Saturday, November 15, 2014

The Sewing Blog World according to Dr Seuss

The Star Bellied bloggers are testing Francoise.
The Plain Bellied bloggers have none upon thars.
I open my blog feed and what do I see
A galaxy of Francoises staring at me.
I'm sure it is lovely,
I'm sure it is fine
But no Francoise will be gracing
This body of mine.
When Indie designers like BHL and Tilly
Go looking for testers,
They are not THAT silly!
Their sizes are teeny!
Their testers are cool!
With multitude followers - the unspoken rule
But watch it, I tell you,
For Dr Seuss showed
That this kind of behaviour
Your fans can erode


Seriously, this is becoming an ever decreasing circle of boring. No matter how fabulous the pattens may or may not be, I'm not interested in patterns, or pattern designers, I am interested in sewing and those who sew and their adventures. But increasingly all I see every time I open my blogfeeds are RARA posts about the same pattern. Therefore the adventures are all the same.
Hey if you follow my blog and I've never commented on yours, how about you leave me a comment about yours? Especially if you sew and you are not cool enough or popular enough to be on the same-old same-old circuit? I could do with some fresh blogs to follow :)
 
 Welcome pattern testers!

Update: I've had a lot of unexpected traffic from my flippant little poem. I really want to be clear that I am all for indie patterns, and I can understand the usefulness of using popular bloggers to test or promote your patterns. I would probably do the same. My prime gripe is the constant and unrelenting overuse of blogs to promote commercial endeavours from books and patterns to online sales. I don't mind these things in smaller doses, I just think there is too much of it flooding our relatively small community. I wish those doing this would back off. We are a community first, not a 'target market' to be exploited, and the lack of diversity in content this has created is going to alter the landscape considerably. Take heed, Star Bellied Bloggers, we Plain Bellied types may just go and have our own barbecues, and we won't be around to buy your sausages in a bun (to overuse a metaphor!)

67 comments:

  1. Nothing but very loud applause for you and your poem!
    I too am a bit tired of seeing patterns being advertised on blogs. If I wanted ads I would read Magazines!
    l like to sew whatever I want, clothes, patchwork, crafty stuff, whatever takes my fancy and whenever I like, with no deadlines or release dates. I don't feel any compulsion to copy what the same small group of young pretty things are making. Poor girls are letting themselves be used as an advertising billboard in the name of "friendship". It's friendship to them but business to the other.

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    1. I understand friends helping friends out with promoting their business ideas, I really do. I doubt anyone is making much money out of their indie patterns. But yes I'm a bit over the shift to using personal blogs to promote businesses and that whole grey area. Those who do it well I still enjoy reading but many have not. Their entire blog is about their business, and we are their target market now, not their followers. As a person whose business is 90% about sewing and 100% about making money from people buying craft stuff or learning craft stuff, I could have gone down that road too, but I don't and I can't be bothered and when coincidentally we've had great sales on a product because a blogger talked about it, I've been thrilled but we're not interested in reverse engineering that process. Oh well! :)

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    2. I really enjoyed your poem MrsC, and your reply Nessa. I'm tired of reading about the same patterns over and over, most of which I don't have an interest in making and I know I wouldn't have time to make any of them before the next new thing comes along! I think that's part of the reason I've been making mostly vintage patterns this year, and opting out. There are a couple of the indie designers I think are really good and make genuinely interesting and distinctive patterns. But there seem to be plenty who aren't so great.

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    3. Hi Kestrel! I can get that. Also for me, this is not about the quality of the patterns at all, it's about the quantity of social media marketing going down. As a professional dressmaker, I'm interested in all patterns - but not all the time, one after the other sometimes overlapping and never a chance to breathe.

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  2. Lol. take a lood at SSSF-
    http://sewsorrysewfat.wordpress.com/ We feel your snark.

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    1. Oh dear, I wasn't aiming for snarkiness. But I guess I am a bad shot and hit it anyway. It's just the volume and predicability of it all.

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    2. Hi, I had a read and I will subscribe. I think I ma getting the upside to GOMI if not wanting to embrace it. But yup, basically I can live with the idea that experience is more important than fame, and more useful, and less annoying as long as the experienced person isn't a sewsplainer (like a mansplainer only about sewing). Which I confess I can be a bit sometimes, mostly because I am tired of newbs trying to teach people when they know so little themselves.

