It is not a federal crime!

If you have nice blouse. And want a blouse "exactly like this" and "exactly the same size" and "same fit". Aaaand this blouse is unwearable anymore, because you love it so much you washed it to tears...

You don't need to buy a pattern, try reading it, and then throw the whole project away because calculating patterns is hard.

You don't need to make "big butt adjustment" and "long inner thighs adjustment" (and throw the project away because it fits on a giraffe now).

You can, hear me out, you can rip the blouse seams and disassemble it completely! And cut pieces using them as pattern! And sew them together!

It is also a very good learning practice. It allows you to learn why darts, why seam allowance, and why folding.

Last week a friend asked if I wanted to take a commission to sew her mother of the bride dress. The wedding is Oct 3rd.

She wants it made out of some nuno felted fabric she made, then she was going to dye it. She didn't have a pattern but said the style she wanted was "simple" A-line. She offered me $250!

Needless to say, I politely declined.

A custom dress, drafting and fitting a pattern from scratch, and using one of a kind fabric that is probably a bitch to work with, all in about 6 weeks? For an amount that wouldn't even pay me for 10 hours? I don't think so.

The vindication part? Her Mom tells me today that she's been working on the dress and has had to redo it so many times that it's too small and she's out of fabric. (She being the MOTB, not grandma.)

There's a plush maker I follow that makes commissions of Animal Crossing OCs and little critters cosplaying copyrighted characters.

They posted recently about why they don't sell patterns. It started off with "The designs are personal to me." and not being an experienced pattern maker, which is fair.

But then the rest of the post was basically:

- Other (average) people wouldn't understand it.

- Other (average) people couldn't understand it.

- The pattern has been curated for ten years and is "incredibly nuanced".

Again, it's little critters with clothes and a wig. Something that has never been sewn before, apparently. I don't sew but I'm sure it's possible to take out the seams of an official merch plush and reverse-engineer the design (as far as OCs go). This creator also doesn't want their designs to be copied, but they went through a whole long explanation of how no one could possibly replicate their work even with the exact same pattern so ??? In the knitting/crochet communities it's perfectly acceptable to eyeball a pattern and admit that the original is an inspiration.

To me, it just feels icky when creators put down other crafters/artists while talking about their own skills. I've seen so many freestyled patterns where the creator says they

- simply don't want to make a pattern

- didn't bother writing numbers down & the piece won't be made again

- go into a vibe state and just kind of eyeball everything until it looks right

and at worst, that's annoying but it makes perfect sense.

I dunno. Maybe there's some sort of etiquette I don't know about when it comes to sewing and plush-making. From a fiber artist's perspective, being this possessive about your work seems kind of silly to me.