@colouredlines I'm on a major grunk of the JM threads and just wanted to see if you'd posted any of the sewing pattern/influencer tea? 
Edit: word duplication
Edit: word duplication
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I’m not even a member of those communities but 100% would follow a thread on it, love niche beefs x@colouredlines I'm just on a major grunk of the JM threads and just wanted to see if you'd posted any of the sewing pattern/influencer tea?
I noticed it was kicking off in the comments when Tilly and the Buttons released her latest pattern, is it Lyra? Apparently another indie pattern house has had one for ages called that and now all the #sewingLyra will be TATB.
I was off Instagram for a lot of March/April so feel I've missed some bits. Also, can I just say that I thought it was pretty weird that Sew Over It decided to name one of their recent blouse patterns the "Zadie blouse". Considering that TATB already has the Zadie Dress and Paper Theory has the "Zadie Jumpsuit" (which is basically iconic now amongst indie patterns
) I dunno I just thought why would you pick that?!
I do a bit of crochet, I have a big blanket on the go that's not progressing as I have developed RSI but I'm doing bits of it once in a while. Due to the RSI I have just taken up embroidery and I think I've fallen in love with it, obviously, still a complete beginner. I can knit but only very basic and can't follow a pattern for the life of me.
I love a bit of embroidery! I can knit a bit but the patterns scare me
It's like another language.
I love cross stitch and am trying to make the transition to embroidery. If you have any tips or good accounts to follow it would be greatly appreciatedI love a bit of embroidery! I can knit a bit but the patterns scare me
I started by buying a kit from Aldi! I don't really follow any accounts that do embroidery but if I need to see how a stitch is done I search the stitch on YouTube and watch a few tutorials. Also, Archie and the rug on Instagram has a few embroidery tutorials that I have watched and her instructions are quite clearI love cross stitch and am trying to make the transition to embroidery. If you have any tips or good accounts to follow it would be greatly appreciated
I also crochet and recently bought an embroidery kit om etsy. It's for beginners but i am slightly intimidated by it.
I just want to know if we hate-follow the same people.@colouredlines I'm on a major grunk of the JM threads and just wanted to see if you'd posted any of the sewing pattern/influencer tea?
Edit: word duplication
Probably! I try and keep to myself. I just watch from the sidelines, taking it all in.
There are so many good kits out there now with lots of beginner friendly guides. Some Instagram accounts I follow:I love cross stitch and am trying to make the transition to embroidery. If you have any tips or good accounts to follow it would be greatly appreciated
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I got my MIL a kit from this one which she found really good and she's familiar with cross stitch but a beginner embroider. https://instagram.com/sew.in.uk?igshid=58sjbuoqczzc
I hope those links worked
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I mean - we all hate Katie Kortman for being an utter nightmare but secretly like some of her designs yeah?
Thank you so muchProbably! I try and keep to myself. I just watch from the sidelines, taking it all in.
There are so many good kits out there now with lots of beginner friendly guides. Some Instagram accounts I follow:
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I got my MIL a kit from this one which she found really good and she's familiar with cross stitch but a beginner embroider. https://instagram.com/sew.in.uk?igshid=58sjbuoqczzc
I hope those links worked
Today I tried to teach myself to crochet using YouTube tutorials. I can do the single chain fine but anything after that was beyond me.
Just go for it, it doesn't have to be perfect, especially not first time. I tend to just wade in, make a pig's ear of it and improve as I go
Im a total klutz but I learned to crochet when I put my back out. I did have a look at YouTube but I found the videos really frustrating.
Have a look at https://www.attic24.typepad.com. The tutorials are really clear and there are some beautiful ideas to encourage you to keep trying.
Sorry guys! I have all notifications turned off, so missed this. Let me see...this may be a long one.