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  3. Brava!!! I believe Dr. Seuss would stand and applaud as I am. I was going to do a review of Sewaholic's book, but then she started a damned blog tour where it was all awesomeness and fabulousness and ZOMG you have to buy this book, all from the usual suspects, that I decided against it.

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    1. Hi Gorgeous Things... would appreciate if you could give me your honest opinion about the Sewtionary... it's on my wishlist and I've almost pressed "buy" numerous times cause I love Tasia but I really wished I could find an unbiased opinion :-)

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    2. I love the IDEA of Sewtionary, but all the drawing templatets are of skinny models. So, not for me. Awesome for slim people though.

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    3. Miffy, the Reader's Digest version of the review is that it helps as a companion to more general sewing texts. It gives clear explanations of individual techniques like inserting zippers and the like. It won't replace a good general sewing book (I listed my two go-to's in this blog post: http://blog.gorgeousfabrics.com/2014/10/15/i-was-going-to-write-a-blog-post/), but it is good for an adjunct book.

      MrsC, don't let the templates turn you off. It has some good information, but it's not a stand along volume.

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    4. Hi Ann... Many thanks for the link... interesting post and comments

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    5. Me again! I have just been gently reminded that I have confused Fashionary and Sewtionary. I have no idea about Sewtionary and my issues were with Fashionary. Thank you! x

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    1. Oh dear. I have heard about this GOMI but I am not really into the idea of being a party to that level of snark. CAn we not take ourselves so seriously?

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  5. Good poem:-) I like real sewing too

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  6. Can I hand you a Pulitzer?

    I see the same thing and it is soooooo boring.

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    1. Sure, preferably a chocolate one. I'd like that. Or an Oscar, I'm not fussed. In chocolate.

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  7. This has made my Sunday morning of which in between all the rara posts I find yours! I don't really know why I follow half those blogs to be honest, most of the time a mark as read without even looking at them!

    As always you are a breath of fresh air!

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    1. Yup, I think I hit that moment about the same time. Must be something Quantum going on.

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  8. What Nessa (first commenter) said is very true - young women are letting themselves be used as an advertising billboard for the skilful marketing of often-incompetently drafted and over-priced patterns of doubtful originality.

    I am a little grey-haired fat old lady so couldn't care less about it all, but am sad to see clearly-very-competent sewers get drawn into this fawning self-congratulatory spiral, and keen youngsters have their progress stifled by the infantilism which commonly seems to surround the products.

    I love parody poems, and yours is very apposite!

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    1. Hi Eena! I don't share your view of those who make patterns and those who test them but I completely understand what you are saying. I feel that it is mostly friends helping out friends and being excited for them - it's just become for me too much, all the time, and I was never that interested to begin with, except in a sort of detached, isn't that nice for them, sort of way.

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  9. Love the poem! :) I sew all sorts, from repairs to costumes, whatever comes my way and so I blog about that - which is less than exciting but I can document what I do. Who knows if someone will find something useful on there one day?

    http://alyzcreations.blogspot.co.nz/

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    1. Oh I will go visit today! Your sewing list sounds like mine - it is very ecelctic and later today will involve hand sewing costumes, making curtains for the stage and possibly constructing some unicorn slippers, but more on that later!

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  10. I felt this frustration a few months ago, when a new pattern company started, all I saw for days and even weeks were the same words rehashed. I accept and respect their choice, although I have little interest in pattern testing (I have neither time nor inclination!) and I think the debate around blog tours v pattern testing was a good one to have, even if it remains unresolved. I sew with both commercial and indie patterns and I have the kind of body that two children and a love of chocolate contributes to and I love sewing because the what of my body ceases to be a factor in the clothes I can wear. One of the reasons I think blogging is so important is because it gives agency and identity to such a range of bodies, which are otherwise selectively invisible. Also I love surprises, like verse on a Sunday morning! I sporadically blog at http://thinkingmakingmade.blogspot.com.au/

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    1. Oh Erin I think I love your blog already and I've not even been there. you have perfectly articulated several things in one comment! I too sew for that exact reason, couldn't have put it better. And isn't it fantastic to become visible again. And maybe if I am brutally self-honest, this whole thing is a little too much like being selectively ignored, unintentionally, in the very place we had begun to feel safe and equal because of the sheer democracy of sewing? Thank goodness for the Curvy Sewing Collective - it is pretty new but it is a safe haven of sanity and sense!

