Indie Pattern Month – The Dresses sewing contest

Guess what everyone? It’s only just over two weeks until June, and the start of Indie Pattern Month 2014!!! We’re super excited about it, and I hope you all are, too!

And since we’re getting close to June, now seems like a good time to start telling you all a bit more about the sewing contests that will be hosted on The Monthly Stitch during Indie Pattern Month.

First up – the Dresses sewing contest!

The theme

We’re kicking off Indie Pattern Month with a nice, easy theme for the first sewing contest – dresses. Just like it sounds, this one is all about making a dress using an indie pattern. Because hey, we love making dresses, and we’ve noticed a lot of you do, too. Plus there are so many gorgeous dress patterns out there by indie designers!

The sponsors

Every sewing contest has some amazing sponsors. For the Dresses contest, the sponsors are:

Gather patterns are designed and created by two friends, Sandra and Caroline, who wanted to create patterns which, through the use of simple instructions and lots of clear diagrams, demystified the sewing process for novice sewers and also appealed to more experienced home sewists. Gather currently have two gorgeous, feminine patterns – the Mortmain dress and the Tallis collar. (Want to get a quick indie sewing fix? The Tallis collar is available as a PDF pattern as well!)

Dresses & Me is an online store, dedicated to stocking indie patterns. Run by Penny in Auckland, New Zealand, Dresses & Me is the only New Zealand based retailer of By Hand London, Victory Patterns, Simple Sews and Cake Patterns as well as New Zealand’s cheapest provider of Sewaholic Patterns and Colette. Penny started Dresses & Me as a result of her passion for sewing and for supporting indie designers, and ships patterns all around the world. She’s offered all Monthly Stitch readers a special discount for Indie Pattern Month – use the code IPM2014 and get 15% off patterns.

Salme Sewing Patterns are a range of PDF patterns (and it’s quite a wide range – there are currently 39 patterns to choose from!). Passionate about helping people become great at sewing, they also have a good range of tutorials on how to do things like sewing with a double needle, sewing curves together, and making spaghetti straps.

Pattern Postie is an online store, also based in New Zealand, and stocking a wide range of patterns, notions, and sewing themed jewellery. As well as the big-name pattern companies, Pattern Postie stocks the Jalie pattern range – one of the longest-operating indie designers, Jalie are celebrating their 30th year in businesses!

Lekala are a small company of 4 employees with an office in San Francisco and in Russia. Their original patterns are in Russian and are being translated into many other languages for all of the Indie Pattern lovers worldwide. They have 100’s of styles for Men, Women, and Children, and add new styles every few days. Lekala patterns are unique in that you put in your particular measurements, and within minutes, you have a PDF pattern made to fit. Barbara, native English speaker and knowledgeable sewer (and Monthly Stitch contributor!) is busy editing Lekala patterns to make them easier to understand for English speakers. You’ll see ‘Edited by a Native Speaker’ on the patterns that she has worked on. Lekala have also offered all Monthly Stitch readers a special 15% discount off patterns during June – use the code TMSINDIEC.

The prizes

Now that you’ve met our fabulous and generous sponsors, are you ready to find out what the prizes are for the Dresses sewing contest?

There will be four winners in the Dresses contest, each winning one of four awesome prize packs.

The Gather prize

From Gather – a pack containing both of their patterns – the Mortmain dress and the Tallis collar.

The Dresses & Me prize

From Dresses & Me – the winners choice of any two patterns from the Dresses & Me shop.

The Salme and Pattern Postie prize

From Salme – a $10 voucher to use in their online store.
From Pattern Postie – a pack of 8 Zakka ribbons and the winners choice of any Jalie pattern from the Pattern Postie store.

The Lekala prize

From Lekala – any 5 Lekala patterns of the winners choice.

How do I enter?

Now that we’ve got you all excited about the amazing prizes up for grabs, here’s the low-down on how to enter.

The Dresses contest will run from 1 June 2014 (00:00 UTC) until 7 June 2014 (24:00 UTC).

To enter the contest, make a dress between now and 7 June using an indie pattern and write and publish a post on The Monthly Stitch showcasing your creation between 1 June and 7 June.

That’s it! As long as your entry meets the rules (written below) you’re officially entered. 🙂

How does the contest work?

Anyone can enter the Dresses sewing contest, as long as their entry meets all the rule requirements (written below). Plus, you can enter as many times as you like! (Again, each entry must comply with the contest rules.)

