26 February 2013

In Which I Rediscover Magazines


My friends, I've fallen back in love with magazines! Now, fear not, this doesn't mean I love blogs any less. Believe me, I love the blogosphere more with the dawning of each new day :) But after years of thinking that the authenticity of blogs was the only thing worth reading (apart from books and newspapers, you understand... oh and street signs etc), my faith has recently been restored and I'm WELL back into mags! Here are a few publications I've been enjoying recently which I thought you might like too...



First up is Peppermint, which does a fantastic job of balancing design and substance. The mag is beautifully produced and covers all sorts of things from fashion to food, but what's really interesting is that every article has an environmental and/or ethical slant. What's more, they include refashions, such as this shirt to top tutorial above, and their website has free sewing patterns to download.




I've mentioned Frankie before and I'm not ashamed to mention it again. I'm in love, y'all. Just LOOK at that embroidered cover! It's actually textured. And the back of the cover looks like the back of a piece of embroidery. I just can't express how much joy this brings me.



Behold Betty. It looks amazing. It feels amazing. It even smells amazing. A Moonrise Kingdom-inspired fashion shoot on one page, how to make mackerel pate on the next. Bliss.




And finally, Cloth. I always liked Cloth, and their recent rebrand is really interesting, as they seem to be repositioning themselves towards the mainstream. Doesn't that "top trends" spread, for example, remind you of fashion mags? For a sewing magazine, I reckon this can only be a good thing. Wouldn't it be awesome if young women accidentally picked it up in the newsagent thinking it was a fast fashion mag? And became inspired to get out the scissors and thread and make some stuff themselves? Are we about to see sewing taking off big time?

Oh, wait, there's one more thing...



For it is I, included in their cover mount about bloggers! Eep! Thank you so much to Jane and all the other lovely sewing peeps who gave me the heads up about the piece :)

[Soundtrack: 'Soft as Chalk' by Joanna Newsom]