The Official End of an Era: Printed Patterns

Last fall printed patterns were put on hiatus. Work was busy and printing to order was a lot to add to my plate. When the Stinger Dress was released I offered printed patterns but for only a limited time. I was nervous that I would be drowning in printed pattern orders, but instead, I was surprisingly shocked that most people were choosing digital. 

SBCC is a tiny business. I've been bootstrapping my processes since the beginning because an inventory of commercially printed patterns has always, and more than likely, will remain out of the question. What started out as a means to test the waters if printed patterns would be in demand turned into a permanent process of printing individual orders as they were received, personally folding each printed sheet and separately printing and stitching together the instruction booklet. It sounds simple, but it's been a heavy and massively inefficient load, unless I was doing a large batch.

I know there are those of you out there that love printed patterns. I totally get this. We all just want to get to the fun part of the project- the sewing!  But after reviewing the orders and my current workload for my day job, I realized that my time available to work on SBCC would be better spent making new patterns instead of printing them. 

The good news about this is that is I am hoping to add more value to SBCC patterns in the form of more customizations, such as what was done for the Pisco Top and Dress. I have had lots of ideas floating around but haven't been able to see them through because the paper required for printing would be enormous. With a PDF pattern you would be able to select only what is relevant to you and your project. 

This means that your options are digital. If you are not a fan of tiled PDF's, no worries, there are copy shop versions available for most SBCC patterns. Copy shops can print these cheaper than what you would be paying for the hard copy, including shipping, and more than likely, you can get it the same day.

Making copy shop options for SBCC has been part of my to-do list for awhile and I'll keep you posted as to what is available as I go through updating everything. But for now, on the product page it will be specified what format the pattern is available in. 

Printed patterns will only be available for the 1st week of the Pegu Pant release and then ride off into the sunset on November 1st 2020. If you've been pondering a printed pattern purchase, now's the time. Get it before it's gone.