I'm going to start by saying that generally I don't care much for indie pattern houses. There are a few good ones, but there are a lot of REALLY BAD bloggers turned designers with no training or experience who charge extortionate sums for terrible patterns. I personally only use Big 4, Burda or Patrones. I think a lot of people exaggerate how difficult Big 4 instructions are...I learned to sew with them and have never had any issues. Admittedly since the ownership changed they go on sale a lot less, but I have a large stash to get through so I'm okay.
I should also add that I hardly follow any sewing bloggers/influencers. I don't follow any influencers of any kind on Instagram because I'd rather read a blog post. The ones I like are people like Sewing & Slapdashery or Dressmaking Debacles. Their photos aren't professional quality, but they're incredibly honest about what works and what doesn't. That's great.
I've always kind of been on the periphery of online crafting stuff. Here are some fun dramas to look into:
1) THE COLETTE RUE DEBACLE
Colette was a pattern company that specialised in vintage-inspired looks. They were one of the first of the new wave of indies, and for a while their patterns were EVERYWHERE.
The thing is...their patterns didn't work. They were drafted for the founder's body type, and she is extremely short-waisted with very broad shoulders. This was obvious, but Colette would always deny that they were drafted for her. Because the sewing community is such a circle jerk, everyone still posted gushing reviews about these patterns that looked awful without massive adjustments.
So Colette ticked over nicely until their new pattern, Rue, was selected for the Pattern Review Sewing Bee contest. PR, for anyone who doesn't know it, is a horrendously designed website where you can look up patterns, join discussion forums, and enter competitions. It's very American, and there's a lot of "I made the whole family Bible covers for church!" going on, but there are some women there who really, really know their stuff. And these women started complaining very vocally about the pattern.
Colette kept denying that the pattern had been drafted for their founder's body despite the fact that she was literally the only person who had made a version that fit correctly. Finally they admitted they made a mistake...and posted a picture of all the staff enjoying a day-long yoga retreat to show that they were reflecting and growing.
You will be shocked to hear that Colette don't make patterns anymore, and have migrated entirely into the Seamwork brand. Seamwork patterns are designed to be very simple, and they pretty much universally look like tit due to a lack of shaping etc...the sort of thing that when you say "I made it myself" people think, "Yeah, it shows."
Further reading:
https://allspiceabounds.wordpress.com/2016/10/05/why-colettes-corrections-to-the-rue-pattern-are-too-little-too-late
getmystitchon.blogspot.com
There's a great thread on Pattern Review about this too, but I can't find it now.
2) BY HAND LONDON DEBACLE
By Hand London is a UK-based pattern company run by posh women who mostly make aspirational dress designs. Again, they've been ubiquitous in the online sewing world. In particular, their Anna dress was praised and worn by just about everyone.
And again, the drafting was terrible. This blog goes into superb detail about just what was so bad about it:
www.madebymeg.us
Also check here, epic lolz and dire mishandling of data protection:
www.reddit.com
But the real drama with BHL came when they decided to do a Kickstarter. This was back in 2015 I think, and they wanted to raise money to run a Print On Demand fabric service. They raised the money...and then realised that they had no idea how to continue with the project, so abandoned it. Great!
Around this time they also decided that their paper patterns were better than their PDFs, because the paper patterns were a cherished product of love or some bullshit, so they announced that PDFs would no longer be supported. They announced this without warning, so people who had already paid for but not downloaded a PDF from their website were left up tit creek. Incredibly bad business skills.
Further reading - this is really long, but it gives you the full story of the Kickstarter, the bad patterns, etc:
https://gomiblog.com/forums/crafting-bloggers/by-hand-london-bhl
3) Online sewing culture in general
I hate it.
But it's really interesting psychologically. People have no problem critiquing patterns from the Big 4 or Burda, because they're seen as faceless entities. But all these small indie pattern houses are part of the community, and they just wanna be your friend, so nobody ever criticises them.
It's a crappy, dishonest way to run a business.