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  11. I just found you through GOMI - I think I spend more time reading there than reading sewing blogs. I mostly don't mind indie patterns I do think that there are a couple of good indie designers out there, but that doesn't mean I want to see the same garment on a gazillion different blogs in the same day. I blog sporadically at madewithwhimsy.blogspot.co.uk

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    1. Yes, yes, yes. Good on them, say I, just too much, all the time eh!

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  12. Love it. You've completely nailed it.

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    1. LOL! I ove that phrase, I love those nutty pictures of people's attempts to copy something off Pinterest and under their freaky, dripping mess of a Minion cake or whatever is scrawled "Nailed it". I love a bit of irony!

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  13. Hi there Maryanne - I love the poem too, and also found you through GOMI. So pleased to add your blog to my reader.

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    1. Hi Thornberry! Come out of GOMI, it's bad for the soul. A bit of occasional catharsis is necessary in this world but too much can be bad for one ;-)

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  14. Hi Maryanne, I found you through a friend who also has it up to here (pointing to my forehead) with women who have less to do with sewing and patterns than marketing and kissing butts to get more followers and free patterns.
    I call it "Pimping for Patterns/Fabrics/Books,Free trips to NYC and Beyond". It is so obvious what is going on and yet the pattern companies are buying into this and promoting these little "designers" and new Indie "designers" have admitted off camera that they simply "contract" out for their oh-so-similiar designs...I mean let's say wrap skirts...Hell, they have been around since the Egyptians....what is new and revolutionary that we have to gasp and send compliments to them? And does anyone think that the latest dump of skater dresses is an internet coincidence???? Those "contractors" are mighty busy. And while we are at it...looking in the Indie books...can you spell RE-HASH? Every technique has been written about and photos published decades earlier...want to do a bias binding, save yourself some money and Google it....photos and YouTube videos will over whelm you. We older seamstress have seen it all and continue to plow through designs and produce great clothes that....wait for it....actually fit someone larger than a size 0. We shake our heads at the continual parade of pigeon-toed posing babes promoting oh so boring baby doll dresses that are the majority of the fashion.

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    1. I'm with you on that! I also sew and make stuff for people, and I am oh so tired of seeing these young things acting as if they are so very clever.

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  15. Thank you for this! Well-written and timely!

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  16. Loved your poem!
    The thing that I like about sewing is that you can be an individual, a free spirit. However, I just stopped reading blogs because I just don't like reading about whichever pattern we are all supposed to attempt this month. I'm a pattern maker anyway, and don't buy patterns at all.

    However... after 35 years in the clothing trade, there are not many of the usual jobs available to all these designers that are churned out of the universities , amassing a huge student loan and basically nowhere for them to go from there, so I can understand( and envy in a way) why they have launched their products onto the web.

    But with all these young things, all so young and excited about styles that I think are just rehashes of past styles, probably copied from the very commercial patterns everyone seems to hate, making all the same things at the same time, what happens to originality?

    Maybe that is what fashion is, a clever con to make us all believe, at the same time, that something is beautiful, and we all will be beautiful if we have the same thing.

    I found a saying in a self help book I read a while ago, apparently said by Earnest Hemingway to his Daughter Margo Kaufman >
    “I once complained to my father that I didn’t seem to be able to do things the same way other people did. Dad’s advice? "Margo, don’t be a sheep. People hate sheep. They eat sheep.”

    Lets not be sheep.

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    1. Well noone could ever accuse Margo Kaufman of being a sheep! :) Yes, the idea of sewing being an opportunity to express one's individuality is a strong one.

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  17. I can't reply under the post to Gorgeous Things' comment about the Sewtionary, so am doing it here (Blogger WTF!?) Yes indeed the templates put me off. I have no need for a sewing techniques book, I could write ten of them more comprehensive myself. But I fancied the idea of a diary in my handbag with some body outlines so I could quickly and accurately sketch ideas or things I have seen. So, worse than useless for me. Inexperienced size 14 or less sewers may find it very useful though.

