January giveaway - La Mia Boutique Plus Size September 2012

Tags

coats, curvy, dresses, dressmaking, fashion, giveaway, inspiration, jackets, La Mia Boutique, pants, plus size, sewing, skirt, trousers

Dear Blog,
Happy new year!!!

How have you been? When this goes out I will be in bed watching films after an early morning run. Yes! I’m back out there. It’s harder than it’s ever been, as in a lot harder than when I first took up running five years ago, but I’ll get there. I have no plans or running goals for 2013 at the moment, nothing more than being able to enjoy it again.

(Whilst we’re here, a blanket apology for the quality of my scans. They are appalling, but this is the only scanner I’ve got and I ain’t getting a new one any time soon)

One of my goals for 2013 is to spread the happy with my usual randomy randomness.
Another of my 2013 goals is to be more organised and take more and better pictures of what I make, which is why I am not giving you a 2012-in-review blog post.

But enough of my shortcomings, let’s kick off the random spreading of the happy with a giveaway!
Ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes on a copy of La Mia Boutique Plus Size – September 2012:

I just luRve the asymmetric collar on the coat!
This magazine features 29 patterns, mostly for Autumn / Winter, in LMB sizes ranging from 46 to 60. Here’s a rendition of their size chart, where the original measurements are the Centimetre ones and the inches ones are my own conversion:

Not all the patterns cover the full range of sizes, so you might want to have a look at the line drawings to see what comes in which size (you need to zoom over this rather crappy scan, but it works):

This is very much a Winter issue, with lots of lovely jackets and coats. This one is my favourite, so elegant:

I also like this asymmetric jacket and trouser combo:

And this other jacket looks nice too, I think I could made less sporty and more elegant just by changing the fabric:

The workwear looks pretty good too, although I wonder why she’s so angry in the picture on the right:

A lot of love for the dresses too. I don’t know what it is with the armhole trim on the one on the right, but otherwise it’s lovely to see a fitted (ie: non-pregnant looking) take on the usual high bust:

This magazine is well-thumbed, it’s been on a plane three times, there’s a couple of scribbles in places and the pattern sheets have been un-stapled, but everything you need is right there.

In case you are, like, completely new to this – the magazine is in Italian. All of it. That’s how I get hold of them so easy (The Perfect Nose once compared LMB to hen’s teeth made out of sapphires. If she ever visits my parents’ local newsagent I’ll keep the smelling salts handy).
If you can read Italian the instructions are easier to work out than Burda, even without too much sewing knowledge, possibly because they aren’t translated from German by some brainless drone, but they are still very sparse.
There are no illustrations for the making of single patterns but there’s a good “sewing basics” section at the start of the instructions.
I am eager to point out that, whilst good, it is a “sewing basics” section and not a “sewing machine basics” section, so if you’re more of a n00b than me you might want your machine’s instruction manual handy. And a cold compress, to stitch through and through until you feel confident.  Although you might to use Fehr Trade’s Sewing Machine Driver’s Test instead of a compress. It’s up to you really.

Why I am giving this away  - I have traced what I like and even made a copy of the instructions. There isn’t an awful lot here for me to use since I am at the smaller end of their range of sizes and there are lots of other things I am itching to make.
I would like this to go to a good home, or at least a random one. A lot of the good that happened on 2012 came out of giving things a chance and I am going to keep that up in 2013.

Rules of this giveaway: tell me a story! Or three or four.
Leave a comment. Why would you like this? What brings you today to the blogging equivalent of Queen Elizabeth Land(*)? Do you have a favourite coat? What does it look like? Want to tell me a story about frazil? Polynyas? No? Well, I can’t blame you.
You can also link this post on your website / blog or on Twitter and I will do my best to count them as a separate entry. Just make sure you @ me on Twitter, I am @bognespava(**)
You can link this on Facebook if you like but I won’t be able to count it as an entry into the giveaway since I am not on Facebook. Although I used to be. In case you look for me and see a Liz Lemon-lookalike in some random picture. That is me.

I am happy to post this anywhere the post goes to, and if you live on the Moon I shall just deliver it by hand.

Giveaway ends 31st January at Midnight, Humptulips time. Yes, I have blatantly lifted this arbitrary time from the lovely Steph at 3 Hours Past and I hope she doesn’t mind.

I do hope this goes to a good home and that I get to see some of the garments from it in real life.

All images remain copyright of their respective owners and are used here for purposes of illustration and discussion.

(*) I don’t have any place mats and I don’t recognise any sovereignty either. So there.
(**) It’s entirely up to you whether you want to follow me on Twitter or not but be warned – some of it it’s not for the faint-hearted.