Here are a couple of quick examples of what I'm talking about:
* Tilly & the Buttons released a pattern for a woven dress that was EXACTLY THE SAME FRONT AND BACK WITH NO SHAPING. That's...not how women's bodies work. Here's a review where the reviewer tiptoes around the issue, because of course nobody can ever come out and say "this pattern is tit":
curvysewingcollective.com
As an aside, this reviewer is plus size, but that has nothing to do with the poor fit of the dress. That dress has no accommodation for breasts and hips, regardless of your size!
* Here's a lengthy review of a pattern by Papercut Patterns. After this review came out, the company pulled the coat from sale and later released an updated version:
www.sewinglikemad.com
Notice at the end she says, "Phew, this post has been hanging over my head for a whole year." That pattern was out there FOR A YEAR, with people sewing it up and influencers saying how great it was, before someone finally had the balls to criticise it.
---
There is so, so much more out there that I could talk about, but I'm gonna stop it here because this post is really long already. I find myself spending less and less time looking at crafting blogs and stuff TBH...there's also this whole weird politicalisation thing going on. Knitting has been even worse - that online culture has become so toxic, and there are new witch hunts every other week. It's a really clear example of how people apply American cultural standards to the entire world: people will attack a designer for only using white models, without realising that the designer lives in the Outer Hebrides or rural Denmark or the middle of Estonia. It's toxic and tiresome, and I'm so over it.
I'm going to start by saying that generally I don't care much for indie pattern houses. There are a few good ones, but there are a lot of REALLY BAD bloggers turned designers with no training or experience who charge extortionate sums for terrible patterns. I personally only use Big 4, Burda or Patrones. I think a lot of people exaggerate how difficult Big 4 instructions are...I learned to sew with them and have never had any issues. Admittedly since the ownership changed they go on sale a lot less, but I have a large stash to get through so I'm okay.
I should also add that I hardly follow any sewing bloggers/influencers. I don't follow any influencers of any kind on Instagram because I'd rather read a blog post. The ones I like are people like Sewing & Slapdashery or Dressmaking Debacles. Their photos aren't professional quality, but they're incredibly honest about what works and what doesn't. That's great.
I've always kind of been on the periphery of online crafting stuff. Here are some fun dramas to look into:
1) THE COLETTE RUE DEBACLE
Colette was a pattern company that specialised in vintage-inspired looks. They were one of the first of the new wave of indies, and for a while their patterns were EVERYWHERE.
The thing is...their patterns didn't work. They were drafted for the founder's body type, and she is extremely short-waisted with very broad shoulders. This was obvious, but Colette would always deny that they were drafted for her. Because the sewing community is such a circle jerk, everyone still posted gushing reviews about these patterns that looked awful without massive adjustments.
So Colette ticked over nicely until their new pattern, Rue, was selected for the Pattern Review Sewing Bee contest. PR, for anyone who doesn't know it, is a horrendously designed website where you can look up patterns, join discussion forums, and enter competitions. It's very American, and there's a lot of "I made the whole family Bible covers for church!" going on, but there are some women there who really, really know their stuff. And these women started complaining very vocally about the pattern.
Colette kept denying that the pattern had been drafted for their founder's body despite the fact that she was literally the only person who had made a version that fit correctly. Finally they admitted they made a mistake...and posted a picture of all the staff enjoying a day-long yoga retreat to show that they were reflecting and growing.
You will be shocked to hear that Colette don't make patterns anymore, and have migrated entirely into the Seamwork brand. Seamwork patterns are designed to be very simple, and they pretty much universally look like tit due to a lack of shaping etc...the sort of thing that when you say "I made it myself" people think, "Yeah, it shows."
Further reading:
https://allspiceabounds.wordpress.com/2016/10/05/why-colettes-corrections-to-the-rue-pattern-are-too-little-too-late
It's not me, it's Rue: PR Sewing Bee Round 3
Friends, I will start this post with a Public Service Announcement: Do not spend money on the Colette Rue Pattern. Even if it was $1 inst...
getmystitchon.blogspot.com
There's a great thread on Pattern Review about this too, but I can't find it now.