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    1. Maryanne I printed my own out from this site finding one I liked more closer to my body typehttp://www.designersnexus.com/fashion-design-portfolio/fashion-design-croquis-template/female-croquis-template/

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    2. AND apparently it was the Fashionary I was thinking of, duh heheh

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  18. I like that you were able to discuss this without being straight up mean. While I understand why people are frustrated, sometimes I feel like people swing too far in the other direction and I end up then unfollowing them as well as the "cool" bloggers. I blog (albeit like once every two months) at http://sewingforreallife.blogspot.com/ if you are looking for new things to read.

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    1. Ooh thank you I'll go have a read :) I didn't want to be mean, I don't feel mean about it anyway, just bored! And it's no reflection on the individuals either, I think it's a zeitgeist thing and I really wish those participating would take note and pace themselves a bit more so we weren't inundated. The bit about the models being teeny was about poetic licence really ;-)

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  19. Great poem. You've put into words what so many are feeling (as proven by the comments), myself included. Once upon a time I wanted to jump on the bandwagon and buy/sew every pattern that came along, but I soon what my preferences were and that the bandwagon is overrated.

    I understand that more experienced seamstresses are underwhelmed by some of the designs that are put out into the world; however, lets get real, clothing styles have been rehashed and reinterpreted for centuries, there are only so many ways you can clothe a body with a torso, a head, 2 arms and 2 legs. The big pattern companies have been doing it for a long time too, I mean some of them are even re-releasing their old patterns (Retro Butterick, Vintage Vogue?) These 'young things' are just doing what others have done before them. Granted sizing for the plus sizes is a frustration I have with indie pattern companies, but that seems to be getting better.

    I guess this shows that the mainstream online sewing community is quite small and there is always room for new niches. Not trying to diss or defend anyone, just giving a different perspective. :)

    I blog about whatever tickles my fancy whenever I feel like it over at http://www.simplefibrelife.blogspot.com

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    1. I LOVE this movement towards indie fashion myself, I love that people are taking the bull by the horns. It's a fantastic way to be responsive to demand, and it seems to have woken up the Big4 too who are being far more responsive. There's a long way to go for plus size fashion but that's not the whole story. I just want to read blog posts about a diverse range of sewing projects, not always about the same. But this exercise has helped me to broaden my reading material so yay!!!

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  20. I came from GOMI but I sew and used to have a blog. I agree with your sentiments and am so bored with how all the sewing blogs have just been massive fangirling for the latest indie pattern. Bloggers who I used to read because they made from vintage, soon changed to rehashing the latest indie. It started with Sewaholic patterns and Colette - and now every person and their dog has their own pattern line. :-/
    It just doesn't make for very interesting reading. And these new patterns are challenging in the worst ways - bad fit and having to fiddle with things that you wouldn't normal have to fiddle with.

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    1. I've only ever made up one indie pattern, the Pavlova Cardigan by Cake, and it was fantastic. I did have to alter it but if you've seen a full length pic of me this would not be a surprise! I had to do very little to it as it turns out. So I really can't comment on the wider selection.

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  21. Ugh I feel you! I am SO SICK of blog tours and "pattern testing" taking over my feed. It's boring and I feel like people are now only doing it for the $$ or free stuff, not the love of sewing.

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    1. I think there is more of the former than there used to be, for sure.

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  22. Your way with words is clever, as always.

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  23. great poem (and i'm so glad i found it as you had dropped off my reader - maybe you changed your blog address and it didn't sreroute me or something?). anyway, back now!

    i totally agree - actually it's not so much the number of people sewing up the new patterns, but the fact they all hit at the same time! if they were dripped out over a couple of months i'd be more likely to buy, but as it stands i just click "read" after the first couple. Perfect Pattern Parcel drives me nuts as they seem to have about 50 bloggers they send to.

    i find it disappointing as a few bloggers whose usual style and makes i love seem to have done nothing but pattern test all summer. i want to see what they would choose to make, not something they have committed to.

    and don't get me started on the fact that 99% of the reviews at pattern testing are positive. wonder what that percentage is for "normal" sewing. 80%? oops, rant. sorry!

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  24. Yes, it has turned our diverse landscape into a suburb of almost identical houses. And the PPP is just as tedious too.