At the end of the contest week, all the eligible entries will be pulled together into a round-up post, where Monthly Stitch readers can see vote for their favourite creation. Anyone will be able to vote, and will be able to place one vote each. (If you want to spread the word that you’ve entered, there will be ‘vote for me’ badges available for you to put on your own blog.) Voting will be up for five days from the time the contest round-up post goes live.

The winners will be chosen using a combination of the Monthly Stitch community votes, and scores given by the judging panel. 50% of the final score will be from the community vote, and the other 50% will be from the judges scoring, which will take into consideration things such as creativity, execution, photography, and so on. The judging panel is made up of the Monthly Stitch editors (Kat, Mel and Juliet) and our guest judge Penny from Dresses & Me.

The winners of the four prizes for the Dresses contest will be announced on The Monthly Stitch on 14 June, and will also be contacted by email.

The rules

Like any contest, there are some rules and guidelines that you need to follow to be eligible to enter. We’ve tried to keep them simple, but if you have any questions, please ask in the comments or fill out the form at the bottom of this page and we’ll get back to you as quick as possible!

Anyone is eligible to enter, except for the members of the judging panel. If you aren’t already a Monthly Stitch contributor, you can sign up using the form at the bottom of this post and we’ll give you a login to post your contest entrie(s) to the Monthly Stitch site.

You can enter any of the Indie Pattern Month contests as many times as you like as long as each entry follows these rules.

Any Indie pattern brand is eligible. To keep things simple, a label counts as an indie pattern if it’s on the Sew Independent list, which can be found here.

Items must be sewn specifically for Indie Pattern Month 2014 and begun no earlier than 1 May 2013. No earlier makes to be submitted. Items can not have been previously blogged on The Monthly Stitch.

Each make can be entered into only one sewing contest (i.e. if you make a dress from a new to you company you may enter it in Dresses OR New To Me, but not both)
(Exception: A previously entered item from Challenges 1 or 2 (the Dresses contest or the New to Me contest) may be re-entered into Challenge 4 (Indie Fan-girl). Additional item/s must be sewn to create a whole outfit. These additional items must be from the same pattern company as the item they are paired with and be made specifically for Indie Pattern Month 2014 (no earlier makes to be submitted)). Please note that creations cannot have been entered into other contests previously (e.g. those on Pattern Review). (However, if you wish to enter your creations into non-Monthly Stitch contests after Indie Pattern Month, you are welcome to if they meet the other contests guidelines.)

You must write and publish a post on The Monthly Stitch during the week for the sewing contest category you are entering. For the Dresses contest, posts must be written and published between 1 June (00:00 UTC) and 7 June (24:00 UTC).

Your post must be correctly categorised and follow ALL the Monthly Stitch posting rules. You can find them all, and tutorials on how to do things, over here. Key posting rules that need to be followed are:

A minimum of 3 photos plus a feature image
Only one image can be uploaded per post, to use as the feature image. All other images must be inserted using URLs.
The following information must be included:
- What pattern you used: the brand, pattern name/number, and a link to a website where readers can find out information about the pattern (e.g. the indie designers website or a review round-up on Pattern Review)
- What fabric and notions you used
- How you found the pattern and the instructions. Were the instructions easy to follow? How was the pattern fit? Would you recommend it? Would you make it again?
- Any pattern alterations or design changes you made, if you made any. Or, is there anything you’d change if you made it again?
Posts must be under the correct category for the contest, and have between 1-5 tags. For the Dresses sewing contest, posts must be categorised ‘Indie Pattern Month 2014’ and ‘Dresses (June 1st-7tth)’.

Posts that do not meet these rules will not be eligible. Your post will be placed in the ‘drafts’ folder and you will receive an email to let you know. You may edit your post and republish it within the competition time frames to re-enter the competition.

Voting will begin for each category at the end of it’s week when a round up post will go up for voting. Voting is open for 5 days. One vote per person.

Winners are chosen by 50% weighting by the judges (Kat, Mel, Juliet and Penny) and 50% from community votes.

“Vote for me” buttons will be available for you to post on your own blog if you wish to do so.

Got any questions, or want to sign up?

Want to enter the contest? If you’re not already signed up to post on The Monthly Stitch, it’s super easy to do – just fill out the short form below and we’ll set you up with a login so you can post your entry.

Got any questions about the contest? Let us know either in the comments or using the form below, and we’ll get back to you as fast as we can. 🙂