2) BY HAND LONDON DEBACLE
By Hand London is a UK-based pattern company run by posh women who mostly make aspirational dress designs. Again, they've been ubiquitous in the online sewing world. In particular, their Anna dress was praised and worn by just about everyone.
And again, the drafting was terrible. This blog goes into superb detail about just what was so bad about it:
Anna Dress - Good Idea, Bad Pattern
Pattern: By Hand London's Anna Dress Fabric: 3 yds double knit/ponte Cost: $22 Two years after its release I finally found an occasi...
Also check here, epic lolz and dire mishandling of data protection:
Reddit - Dive into anything
www.reddit.com
But the real drama with BHL came when they decided to do a Kickstarter. This was back in 2015 I think, and they wanted to raise money to run a Print On Demand fabric service. They raised the money...and then realised that they had no idea how to continue with the project, so abandoned it. Great!
Around this time they also decided that their paper patterns were better than their PDFs, because the paper patterns were a cherished product of love or some bullshit, so they announced that PDFs would no longer be supported. They announced this without warning, so people who had already paid for but not downloaded a PDF from their website were left up tit creek. Incredibly bad business skills.
Further reading - this is really long, but it gives you the full story of the Kickstarter, the bad patterns, etc:
https://gomiblog.com/forums/crafting-bloggers/by-hand-london-bhl
3) Online sewing culture in general
I hate it.
But it's really interesting psychologically. People have no problem critiquing patterns from the Big 4 or Burda, because they're seen as faceless entities. But all these small indie pattern houses are part of the community, and they just wanna be your friend, so nobody ever criticises them.
It's a crappy, dishonest way to run a business.
Here are a couple of quick examples of what I'm talking about:
* Tilly & the Buttons released a pattern for a woven dress that was EXACTLY THE SAME FRONT AND BACK WITH NO SHAPING. That's...not how women's bodies work. Here's a review where the reviewer tiptoes around the issue, because of course nobody can ever come out and say "this pattern is tit":
Pattern Review: Tilly & The Buttons Bettine Dress
I wanted to start this blog with a bit of a disclaimer. I’m not trying to pattern bash Bettine, but more explain the difficulties that I face with this pattern and my body. There’s not …
As an aside, this reviewer is plus size, but that has nothing to do with the poor fit of the dress. That dress has no accommodation for breasts and hips, regardless of your size!
* Here's a lengthy review of a pattern by Papercut Patterns. After this review came out, the company pulled the coat from sale and later released an updated version:
The Sapporo Coat by Papercut Patterns, Review.
THIRD EDIT, Oct 31st 2020: Alice from the blog Queen of Darts have used this post to go through the 2.0 version of the pattern. See her con...
Notice at the end she says, "Phew, this post has been hanging over my head for a whole year." That pattern was out there FOR A YEAR, with people sewing it up and influencers saying how great it was, before someone finally had the balls to criticise it.
---
There is so, so much more out there that I could talk about, but I'm gonna stop it here because this post is really long already. I find myself spending less and less time looking at crafting blogs and stuff TBH...there's also this whole weird politicalisation thing going on. Knitting has been even worse - that online culture has become so toxic, and there are new witch hunts every other week. It's a really clear example of how people apply American cultural standards to the entire world: people will attack a designer for only using white models, without realising that the designer lives in the Outer Hebrides or rural Denmark or the middle of Estonia. It's toxic and tiresome, and I'm so over it.
