Announcing Project Indie

Yay! It’s June and that means it’s Indie Pattern Month and we can finally tell you about Project Indie.

The Monthly Stitch in collaboration with Dresses & Me is excited to announce the launch of Project Indie – a competition to find the next big name in indie patterns. And the prize? Expertise and encouragement to help you succeed, including the winning pattern being sold in the Dresses & Me pattern store.

So what are we looking for?

Ultimately, a designer who is original, creative and has a business mind. Perhaps you have some great ideas but you need a confidence boost to encourage you to launch your range? Or maybe you’ve got your first pattern together but don’t have your own blog and aren’t sure how to publicise your new pattern? That’s where we come in.

Specifically, the prize includes…

• Business and pattern design mentoring from Kristiann, the creator and designer behind Victory Patterns
• Pattern testing and proof-reading by experienced sewists. We will also give honest and helpful feedback
• Contacts with well-known bloggers who will help publicise your new pattern
• A sewalong hosted on the Monthly Stitch blog. You can write the posts or if you’d prefer we can do it for you
• Your pattern being sold through the Dresses & Me online store
• A customer experience review of your website with advice on where and how to make it appeal more to your future customers
• And, if you don’t already have one, help designing a logo for your brand

So you’re super keen to enter? Great! We only have a few requirements…

• Most importantly, your submission must be an original design
• You can’t have had a pattern published for profit before (however, if you’ve released a free pattern, you can still enter)
• Your pattern has to be a garment for an adult woman
• You must include instructions (in English), photos of you (or another person) modelling it and line drawings of your design
• Your pattern must be graded to a minimum of four sizes. You can choose which size range
• Your pattern must be in a format that’s easy for home sewists to download and print
• You’ll need to think of a memorable name for your pattern and your brand

The competition is now open!

Submissions must be emailed to themonthlystitch@gmail.com by the end of 31 July 2014. The winner will be announced in August. Will you be entering?!

The small print

• The winner will be chosen through a combination of community vote and scores given by the judging panel. All entries will be posted on The Monthly Stitch in early August for readers to vote for who they’d like to win
• The judging panel consists of the Monthly Stitch editors (Mel, Kat and Juliet), Penny from Dresses & Me, and Kristiann from Victory Patterns
• The winner will be posted on The Monthly Stitch in August 2014, and contacted by email
• The judges decision is final