I love a sewing magazine. So when I spied the March 2018 issue of La Maison Victor sewing magazineΒ at Jo-Ann, and it jumped in my cart. (That happens with a lot of things at Jo-Ann, ha ha.)
La Maison Victor sewing magazine is a Belgian publication, and a test issue in EnglishΒ (affiliate link) came out in summer 2017. The test issue was a success, and the March 2018 issue marks the beginning of regular English publication.
La Maison Victor describes itself as delivering “contemporary handmade fashion.” The patterns and photo styling remind me of Boden (from the U.K.) and J. Crew’s Crewcuts for the kids’ patterns. The feel is somewhere between a ladies’ lifestyle magazine and a DIY mag. There’s home and family content with the sewing patterns and instructions.
Let’s read it together, shall we? In this 13-minute video I show this issue’s patterns, talk about the mag’s different features, and provide a 30-second flip-through of the whole shebang.
Content Organization for La Maison Victor Sewing Magazine
The organization of the magazine is unique. It flips between home DIYs and fashion layouts β with instructions β for the sewing patterns. This is different from BurdaΒ (affiliate link), where the lifestyle content and fashion spreads come first, followed by the patterns and pattern instructions. (I’m going to make a lot of comparisons to Burda in this post, guys, so get ready for them!)
When you look at the cover of La Maison Victor, you’ll notice it reads, “Sew it! Love it! Make it!” And that motto drives what you’ll find inside.
- Sew it: Eight sewing patterns and one knitting pattern.
- Love it: Cute DIYs (from beyond the magazine) and style inspo.
- Make it: DIYs from La Maison Victor and tips to improve your making.
What I Like About La Maison Victor
Instructions
Something fab about La Maison Victor is that all construction steps are illustrated. It reminds me of Threads magazineΒ (affiliate link), which is exhaustive in how it breaks down techniques.
Mini Pattern Sheet
To improve user experience, La Maison Victory sewing magazine include a mini pattern sheet of each project. Why does this rock? It makes it A LOT easier to find pattern pieces when you have a bunch of pattern pieces (for different patterns) printed on the same sheet of paper. This is an idea Burda should steal!
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Yay, it’s the all-magazine edition of affiliate links!
Threads Print Magazine: IMO, the best sewing magazine out there for information. Comprehensive and nerdy. I love it.
Simply Sewing Kindle Edition: Features cute patterns for you to make. I haven’t explored the digital version, but the print version is cute. From the U.K. You can find assorted print copies of Simply Sewing on Amazon, too.
Molly Makes Kindle Edition: Also from the U.K. More home dec and cutesy sewing and craft projects. Charming. Scope out Amazon from random print copies, too.
Burda Style – English Edition Print Magazine: On-trend and boundary-pushing sewing patterns for the home sewist. This is an expensive subscription ($90/year), but that breaks down to $7.50 per issue, and each issue is practically exploding with patterns; it’s a good value. I think Burda’s patterns for plus sizes are super cool.
Sew News Print Magazine: I view Sew News at Threads Lite. It’s targeted at younger sewists than Threads (20s and 30s).
What Could Be Better
Tracing, etc.
Like Burda, if you want to sew a pattern, you have to trace off the pattern pieces. I know this isn’t popular among a lot of sewists. I almost always trace off, so I’m not put off by it.
The following news, though, is kind of a bummer: The sewing patterns DO NOT include seam allowances. *Sad trombone noise.* You find the seam allowances in the instructions, and the seam allowances vary depending on the pattern piece. In other words, you have to pay A LOT of attention to seam allowances.
I bought this mag because the Omer moto-style jacket caught my eye. (It’s a man’s pattern, but I could resize it for my frame.) This pattern has 15 pattern pieces. Between tracing and adding seam allowances, this pattern is a beast before I touch any fabric!
Sizing
I found the sizing charts tricky. First, there are two sizing charts: one for the U.S. in imperial and one for Europe and the U.K.Β in metric. So, if you don’t see your preferred system of measurement, keep flipping; it’s there!
Second, the imperial (inches) measurements are… odd. For example, the height measurements look like this β 5’24”. Does this mean the height is about 5-feet-1/4-inches, or about 5-feet-2-inches? Or something else? Then the measurements for chest size, waist measurement, and hip measurement have decimals (e.g., 28.3″), which is strange for measurements in inches.
Also good to know: I could not find finished garment measurements for any of the patterns. My advice is to measure your pattern pieces and/or make a muslin!
Over to you: Have you picked up a copy of La Maison Victor sewing magazine yet? Whadya think? Have you sewn a La Maison Victor pattern? Please sound off in comments! Thanks for reading!
P.S. ICYMI, here’s the previous post:Β Victory Patterns Ulysses Trench: Chic Mom Vibes.
I am so happy to see this! I had bought the test issue of La Maison in the states last year and then kept occasionally checking their website to see when the next issue would come out. Because there were no updates, I had assumed they weren’t going to put out any more issues, so to see that they are commencing regular publication here is awesome! Time to go hit up Barnes and Noble!
Glad you liked it, Julia! I don’t know how often the mag is going to publish. I poked around the English version of the LMV site, and I found this page on where to buy the magazine: https://www.lamaisonvictor.com/en/shops/. LMK if you’re able to find the latest issue! I’m curious!
Thanks for reading!
I wanted to follow up and let you know that I DID snag the latest issue at my local Barnes & Noble here in Virginia Beach. It’s labeled as Issue 3, so I’ll need to track down a copy of Issue 2. And it looks like LMV just released issue 4 (very kid-centric) which makes me think they are publishing either bimonthly or quarterly. I wish they had more info about the actual print magazine on their website.
Oooh, GTK, Julia! Thanks for the follow-up.
I have not yet tried this pattern company. I’ve been working between Burda Style (I receive the mag) and Vogue. Both require a variety of alterations other than my body needs. I find patterns are not generally well made to begin with! One always needs to check grain, measure well, and figure out if the layout is wise. π Also, I love Threads, but even they have dumbed down over the past 25 years (I know, I sound old…) I am hoping that, as sewing continues to gain momentum, it will come up to past super high quality. that said, it is probably the best available .
Keep up the great projects Erin!!
Thanks for reading, Nancie! Just looking at my sewing reading library, my oldest issue of Threads goes back to 2009, and it looks like I’ve been a subscriber since 2011. I’m surprised to hear that you think the quality has slipped. I’ve always been impressed by the content and find it more advanced that other sewing pubs. But I don’t have your stitching experience or your higher-ed fashion degree! I think Threads is trying to reach younger sewists (who maybe aren’t ready for advanced techniques, etc.). It’s probably a balancing act for the publication. If there were one thing Threads could do to reverse the dumbing down, what would you suggest? I’d like to hear your two cents, as a longtime Threads reader and high-level sewist.