I found that Bettine dress review when I was searching for a bad review of it ages ago after making it and being really disappointed with the outcome. I felt bad for doing so cos like you say, no one ever 'disses' the indie pattern houses. I hated the fit of the dress, I am a size 10/12 so I made the size 5 which is meant to be a 14 thinking I'd rather it be too big and I can always take it in. The fit was shocking, it bound my chest and cut the circulation off in my arms! Was so disappointed as the fit looked really relaxed so I just thought it must be my body shape, even though I'm pretty standard tbh hence not feeling I had to make any adjustments. I've made a few of her patterns and never really had any other problems with them except as I've become more experienced, I've picked up skills/hacks which have improved them. I do find even though the big pattern houses' e.g. Simplicity, New Look etc instructions are a lot harder for follow for a beginner, you do get a much better garment as the end result. I have seen Tilly IRL and she is absolutely tiny, and nothing against small/petite women whatsoever but when I saw her I did think ah, kinda explains why the arm measurements were so mean for example. I've also never made the Stevie as a dress cos I just thought lol, my arse would just take up most of it and it would still be a top as it's the same width all the way down regardless of if I lengthen it or not!Sorry guys! I have all notifications turned off, so missed this. Let me see...this may be a long one.
I'm going to start by saying that generally I don't care much for indie pattern houses. There are a few good ones, but there are a lot of REALLY BAD bloggers turned designers with no training or experience who charge extortionate sums for terrible patterns. I personally only use Big 4, Burda or Patrones. I think a lot of people exaggerate how difficult Big 4 instructions are...I learned to sew with them and have never had any issues. Admittedly since the ownership changed they go on sale a lot less, but I have a large stash to get through so I'm okay.
I should also add that I hardly follow any sewing bloggers/influencers. I don't follow any influencers of any kind on Instagram because I'd rather read a blog post. The ones I like are people like Sewing & Slapdashery or Dressmaking Debacles. Their photos aren't professional quality, but they're incredibly honest about what works and what doesn't. That's great.
I've always kind of been on the periphery of online crafting stuff. Here are some fun dramas to look into:
1) THE COLETTE RUE DEBACLE
Colette was a pattern company that specialised in vintage-inspired looks. They were one of the first of the new wave of indies, and for a while their patterns were EVERYWHERE.
The thing is...their patterns didn't work. They were drafted for the founder's body type, and she is extremely short-waisted with very broad shoulders. This was obvious, but Colette would always deny that they were drafted for her. Because the sewing community is such a circle jerk, everyone still posted gushing reviews about these patterns that looked awful without massive adjustments.
So Colette ticked over nicely until their new pattern, Rue, was selected for the Pattern Review Sewing Bee contest. PR, for anyone who doesn't know it, is a horrendously designed website where you can look up patterns, join discussion forums, and enter competitions. It's very American, and there's a lot of "I made the whole family Bible covers for church!" going on, but there are some women there who really, really know their stuff. And these women started complaining very vocally about the pattern.
Colette kept denying that the pattern had been drafted for their founder's body despite the fact that she was literally the only person who had made a version that fit correctly. Finally they admitted they made a mistake...and posted a picture of all the staff enjoying a day-long yoga retreat to show that they were reflecting and growing.
You will be shocked to hear that Colette don't make patterns anymore, and have migrated entirely into the Seamwork brand. Seamwork patterns are designed to be very simple, and they pretty much universally look like tit due to a lack of shaping etc...the sort of thing that when you say "I made it myself" people think, "Yeah, it shows."
Further reading:
https://allspiceabounds.wordpress.com/2016/10/05/why-colettes-corrections-to-the-rue-pattern-are-too-little-too-late
It's not me, it's Rue: PR Sewing Bee Round 3
Friends, I will start this post with a Public Service Announcement: Do not spend money on the Colette Rue Pattern. Even if it was $1 inst...
There's a great thread on Pattern Review about this too, but I can't find it now.
2) BY HAND LONDON DEBACLE
By Hand London is a UK-based pattern company run by posh women who mostly make aspirational dress designs. Again, they've been ubiquitous in the online sewing world. In particular, their Anna dress was praised and worn by just about everyone.
