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| Pride & Prejudice book bag by Novel Creations... |
This stems from a habit I developed early on of recording anything and
everything that I might want to cover in more detail.
Some of the posts date back a fair ways and are mostly abandoned, while others
are more recent and are actively being worked on now and then.
For some that have been languishing for years, I thought I'd rescue what
there is and "stitch" them together, so to speak. Three of them — about
patterns, fabric, and purses made out of old books — form the basis for
today's potpourri post.
Do You Hoard Sewing Patterns?
Have you purchased patterns over the years that you likely won't use?
We are all familiar with sewing enthusiasts who hoard fabric, but what about
patterns? I'm convinced that there are people who do this for that "just in
case" moment.
They purchase patterns and then literally forget about them. When a
favourite designer releases something new — perhaps with an early discount
— it triggers an instant buy decision with no plan for when the
project might be made.
It's actually easy to be a pattern hoarder and not have it be a problem —
apart from a potential financial issue — since PDFs are easy to keep. Unless
you are the sort who prints everything onto paper (or you actually collect
patterns in paper format), you can be awash in PDFs and no one would know
it.
I haven't been immune. But as of this writing, I only have two purchased
patterns that are sitting unmade. [Update: as of this actual posting, I have four. Three of them were purchased for $2 each, so I'm not as
bummed out about the lack of progress as I might otherwise be, had I paid
$10.]
What about free patterns that you didn't have to pay for? How many of those
do you have and will never use?
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| Sadly missed... |
Back when Craftsy ran their truly amazing and innovative independent
marketplace, we were able to see stats for how many sales we had made and
how many downloads resulted from them. In July of 2014, of the free patterns
that I offered, 46% of them had been downloaded by their "purchasers".
Checking again almost two years later, 54% had still not been downloaded;
i.e., those who hadn't downloaded in 2014 probably never ended up doing so
later.
Of those who actually did download the patterns, 66% took them on the
same day of the sale or within a week. Of the remaining 34%, the vast
majority of those (82%) waited at least five months and up to twenty-one (!)
months to do so.
No wonder so many people were in an uproar when the marketplace closed down.
Some folks realized too late that they had never bothered to download the
patterns that they had paid for, or that had been free but were now nowhere
to be found.
[Update again: I have many (free) PDFs that have been downloaded through
the years. During these past months, I've been sharing some of them in my
Nifty Things I Thought I Might Make series.]
It Might be the Fabric!
With fabric playing such an integral part in this hobby of ours, it's no
wonder many of us have strong feelings associated with it. (And in this
case, let the word "fabric" encompass other materials and substrates that we
use in our sewing, like cork, vinyl and leather.)
Think about it. There are people who hoard fabric (often until their end of
days). There are people who can't resist buying the latest and greatest
fabrics just to have some of it. There are probably people who purchase
fabric to show it off in organized rainbow stacks along their walls.
Then there's — maybe? — people like me, who have almost no fabric stash and
are often stumped when it comes to picking out fabric for a project.
Have you ever been browsing for new projects to sew and something just jumps
out at you from the screen and causes you to think,
yeah, that's it; I gotta make that!
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| Taylor Unisex Bag by Huff 'n' Cuffs... |
Do you ever stop to consider that maybe it's because of how you feel about
the fabric?
Given how my eye is drawn to certain versions of bags that testers make for
bag designers, I'm convinced that the right fabric is what
makes a project. Quite often I can be scrolling past a whole slew of
whatevers that are based on the same pattern and most of them won't
make a huge impression on me. But every once in awhile, one will pop out and
suddenly I'm near to being convinced that I need to make one.
Of course, what might be the "right" fabric to me, may not be to you. We all
have our individual tastes to take into account. Even so, some choices (and
combinations) are simply more universally appealing than others. This is
actually an important factor for designers to keep in mind if they want to
sell more patterns with the samples that they make.
[Update: the image here features the Taylor Unisex Bag from Huff 'n'
Cuffs that I used as a basic pattern when I remade a bag
for Mom. From the very first moment I saw the yellow-zippered test version
by Carissa MacNaught, I was fascinated by the bag... totally because of the fabric.]
Bagging a Book
Are you a lover of books? Do you appreciate hearing the crackling sound of
opening a new volume and the crispness of pages that have never been touched
by another? Or do you relish the well-worn softness of old books, bound in
leather, accompanied by the distinct aroma of aged paper?
I used to be a voracious reader, but most of my books were/are paperbacks (for
economical reasons). Today, I mostly read on an eReader and only occasionally
pick up a physical book. That said, I do still have some interesting hard
cover volumes in my library. Last October (2018), I discovered someone who
specializes in turning one's favourite books into a one-of-a-kind purse,
clutch or wallet.
I'd seen them done before, but never would have guessed that someone could turn it into a successful business venture. But someone has, and her name is Karen Higham; she's the creative force behind Novel Creations.
I'd seen them done before, but never would have guessed that someone could turn it into a successful business venture. But someone has, and her name is Karen Higham; she's the creative force behind Novel Creations.
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My fabric being used for coin purses... |
First of all, a bit of background regarding
cause and effect. I came upon Karen because she purchased some of my
Pride & Prejudice fabric
on Spoonflower. My eager fingers accidentally sent her my default thank
you message twice, upon which I checked her Spoonflower profile, which
led me to her Etsy shop. I was impressed by the quality of her work and
the success of her shop. It got the wheels turning in my brain about featuring
her in one of my blog posts.
The next morning, I received a notification via Spoonflower that she had added me as one of her "connections" (sort of like a "follow" thing). Potentially long story short, I reached out to her with this idea of an interview and here we are.
The next morning, I received a notification via Spoonflower that she had added me as one of her "connections" (sort of like a "follow" thing). Potentially long story short, I reached out to her with this idea of an interview and here we are.
And yet here we are; i.e., why this post stalled.
Even though I received a very enthusiastic response ("Heck yeah!!!!") to my
initial request, when I sent an email with my interview questions, I never
heard back. I wasn't going to chase her down, given that I thought she might
be busy with her business and would get back to me in good time. When that
didn't happen after the passage of weeks and months, it just seemed like the
right moment to pursue it was gone.
During the intervening years, she has still occasionally purchased fabric from
me. Her Etsy shop, however, has been on hiatus since August of 2022, so
I'm hoping all is well with her and that she's able to continue her crafting
soon.
Back to the earlier discussion of hoarding patterns (LOL), let me close off
this potpourri post with notice of a
Big Bag Bundle Sale that's currently on until Monday. It's run
by Sew Modern Bags and features twenty-four patterns – with a combined
value of over $245 – by various designers for an unbelievably low price of
just $24.95.
The patterns run from pouches to wallets to full featured purses, several with
access to video instructions. If you scroll through the projects and find
yourself wanting only three of them, it would already be a great deal, but I'm
sure many more will churn your creative juices. The bundle is enough to keep
you busy for a long time, I can guarantee you that.
For the full deets on this amazing deal, click through
this link
here. (I have no skin in this game, but one of my designer friends
does.)
'Til next...
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