Doctor T Designs

I was snooping around the various Burda sites hoping to get a peek at the August issue, when, surprise surprise, I found that the German Burda site had posted the Fall/Winter Catalog patterns!  Burda only produces new envelope patterns twice a year – once for spring/summer, and once for fall/winter.  Being a hardcore Burda fangirl, these announcements are something akin to being like a major holiday for me.  Usually I find myself wanting to purchase a good 30 some-odd patterns after these announcements.  Perhaps it is my burgeoning pattern stash, my ongoing efforts to define (and achieve) a core style for myself (updates on this to come soon – skating season is almost over!), or the fact that we seem to be slipping into 90s revival territory, but this time I haven’t found quite as many must-buys.  I have probably three patterns I’m really excited about, with about a dozen I’m likely to get when they go on sale ($2.49 for Burda is hard to pass up!), and a lot of “maybe” patterns on my list.  Which to me says that this release has a lot of good stuff, but not that much amazing stuff.  Perhaps a closer inspection will help me solidify my impressions.  Let’s take a look:

Definitely the stand outs for me in this release are the dresses.  While I’m not that into the giant floral prints, I’d love to make the color blocked versions of either 6450 or 6454.  6452 has lots of great style lines for fitting, and I’m oddly obsessed with 6453.  It’s one of those patterns that looks stupidly easy to sew, yet has this dramatic understated ease about it.

I’m a bit less impressed with the Burda Young dresses – the 90s is coming back hard and  I’m so not excited.  I mean, actually, the style lines on 6474 and 6473 aren’t bad, but I’m silently screaming over the hideous crushed velvets and drab floral prints.  It looks like my youth, and I wish it would stay there.

Burda usually has quite a few formal dresses, but there isn’t much this time around.  I do love the fitted 6483, but I’m less impressed with the other options.  6455 has a bit much of that 90s vibe going on, especially with the fabrication.  Can we go back to having a ruffle on everything?

Lots of blouse options in this release.  I’m sort of looking forward to this because I’m really wanting to add more tops that aren’t t-shirts to my wardrobe.  I’m not sure that I’m overly excited about any of these styles in particular, but I like the direction the silhouettes are going.  You can see things transitioning away from the ruffles (minimally present in the sleeves and yoke details) towards simpler designs with subtler details.

Kind of loving nearly all the skirts.  I really like the asymmetric yoke on 6468, and the side zip detail on 6467.  I’m not really needing the mini from the Burda Young set, but I can see it being popular if the younger crowd is going to have a 90s revival.

Lots of relaxed pants options, plus a really slick looking wide trouser.  I actually recently listened to Unravel podcast’s series on the history of women and pants, which had an interesting discussion about Marlene Dietrich.  Kind of makes me really excited about all of Burda’s Marlene pants.  Not that I didn’t love them before, but, well, I’m even more excited now.  I’m liking the additions of subtle details to most of these styles.

Normally I’m all about the Burda jackets, but I’m oddly not really obsessed with any of these looks.  The unfitted 80s boxiness is so not my thing, and I feel like I’ve got similar Burda patterns for the other two styles.  Ah well.  Plenty of other goodies in this release.

I am liking the Burda Young releases.  The oversized sweater is a look I can get behind, and I’m far too excited by the bomber hoodie mashup.  I’m predicting that this will be the trend of fall 2017, because it’s all over this release, and starting to show up in other pattern company styles as well.  I’m sort of selfishly excited because I’ve been wanting to make one (or five) bombers for myself, but haven’t gotten around to it yet.  If it continues to be a thing, I’ll feel better about making a bunch of them after nationals.

Ah, now these coats are more like it!  I wasn’t totally sold on 6462 at first, but it is growing on me.  I can see the loose fit being entirely practical for layering, and the detachable second collar is pretty cool.  I’m really loving the long version of 6461 too – very classic and elegant, and the high collar is great for windy days.

I’m a bit jealous that these are Petite looks!  I love the waist detail on the dress, and the detachable zipped hood is a feature I franken-patterned onto my blue raincoat several years ago, so that is obviously a super cool feature which I highly endorse.

The Burda Plus releases are super trendy.  The pants are great and I’m excited to see that the plus crowd also gets a hooded bomber!  The draped cardigan isn’t anything new, but still looks great, and the fancy dress is really pretty, especially in the lace.

Kids stuff.  Cool if you got kids?  Actually, the little hoodie is kinda cute.

Loving the little coats.

Hoodie bombers for everyone!

Burda crafts, as always, are kinda meh.  But I’ve been following Cation Designs epic unicorn adventure, so I’m kind of excited to see a unicorn pattern.

And that’s it!  While I’m not as obsessed with these patterns as I have been with past releases, I know I’m going to add a healthy number of these looks to my pattern stash (and, hopefully, my wardrobe).  I’m really liking the minimization of the ruffles, as well as the overall silhouettes that seem to be coming out.  The only thing I’m really not excited about is the apparent revival of early 90s styling.  Least you think that maybe it’s just some weird German European styling thing, I assure you, as we shall see when I get my McCall’s preview up, it is not.  Sadly.  Ah well.  I suppose that is why my awesome stash has gotten so epically large – so I can’t be the dowdy old lady stuck in styles from 2006 (oh man I’m old) and avoid sewing with crushed velvet like it will give me the plague.  (And, yes, I do hear you saying, “Wait, don’t you sew with velvet all the time for skating costumes?”  To which I respond, yes, and velvet is great, but not this 90s revival crushed velvet which looks nasty and gross under all circumstances.)  Anyway, what do you all think?  See any fall looks that have you itching to sew?  Or are you as turned off by the 90s as I am?  Feel free to discuss the Burda patterns or my oddly prejudiced dislike of 90s fashion in the comments!