And again, the drafting was terrible. This blog goes into superb detail about just what was so bad about it:
Anna Dress - Good Idea, Bad Pattern
Pattern: By Hand London's Anna Dress Fabric: 3 yds double knit/ponte Cost: $22 Two years after its release I finally found an occasi...
Also check here, epic lolz and dire mishandling of data protection:
Reddit - Dive into anything
But the real drama with BHL came when they decided to do a Kickstarter. This was back in 2015 I think, and they wanted to raise money to run a Print On Demand fabric service. They raised the money...and then realised that they had no idea how to continue with the project, so abandoned it. Great!
Around this time they also decided that their paper patterns were better than their PDFs, because the paper patterns were a cherished product of love or some bullshit, so they announced that PDFs would no longer be supported. They announced this without warning, so people who had already paid for but not downloaded a PDF from their website were left up tit creek. Incredibly bad business skills.
Further reading - this is really long, but it gives you the full story of the Kickstarter, the bad patterns, etc:
https://gomiblog.com/forums/crafting-bloggers/by-hand-london-bhl
3) Online sewing culture in general
I hate it.
But it's really interesting psychologically. People have no problem critiquing patterns from the Big 4 or Burda, because they're seen as faceless entities. But all these small indie pattern houses are part of the community, and they just wanna be your friend, so nobody ever criticises them.
It's a crappy, dishonest way to run a business.
Here are a couple of quick examples of what I'm talking about:
* Tilly & the Buttons released a pattern for a woven dress that was EXACTLY THE SAME FRONT AND BACK WITH NO SHAPING. That's...not how women's bodies work. Here's a review where the reviewer tiptoes around the issue, because of course nobody can ever come out and say "this pattern is tit":
Pattern Review: Tilly & The Buttons Bettine Dress
I wanted to start this blog with a bit of a disclaimer. I’m not trying to pattern bash Bettine, but more explain the difficulties that I face with this pattern and my body. There’s not …
As an aside, this reviewer is plus size, but that has nothing to do with the poor fit of the dress. That dress has no accommodation for breasts and hips, regardless of your size!
* Here's a lengthy review of a pattern by Papercut Patterns. After this review came out, the company pulled the coat from sale and later released an updated version:
The Sapporo Coat by Papercut Patterns, Review.
THIRD EDIT, Oct 31st 2020: Alice from the blog Queen of Darts have used this post to go through the 2.0 version of the pattern. See her con...
Notice at the end she says, "Phew, this post has been hanging over my head for a whole year." That pattern was out there FOR A YEAR, with people sewing it up and influencers saying how great it was, before someone finally had the balls to criticise it.
---
There is so, so much more out there that I could talk about, but I'm gonna stop it here because this post is really long already. I find myself spending less and less time looking at crafting blogs and stuff TBH...there's also this whole weird politicalisation thing going on. Knitting has been even worse - that online culture has become so toxic, and there are new witch hunts every other week. It's a really clear example of how people apply American cultural standards to the entire world: people will attack a designer for only using white models, without realising that the designer lives in the Outer Hebrides or rural Denmark or the middle of Estonia. It's toxic and tiresome, and I'm so over it.
I also agree about online sewing culture as a whole, people just aren't honest about things. Again with patterns, if they've been chosen as a pattern tester they're just not gonna say a bad word about it. It also makes me feel bad and like I don't do enough sewing as all these people just seem to churn things out in no time, with no mistakes! 99% of people are just like 'ah everything is so perfect all the time'.
The Sewing Bee also, I think totally misrepresents how much work/time goes into making a garment. Especially when they're supposedly novices, I've been sewing for a good few years now and couldn't make a shirt/dress in a 2 hour time limit.
Sorry that was a very geeky rant and I apologise if anyone slipped into a coma reading it, I'll shut up now
Love this and agree with a lot of what you've said. I remember the whole Rue debacle!! What a palava. I did not, however, know about the BHL KickstarterSorry guys! I have all notifications turned off, so missed this. Let me see...this may be a long one.
