I do not like sewing magazines.
There. I said it out loud. *hyperventilates*
I'm not going to name any specific titles but, yes, I've tried all the new ones, the super-popular ones, the foreign ones and none of them hold my interest or inspire me. It's always *flick, flick* Done. Is that it?!
I'm a freak, aren't I?
Now, please don't get me wrong. Almost all the mag content I've seen lately has been beautiful and things that I would love to or have already made. But for some reason I am not getting any real pleasure out of sitting down with a cuppa and a new read. Apart from the smell. New mag smell is the best!!
I do wonder if it's because all the best bits have popped up in my feed before I actually see the paper copies. So I'm familiar with the most striking bits of content already. Because I love magazines. I subscribed faithfully for about 4 years to a scrapbooking mag and without fail every month I found a whole bunch of stuff I wanted to try. But back then I wasn't a big blog reader so it was my sole source of inspiration apart from one message board. Nowadays with blogs, Pinterest, Instagram and Flickr (although I can't seem to log into there just now - unless I use the app. Most inconvenient!) I'm fairly bombarded with images and must-makes. I'm confident enough to be able to have a bash at something without needing step-by-steps, too, so those pages are generally redundant.
So without trying to be controversial or hurt any feelings I just genuinely wondered if it's just me that the internet has ruined for craft mags? Or should I just shut up and duck-and-cover?
P.S. Just to complete my freakishness? I don't like the Great British Sewing Bee, either. Which makes no sense coz I'm addicted to the Great British Bake-off. Contrary besom, right?
I can understand your dislike of sewing magazines. The internet is full of inspiration pictures and little snippets of information are everywhere. Magazines are a business, and they do seem to come and go.
ReplyDeleteBUT COME ON!!!! Not enjoy GBSBee!!! ? Now that deserves a photo of a hair-raised monkey if ever I read one!
I totally agree. Some issues are great but it's hard when you've seen it all before. The latest issue of a popular one was much more inspiring, with fresh content and i was glad of it. On the whole though I'm sure you're only saying what a lot of people are thinking!
ReplyDeleteI not sure if I like them or not as they're normally sealed up and I'll be blowed if I'm going to spend (a minimum of) a fiver on something I haven't even been able to flick through first. I'd much rather visit a stunning blog like yours - Loving those cute stitch markers!
ReplyDeleteI get excited by the thought of the new mags but have learned very quickly that I'm paying for a load of advertising and not many projects, so I rarely part with pennies for them any more. The more recent ones are much fresher than previous ones and while the projects are really great, I think I agree that the mags are showing a lot of what's going on on the web anyway. I'm also not a fan of GBSB. Kind of want to be but find it a bit disappointing. So if you're a freak, I am too!
ReplyDeleteI agree, and I feel the same way about quilting books. There really isn't too much new, just different fabrics. It gets a little pricey just for inspiration. especially when it's free on the web.
ReplyDeleteI am afraid I am arrogant and big headed. I love to flick through at the stand in the supermarket, but, with the exception of an occasional Burda, I seldom can be tempted to buy.. I reckon I can WORK THAT STUFF OUT myself, for free... ( Grandma in goodness gracious me?)
ReplyDeleteGBSB is another matter again. I love to watch it squawking 'I could do that bit better? Why are they so stupid? What on earth do they think they are doing???
Again arrogant bighead, I reckon I could do it better... but perhaps not within those time constraints? Though I can do super speedy sewing at times.. so maybe I could?
And the internet has opened up loads of tutorials on the tricky stuff, so why buy the book, when Youtube will show the thing better?
I agree!!! I really don't enjoy gbsb. I used to buy a more traditional quilting mag but soon got fed up with it. I don't subscribe to any but quite like the newest mag we are all reading at the mo - it is modern and fresh and the last issue was full of British quilters which is brill. However, we can see most of it online! Oh no you have me thinking of all sorts of controversial bugbears now!!! Xx
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ReplyDeleteLord help you all in a power cut!!!
ReplyDeleteIf what y'all say is true the day of the magazine for ANY subject is over - I can google a recipe, a keep fit regime (OK maybe not), how to decorate my house, what tattoo to get, music to listen; and why the heck would anyone buy a newspaper, they are out of date before they get to the shops!
Having just worked from a PDF pattern, having to keep getting up and down to the laptop, scrolling up and down etc I would have preferred a paper version.