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  25. Thank you for the fun and creative way to start a serious discussion. I have been reading sewing blogs for a long time and noticed many changes. I think though the pattern/ book testing will also evolve because in the last few months there are increasingly louder mutterings about what is happening. I sense boredom but also irritation. People are starting to question the rara review because if you are given something for free by your friends then already your opinion is skewed. Perhaps the only way to have a honest review is if the process is double blinded so both designer and reviewer don't know the either ( does this make sense ) .luckily though there are so many blog choices out there we can avoid that part of sewing blogging if we want. Also there are so many different 'designers ' and patterns out there now that it seems impossible they can all reviewed in this way. I have seen some patterns fall into total obscurity once the blog tour is over. Googling some of these patterns only shows posts and images of the pattern testers and none from bone fide customers. I hope some of the pattern ' designers ' don't quit their day jobs because over the few years some are not going to make it. Style Arc is an example of an indi pattern company that has made it without all these pattern testing tours and I respect them a lot for that. They also do a large variety of sizes and don't make a song and dance about it like they are the worlds greatest. Anyway I sew lots of kwik sew patterns so enough said that I am of the plain bellied variety blogger. Thanks again for the great discussion.

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    1. So, there's hope the situation will settle down! I look forward to that time, hopefully it will happen without too many good people experiencing bad things.

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  26. hey darling, you taped into this debate in a very funny and clever way. I have to put my hands up that I am guilty of taking part. I cannot help but get excited about shinny things but I agree that can be so boring looking at the same patterns over and over. I also get very bored. Thank god for blogs like lovely peeps like u. xx

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    1. No wonder people ask you to promote their stuff, Rachael, as you are gorgeous and fun and your excitement jumps off the page!

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  27. Great poem. I share your sentiments. There's only so much praise/drivel I can tolerate about a boring uninspired pattern from these new 'designers'. What's even worse is the sew-alongs which can demonstrate their poor sewing skills. Ugh.

    I miss reading about people sewing things that suit them and their personality. Incessant raving about a button down shirt or a shift dress or even a pair of sweat pants is making me search out new bloggers who aren't sucked into this vortex of drivel. I have found a few new blogs from these comments so thank you! I blog at Get My Stitch On

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    1. I have followed you, as the apostle said to the guru! LOL!

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  28. I forgot to put where I blog: http://lasewist.blogspot.com/, aka, Bunny at La Sewista. And for what it's worth, I sew what I want to sew which covers a big variety. No same ole, same ole for me. I also got here from GOMI.

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  29. I am plus sized and very tall, so I will always be a plain bellied sewist. I just like to read sewing blogs, and it does get old to read about the same pattern over and over. I have added your blog to my reader.

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    1. Me too! Big and tall, the least glamorous combo of them all. Hence I perform like a Drag queen, since I am built like one! ;-)

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  30. I'm late to the party, so I'll just add... guess why I mostly read historical and vintage-oriented blogs?
    To be honest, I have not been reading much at all these past months... which is also why I'm late to the party. So if there was anything like this at all going among the blogs on my list, I mostly missed out on it as well.
    I only know that Oona sews BHL and tested for them. I don't mind Oona's gushing about BHL, because she's honest about loving them because their dresses fit her out of the envelope, and that's both a very good reason for loving a pattern company and a good pointer that it may not be the case for everyone.
    But myself, I'm in the company of people who don't bother with commercial patterns most of the time (for both reasons of my interests and taste and financial reasons), so all this goes over my head. Or maybe under my feet, whichever it is. ;-)
    So I'm excited about Cake Patterns because I really like the way Steph approaches fit and I like her designs for being both practical and pretty; and cannot really afford them, aside from the Tiramisu I got for my birthday.
    And then I like looking at the indie companies who produce historical patterns; and can't afford them, either.
    And I guess I feel better in the historical sewing community, because it's much more normal to make your own patterns and stretch your skills and knowledge and materials to make ends meet in there. And there's always more emphasis on technique and that's how I like it.

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    1. Hana I love you. You are a ray of sunshine. And so is Oona, bless her. Doesn't she make the most fabulous clothes? I love Cake too, bless Steph for making patterns that fit me out of the envelope. And I probably follow as many historical blogs as straight sewing blogs because it is is SO interesting! I don't do it myself but I love to live vicariously through their incredible makes and meet ups.

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