudder* sew small clothing for small people who have yet to develop any reasonable sense of style, are generally not prone to worshipful gratitude, and do not yet understand the concept of recompense. The Selfish Seamstress doesn’t understand it. Especially when one could be working on one of these for oneself.