I do not own a Kindle, I like proper books, I even do Sudoku on paper - gasp! Love something that doesn't disappear when I run out of battery.
We are the tech-savvy, most people are not; even those who are do not always have more tech than big old computer or don't spend their lunch hours/journeys/waiting in the car for the kids with an internet connection.
Like everything there will be magazines that don't inspire a thing in some people, ones full of brown can just stay on the shelf, but some will strike a cord in enough people to be worthwhile.
Just sayin' xxx
I'm with you, except when it comes to the GBSB, you freak!
ReplyDeleteI've subscribed to quilting mags in the past but guy found the within a year or two that everything was starting to be repeated added to which the content started to be reduced but the advertising throughout the mag increased. And, all too often I was drawn to an advertising display of a quilt that I really liked but couldn't easily get a pattern for so more often than not I'd be doing my own twist of a pattern and it's still continuing .......
ReplyDeleteI've still got the old mags and books for reference but it's tending to be more of an improv / make it up as I go along journey for me now
And if the powers of I can spin, knit, crochet and when my loom is sorted weave ...... or dye new fabrics for another quilt ;o)
You're not a freak, I never buy magazines or even look at them in shops. I record the GBSB so that I can watch it when I'm ironing. I can then ignore the bits that I hate, May Martin for instance.
ReplyDeleteAndrea x
To be honest I find most craft magazines are only a passing fancy for me. They have to contain a lot of things I would make, or at least even consider making if I had the time, but the more traditional ones have failed generally (I've had a couple of rants about this in the past ;o) ). I do like grabbing Mollie Makes and Making to read in the hairdressers though, more for their styling than for the actual projects, and I have subscribed, with optimism, to the new quilting mag, although I know what you mean about feeling like you've seen a lot of these before.
ReplyDeleteI also had a rant about the GBSB last year, I think I wanted to rechristen it, as it's entirely focussed on sewing clothes! Now I don't dislike clothes sewing, but it's not really got me perched on the edge of my seat. Still, it's okay for background noise.
I'm not as tuned in on the tech world. I don't even have a smart phone (yet!;) so I am not seeing things on twitter nor instagram. I sit at my big clonking 9 year old computer and read blogs and look at the happenings on flickr (which are getting fewer and fewer all the time) for inspiration.
ReplyDeleteI don't subscribe to any mags, the ladies at the shop share and yes....seen it, been there.
As far as books are concerned it's the same thing....seen most of the projects on blog hops. With both books and mags, if there are at least 3-4 things I KNOW I'll make then I might buy it. But that's a might...pennies are tight.
Never seen GBSB and why is it called a Bee if it's all clothes?:)
I think we might be twins separated at birth *ducks for cover from all the other gbsb lovers*
ReplyDeleteI am the same. I find that most of the magazines cater to beginners & I am not that. I can usually work it out for myself & if not there is trusty old You Tube. (In fact, that's how I learnt to knit in the round on circular needles.)
ReplyDeleteOr worse it is just page after page of, "look at these new fabric designs". If I wanted to do that I would go to a shop or get online.
OK rant over. Back to work.
Cheers
Lush
Yep, gone are my days of waiting for the mags to hit the mat, or spend hours at the newsagent wondering which I wanted to buy. The new ones don't really do it for me, bit too heavy on advertising and light on content.
ReplyDeleteGBSB, well I do watch it, just to fabric spot .... Sad besom, but yep nowhere near as good as GBBO
I find most magazines get a bit repetitive. I to Gardeners World for many years until I figured out I knew what would be in the next issue!! I currently love Simple Things, but I'm sure that will get a bit samey so I have only subscribed to 6 issue.
ReplyDeleteBut come on - even Gordon sat down with me and watched the Great british Sewing Bee - and thoroughly enjoyed it!!!!
Yes!!! I am exactly the same. Sought out a copy of Love patchwork and quilting because I wondered what all the fuss was about and a load of bloggy mates are in it. But I nearly put it back on the shelf in WHSmiths when I saw it was £4.99!
ReplyDeleteI'm another who isn't a fan of magazines. I know the adverts supposedly keep the costs down but at £5 a time and often with things I've seen on blogs/in other places online already I'm not a fan. I used to subscribe to Mollie Makes, but got sick of the designs being things you could get in books. Ended up selling all my copies for more than I'd paid on ebay and got lots of space back :-)
ReplyDeleteThere are also so many different titles and as others have said if they're in plastic bags you can't flick through them.
