Burda Style 6/2011

A few days ago, I mentioned the Burda Style magazine I picked up recently (6/2011), and people seemed interested in a recap of what's inside. Well, I'm sick of doing thesis edits, so here's that recap! WARNING: Picture Heavy!

Being the June edition, there's a strong bias towards beach wear and fun summery clothes. I adore almost all of it. While there's not a lot of structured garments, who wants to wear constricting clothes in the summer! There's some fabulous basic pieces in this.

First off, they did a bit of a tribute to Brigitte Bardot, and from what I read in this article, they hit the nail on the head capturing her style, with lots of feminine and chic - but simple - pieces, and great styling.

LOVE this top! (And the one above it, too!) It'd be difficult to get the wide neckline right so that it's not slipping off the shoulder or showing off bra straps (although I just discovered that strapless bras can actually be comfortable if you get the right kind, so I may need to take advantage of that). This would look fantastic with my denim pencil skirt, I think!

Okay, so I won't be wearing a bikini any time soon, but I've been wanting to make some simple undergarments for relaxing at home, so I'm not stuck in my more structured pieces. I really want to make this bikini top, and I want to try out the bottoms as underwear, as I don't have a pattern that works for wovens.

J'adore this dress, although I'm not sure if it'd be a good look on me with my larger bust and hips. The sweatheart neckline, fitted bodice, and flaired skirt in such a feminine floral fabric is just lovely!

They recommended painting little hearts on a pair of ballet flats (which I think is a cute idea, actually), and I loved the look so much, I was inspired buy these ballet flats (below) yesterday!

I wasn't a fan of the next set of garments, although they were certainly colourful! I liked this one below as a cover-up in the summer, though!

I wonder if a pattern for the parrot is included?

Okay, so the dress above is cute, but I can't get away with wearing something like this. With a larger bust and hips, I'd probably look like I was wearing a potato sack (granted, a colourful and fun potato sack). Probably wouldn't be hard to fix, though, with a self-fabric belt or something.

What I liked about this Burda edition is that they're targeting beginner sewists. They wrote up this step-by-step tutorial to make the pink dress above (it even has pockets!), and I think it's a much better first project than the shorts or A-line skirt most people start with! Really easy with great results. May need to keep this in mind for the next time I convince a friend to start sewing!

Don't these two dresses scream summer? I noticed that Burda remakes the same garments in different fabrics and styles throughout the magazine, but I liked that as you can see the diversity of the pattern. I often get stuck on how the envelope design and get intimidated from trying different fabrics, so I appreciated the multiple versions of the same pattern.

I'm loving all the plaid fabric they used! Seriously, Fabricland needs to get some larger print plaids in stock.
Okay, this is the same blouse shown in the Brigitte Bardot section, but how cute is it made up in a sheer fabric! I wish I'd seen this before I cut into my sheer black polka dot fabric shown here.

Love this wrap top...thing. They had made it up as a beach cover up earlier on in the magazine, but it only caught my eye here in the white. See, that's another reason to appreciate them making it up in different fabrics! Diversity, I love it.

Once again, another good beach cover up when full length. I like the simplicity of it, rather than the drape-y complexity of the bright one shown earlier in the post. I also think this would make a fantastic top if shortened, or a great dress if you omit the slits! Yay longer sleeves!

This is a very basic and loose top, but I really like it. It would be easy to adjust, too. Add a self-fabric belt or a bit of shirring on the sides or back to define the waist a bit, and it'd be perfect!

The dress here is just a longer version of the top above, and I adore the simple lines. Once again, very easy to alter, if needed. I love the idea of making it in an eyelet, although I'm always torn with the fabric. Do you line it? Leave it unlined?

I'm always on the look out for cute blouses. I'm not sure if this one would ever work for me and my curvy body, but I love the simplicity of it, and the gathers at the shoulder front. Here though, it's styled to be another beach cover up.

I wasn't a big fan of most of the trousers in this edition, to be honest. Cute fabric, though. For those of you with little boy sprogs, the shorts the kid is wearing is also in the magazine.

Actually, there were some cute kids outfits in this magazine. My favourite is this adorable purple dress. And also maybe the man carrying her. Where can I get one of those?!

In previous Burda magazines that I've managed to take a look-see through, I've generally been impressed with the plus sized garments. In fact, I'm planning on making this dress from Burda Style 9/2010. So I was excited to see what summery garments they'd come up with in this edition.

Boy was I disappointed. Granted, the coat above is sort of cute, but everything in this section was baggy drapey shapeless knits in black. Wow summery.

I mean, can it get much uglier and less flattering than that dress on the right? And what the heck is going on around the crotch of those pants? Maybe they'd be nice if made up, but I doubt I'd ever give them a shot.

The preview for next month is pretty uninspiring, I'll be honest. I probably won't even try to track it down. There's enough pieces that I love in this edition that I don't really need to, anyways.

However, this plus-sized dress is promising...may be worth checking out on the Burda Style site.

So there's a quick recap of some of my favourite (and less than favourite) garments from the June edition of Burda Style! I don't know about you guys, but I'm excited to try out a few of them! The only downfall of the magazine is this:

EEP!