I'm going to start by saying that generally I don't care much for indie pattern houses. There are a few good ones, but there are a lot of REALLY BAD bloggers turned designers with no training or experience who charge extortionate sums for terrible patterns. I personally only use Big 4, Burda or Patrones. I think a lot of people exaggerate how difficult Big 4 instructions are...I learned to sew with them and have never had any issues. Admittedly since the ownership changed they go on sale a lot less, but I have a large stash to get through so I'm okay.
I should also add that I hardly follow any sewing bloggers/influencers. I don't follow any influencers of any kind on Instagram because I'd rather read a blog post. The ones I like are people like Sewing & Slapdashery or Dressmaking Debacles. Their photos aren't professional quality, but they're incredibly honest about what works and what doesn't. That's great.
I've always kind of been on the periphery of online crafting stuff. Here are some fun dramas to look into:
1) THE COLETTE RUE DEBACLE
Colette was a pattern company that specialised in vintage-inspired looks. They were one of the first of the new wave of indies, and for a while their patterns were EVERYWHERE.
The thing is...their patterns didn't work. They were drafted for the founder's body type, and she is extremely short-waisted with very broad shoulders. This was obvious, but Colette would always deny that they were drafted for her. Because the sewing community is such a circle jerk, everyone still posted gushing reviews about these patterns that looked awful without massive adjustments.
So Colette ticked over nicely until their new pattern, Rue, was selected for the Pattern Review Sewing Bee contest. PR, for anyone who doesn't know it, is a horrendously designed website where you can look up patterns, join discussion forums, and enter competitions. It's very American, and there's a lot of "I made the whole family Bible covers for church!" going on, but there are some women there who really, really know their stuff. And these women started complaining very vocally about the pattern.
Colette kept denying that the pattern had been drafted for their founder's body despite the fact that she was literally the only person who had made a version that fit correctly. Finally they admitted they made a mistake...and posted a picture of all the staff enjoying a day-long yoga retreat to show that they were reflecting and growing.
You will be shocked to hear that Colette don't make patterns anymore, and have migrated entirely into the Seamwork brand. Seamwork patterns are designed to be very simple, and they pretty much universally look like tit due to a lack of shaping etc...the sort of thing that when you say "I made it myself" people think, "Yeah, it shows."
Further reading:
https://allspiceabounds.wordpress.com/2016/10/05/why-colettes-corrections-to-the-rue-pattern-are-too-little-too-late
It's not me, it's Rue: PR Sewing Bee Round 3
Friends, I will start this post with a Public Service Announcement: Do not spend money on the Colette Rue Pattern. Even if it was $1 inst...
There's a great thread on Pattern Review about this too, but I can't find it now.
2) BY HAND LONDON DEBACLE
By Hand London is a UK-based pattern company run by posh women who mostly make aspirational dress designs. Again, they've been ubiquitous in the online sewing world. In particular, their Anna dress was praised and worn by just about everyone.
And again, the drafting was terrible. This blog goes into superb detail about just what was so bad about it:
Anna Dress - Good Idea, Bad Pattern
Pattern: By Hand London's Anna Dress Fabric: 3 yds double knit/ponte Cost: $22 Two years after its release I finally found an occasi...
Also check here, epic lolz and dire mishandling of data protection:
Reddit - Dive into anything
But the real drama with BHL came when they decided to do a Kickstarter. This was back in 2015 I think, and they wanted to raise money to run a Print On Demand fabric service. They raised the money...and then realised that they had no idea how to continue with the project, so abandoned it. Great!
Around this time they also decided that their paper patterns were better than their PDFs, because the paper patterns were a cherished product of love or some bullshit, so they announced that PDFs would no longer be supported. They announced this without warning, so people who had already paid for but not downloaded a PDF from their website were left up tit creek. Incredibly bad business skills.
