Thursday, September 3, 2015

A wee little rant

I figure what is the point of having a blog if I can’t rant once in awhile LOL!

I am constantly amazed by the number of quilt patterns that say you cannot sell items made from the patterns. Legalities aside, this to me makes no sense.

To buy a handmade quilt costs quite a bit of money. It should cost you at least the price of fabric, and hopefully time. So, if you sew quilts yourself, you more than likely are not going to buy one that someone else made and instead will buy the pattern and make one for yourself.

But if you don’t sew you will have to buy the finished quilt. Which the quilter cannot sell to you because the pattern says so. You can’t buy the pattern yourself because you don’t sew. This just makes for a lot of unhappy people in the end.

Denying the people who buy your pattern the right to sell finished products does not help you sell more patterns. It means that unless someone wants it for themselves or for charity, they aren’t buying your pattern at all.

I have decided that no matter the hype, I will not buy any patterns from people who add this caveat to their products. I have yet to make a quilt that is for me. Most quilts are for me to sell in my tiny little online store, or as gifts. While I could use these patterns as gifts,  most of my gifts are made from patterns I have developed myself or are free tutorials.

I don’t want to start a fight, I just want these pattern writers to think about this point and to consider it seriously. The people who buy your patterns are only going to be selling them to people who will not be buying your patterns. You have nothing to lose.

And now a picture for fun.

IMG_3640

10 comments:

  1. I totally agree with you. As long as you are not selling the pattern, no harm done.

    However, the problem with not wanting to purchase those patterns though is that you often don't know that the clause is there until you open the pattern.

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  2. It's an odd thing... I can certainly understand people not wanting someone on a large commercial scale to take their pattern and start pumping out hundreds of units of the finished product, but hand-crafted goods generally take so much time to make that it's never really going to cause harm to the pattern seller's ability to sell patterns.

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  3. Totally agree.

    Good thing you didn't want to start an argument. Hard to do that when we all agree!

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  4. I agree 100% with your rant, and it's not just for quilts. Bags, purses, pouches, pillows... I could go on and on! I never buy patterns if they say I can't sell items made from them. What's the point in denying people to sell items? It can even be helpful in selling more patterns. Let's say someone asked me about a pouch I made, I tell them about the pattern, and they buy said pattern. I have had that happen many times.

    Have a nice weekend my friend! Hugs!!!

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  5. I totally agree with you Katy! I will make a point of not buying those pattern either. There are so many other patterns out there anyways right?

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  6. I've done some reading on this issue, and I'm not a lawyer (disclaimer), but I don't think a designer can prevent you from selling something you've made from a pattern. They can, however, prevent you from mass producing it. In the USA there's something about "intended usage" although I've probably got the term wrong too (again...not a lawyer). The assumption is that if you buy a pattern, you're going to make something from it, and you might also decide to sell the one thing you make from the pattern. The designer has nothing to say about it as long as the pattern is used as it was intended to be used. Mass production, of course, would be another matter. That's my two cents.

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  7. I haven't seen this on quilt patterns but I do know that it is in several of the crochet books that I use -- including the Ameniko book of which Mr. Pink is from. I have had so many offers from people wanting to buy one but didn't know how binding this clause was so I have turned people down -- that and the cats take about 15 - 20 hours to make. Thanks for shedding some light on this issue.

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  8. I've found that often if you contact the pattern creator they mean they don't want it mass produced. But if there's something in particular you'd like to sell, contact the pattern designer and ask. The worst they can say is no. :)

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    Replies
    1. (But in the vast majority of instances I've heard of, they say "go ahead!")

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  9. Maybe I should put a line to say outright "you can go ahead to sell things you make with this pattern..."? I think I have seen this before on some patterns, too!

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Thanks for your two cents!