Sewing with Style

I am not sure when I first heard of Burda Style, maybe a year or so ago, but I have always enjoyed their open source ways. While researching Burda Style I became more drawn into the Open Source aspect of it, which seems to be the foundation for the site, for the community that Burda Style has nourished. I enjoy open source ways of operation in general actually. I prefer to use open source software as much as possible, I love “the creative practice of appropriation and free sharing of found and created content”. I was reading about it as a “culture” on wikipedia today and one of the things that was pointed out in the article on Open Source cultures is that it may not have become as previlent as it is now without the internet: “First, the Internet allows even greater access to inexpensive digital media and storage…and… Second, users are granted unprecedented access to each other.” (wikipedia)

The ability to quickly find, access, alter, and redistribute information has launched us all into a world where ideas foster, grow, change, adapt, and thrive or die out at a fast past rate. Think of knitting and how the internet has helped us to share our ideas, grow with each other, and develop an amazing set of patterns and resources that are now available worldwide!

Burda Style embraces growing with each other. “We like to think of this website as a virtual sewing circle, an open-source hub of ideas, expertise, and amazing patterns you can download and sew at home….BurdaStyle is a celebration of the handmade and the heartfelt, the individual and idiosyncratic things we make ourselves, and is intended as a platform for experts and beginners alike. We can’t wait to see what you create.” What an wonderful invitation to participate!

There are many lovely free patterns and great ones for purchase at a relatively inexpensive price, especially considering the quality of design. Burda Style adds many patterns themselves, but as a user, you can add your own patterns to the mix.

I’ve had a sewing bug lately, and by that I mean I’ve been wanting to sew, badly. I have a need to use up all this cute fabric as well as a need for new cute shirts. Burda Style seems like the perfect answer to my problem. I finally, after thinking about it for a year, signed up! You can see my profile here. Hopefully I’ll start churning out the cute shirts soon! I can’t wait to start experimenting with the patterns they offer and start contributing my own creations!

Hope to see you there!

Kristin Roach