A Week of Peeks
The launch day of the latest BFS patterns is drawing closer! I'll be in California visiting family and have decided to use to the week to share more and more details about the new patterns until their launch the 2nd week of June!
This old drive in theater is somewhere on the coast between San Fransisco and Santa Barbara, though I can't remember where.
I'll be spending a lot of time along the CA coast which seemed like a fun place to take some photographs of the new patterns! I grew up in California and I can't deny that it is quite beautiful. I take most of my photos in the New England country, so I'm keen on the idea of a 'location' for photographing the new pattern. I may have to wait until returning to Boston for the Saltbox photos - not a lot of colonial houses in the bay area...at least I don't think so. Too bad the next pattern isn't a Victorian!
Today I'll start by sharing some small changes I've made to the new pattern that I hope you all will appreciate!
One thing that I kept noticing when I visited shops that carried Cabin was that the tab closure didn't hold up well to the rough retail life of a sewing pattern. Nearly every 'display' copy had suffered some damage. Investigating other patterns showed that nearly all tabs tended to suffer the same fate. I like a nice neat little package, so some sort of closure was a must.
My printer suggested a low profile velcro - they have a lot of sample booklets using the same cover stock that close with velcro and they hold up quite well. I've seen some other patterns that include velcro in the past, so I know it's not a new idea. I also thought of having a sticker to close the folder that was resealable...like what you use on a bag of rice.
In the end, after testing both I decided that the velcro would be the way to go. It held up to 50+ openings and closings. I'm sure it will be a drag to individually put velcro onto each envelope but I'm prepared to make it happen. My own labor is free, right? ;)
I also used a new method to create the illustrations for this pattern. I love the look of hand drawn, but I also feel like more technical or line-based illustrations don't communicate dimension, making certain instructions hard to understand. I used real construction photographs as a base, but drew the images by hand. Hopefully it achieves a nice balance.
The overall cover design - blue monochromatic - will be the same, but I'm looking forward to showing you the illustration for this cover. It feels kindred to the Cabin cover, but in a completely different style. Later in the week I'll be sharing an interview with the illustrator.
Last but not least, one of the major changes will be to my pattern production. I am a firm believer in the value of paper in hand, but at the same time creating printed patterns involved a lot of up front costs that can be tough on a small business.
I will still be creating printed patterns but I will also be releasing a PDF only companion pattern with each printed release as a way to keep my business more sustainable and balance out the printed pattern costs. Obviously with time, if a demand arises for printed versions of these patterns I'll do my best to make them happen. But for now I like the idea of a digital complement piece to my main pattern, and that where Saltbox was born.
I can't wait to show you these patterns during the week! They should be ready to ship by the week of June 8th and I'm beyond excited!