I use a mixture of books and blogs/online patterns and instagram/twitter for inspiration but I'm always willing to give new magazines a try, however as I can't find one i like it's probably me!
GBSB I enjoy but I wish it wasn't so clothes focused. Sewing bees are about quilts more than clothing surely.
I agree! Quilting magazines are not what I thought they were after the Internet. Sometimes it is just fun to buy one to look at the glossy pages. Mostly I buy them if there is a technique or quilt pattern I am interested in :) I could be a freak too!
ReplyDeleteI've searched and searched to find a magazine that was worth its price, that inspired me, that reflected my style/thoughts. Recently I have been lucky enough to find that, thank goodness. I will happily support their new venture.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I love that you hold strong to your thoughts/feelings, that you toss them out there with a bit of humor and you're open to hearing what others say. Fab post.
I think I'm the wrong person to be answering this as I don't read magazines - there isn't enough reading in them for me (most last me half an hour at the absolute most and it's usually more like twenty minutes) and I'd rather buy a book with my £5. I don't have any portable technology so all my blog reading/tweeting is done on my laptop so it's not as though I'm replacing magazine reading with blog reading/Instagram, etc. as I've never really done the former! As for GBSB - it's okay to have on while I'm doing something else and I'm afraid I don't watch GBBO so I can't compare the two. I think the first episode of the second series of GBSB was better than the first episode of the first series but it's not a 'must watch' programme for me...
ReplyDeleteI expect it is, in part, your quilting expertise. You don't need the instructions so the bulk of the magazine is about the projects and most don't have that many. The internet really does provide a useful alternative. However, many folks are on reading quilting blogs and such and for them the magazines are great. Maybe you need to contribute to the mags, not read them.
ReplyDeleteI find myself buying running and fashion magazines now that I'm reading sewing blogs until they come out my ears each night... so... I guess blogs give me room to buy other stuff? and yes, the craft old magazines do seem antiquated these days... somehow?!??
ReplyDeleteI've never really been a magazine reader, I much prefer books. I even refuse to my my daughter magazines and will usually take her straight to the charity shop and let her choose a book for a tenth of the price. I do like love quilting and patchwork though but don't go out of my way to find it like some do.
ReplyDeleteGBSB? I do watch it and even learnt something last week (under stitching). And am really grateful that they've given up on trying to teach us how to sew (a laundry bag? Really?) but think it could do with showing different kinds of sewing like quilting, homewares etc instead of just clothing.
I know how you feel- for the first time ever I'm making a quilt from a magazine- it's an american one and most importantly I've not seen it in blogland. I'm guilty of this aren't I? I make a quilt, blog about it and then sell the pattern... sorry! I do think there needs to be more to actually READ in these magazines, maybe that's why you prefer other genres?
ReplyDeleteBTW you're wrong about The Great British Sewing Bee, no one spoil it for me though, k, I've not seen last night's yet. I really like that but I'm not a big dressmaking fan.
Fo rme, like others said, I think that we use the internet so much that a lot of the projects in magazines are ones that I've already seen, and after a while they tend to get recycled within the same magazine or the same genre of magazines, so although I often get a subscription they often don't last longer than a year. I do like to get a magazine though, something more tactile and old-fashioned about it that I enjoy, especially if I'm going on holiday. I've been watching the GBSB, just to heckle from the sidelines (!) and do quite enjoy it but then I equally like dress-making and patchwork....I'm a bit weird like that!!!!
ReplyDeleteI agree that the internet holds so much inspiration it's sometimes difficult to justify buying a magazine, and generally i don't find them that inspiring, that being said, I have enjoyed Love PW&Q so far, as I rather like flicking through something tangible- chances are that within 12 months I will be over it though! As for GBSB, I find myself irritated by it, as it seems to be the GB clothes making Bee, I don't make clothes, and every week find myself thinking, does this make me less of a sewist, sewing is about more than making clothing, surely!?!?!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you completely! Since the internet has become so very interesting for us quilters I'm not really interested in magazines any more. I do like books however. there I still find lots of interesting pictures and patterns. But magazines have lost their appeal for me.
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