Further reading - this is really long, but it gives you the full story of the Kickstarter, the bad patterns, etc:
https://gomiblog.com/forums/crafting-bloggers/by-hand-london-bhl
3) Online sewing culture in general
I hate it.
But it's really interesting psychologically. People have no problem critiquing patterns from the Big 4 or Burda, because they're seen as faceless entities. But all these small indie pattern houses are part of the community, and they just wanna be your friend, so nobody ever criticises them.
It's a crappy, dishonest way to run a business.
Here are a couple of quick examples of what I'm talking about:
* Tilly & the Buttons released a pattern for a woven dress that was EXACTLY THE SAME FRONT AND BACK WITH NO SHAPING. That's...not how women's bodies work. Here's a review where the reviewer tiptoes around the issue, because of course nobody can ever come out and say "this pattern is tit":
Pattern Review: Tilly & The Buttons Bettine Dress
I wanted to start this blog with a bit of a disclaimer. I’m not trying to pattern bash Bettine, but more explain the difficulties that I face with this pattern and my body. There’s not …
As an aside, this reviewer is plus size, but that has nothing to do with the poor fit of the dress. That dress has no accommodation for breasts and hips, regardless of your size!
* Here's a lengthy review of a pattern by Papercut Patterns. After this review came out, the company pulled the coat from sale and later released an updated version:
The Sapporo Coat by Papercut Patterns, Review.
THIRD EDIT, Oct 31st 2020: Alice from the blog Queen of Darts have used this post to go through the 2.0 version of the pattern. See her con...
Notice at the end she says, "Phew, this post has been hanging over my head for a whole year." That pattern was out there FOR A YEAR, with people sewing it up and influencers saying how great it was, before someone finally had the balls to criticise it.
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There is so, so much more out there that I could talk about, but I'm gonna stop it here because this post is really long already. I find myself spending less and less time looking at crafting blogs and stuff TBH...there's also this whole weird politicalisation thing going on. Knitting has been even worse - that online culture has become so toxic, and there are new witch hunts every other week. It's a really clear example of how people apply American cultural standards to the entire world: people will attack a designer for only using white models, without realising that the designer lives in the Outer Hebrides or rural Denmark or the middle of Estonia. It's toxic and tiresome, and I'm so over it.
That is shocking. The Sapporo coat was particularly annoying for people as it's so expensive to make a coat. I've made a few myself and really enjoy making them. They are such an investment piece though as good quality coating fabric isn't cheap. Plus tailoring interfacing, lining, findings etc. It's really galling when they know there's a problem but don't do anything about it.I agree everyone tends to tip toe around because of all the #bekind #womensupportingwomen bullshit. And you're right, it's exhausting how people go on witch hunts constantly and then get whiplash from the about face that they then make!
Personally I use indie patterns more than big four but I kind of just fell into that and I will say that I have never had a problem with a big four pattern so I don't understand why people insist on indie patterns being better.
Confession: I've made a Bettine and it was a success and one of my most regularly worn makes. That being said I totally understand the points made by people about the drafting/shape.
Off to read up about the BHL Kickstarter!!!
@colouredlines that was epic. I love it. This is a bit 
but I came second in the BHL fabric design competition attached to that Kickstarter. It took ages to get my £100 prize (had to chase them) and I never got my commission for the fabric they sold even though they told me it had sold really well (probs a lie tbf but my family bought some so I was owed something!) so I am not a fan of them. Again, their patterns need a lot of adjustments but I did love the Elisalex dress. In 2013 or whenever it was - not now! I also thought I liked the Anna but yes, so many adjustments!
but I came second in the BHL fabric design competition attached to that Kickstarter. It took ages to get my £100 prize (had to chase them) and I never got my commission for the fabric they sold even though they told me it had sold really well (probs a lie tbf but my family bought some so I was owed something!) so I am not a fan of them. Again, their patterns need a lot of adjustments but I did love the Elisalex dress. In 2013 or whenever it was - not now! I also thought I liked the Anna but yes, so many adjustments!