Keep yourself inspired

…and organized!

Since I subscribe to Burda magazine, I like to save all Burda World Of Fashion photos and technical drawings from their site, where they have an archive dating back to 2004. I keep these files organized under folders having the same name as the magazine Burda 09.2008 on my local drive and find it really easy to browse through them using Picasa. Free download: http://picasa.google.com/

For all those other patterns that are not available online, you can scan the center pages with the summary technical drawings.

I do the same with the BurdaStyle patterns: download patterns, save the photos from the creations on the local drive under folders having the pattern name and the type of pattern: dress, shirt, pants, etc. Dress Shari i.e.

Browse through these images with Picasa, then right click on the desired pattern and say “Locate on disk” -> that is where I will find the printable version right at my finger tips.

Here are the tips on printing BurdaStyle patterns: at home or at copy shop.

I’ve also created an album inside Picasa where I copy all patterns that I plan on sewing.

I might also take pictures of all the fabrics in my stash and try to see if I can associate them with the desired patterns. I could be a simple and quick way to stay organized and on track with the sewing plans.

Inspiration one click away!

I try to keep all the magazines sorted by year and month. Did I post about this already?…oh well…

This way it is easy to get to the magazine and I don’t have to get all those heavy magazines out and spread them around the room whenever I choose the next project.

A lot of new downloadable free patterns are posted on the German Burda site:

http://www.burdafashion.com/de/DOWNLOAD/Free/1333669-1413206.html

seems that there are more then in the English version and you can choose the language at download time for some of them. There are also some cool knit patterns!

Seems that there is yet another crafting community out there at JoAnns: http://community.joann.com free to join, forum, project uploads..etc…

Vogue and Magazines

Yes, sewing, knitting and crochet books and mags from Vogue!
Vogue Knitting and Knit 1 – spring and summer issues, one fall
Vogue patterns – does not contain the actual patterns as I thought, just filled with ads and fliers. It does have some nice sewing articles.
The cherry on the cake: Vogue Sewing – the bible for sewing, from a dear friend.
I absolutely love Knitting Lingerie Style book and the top on the cover of Crochet Me mag.

Some kids blankets and crochet animals:

And a treasure find from a Russian store in my area: a magazine with beautiful sewing patterns and another for knitting. Although I cannot read these, I think I can handle the patterns.