IPM2015 – It’s Secret Santa time! (Only, with sewing patterns. And in May.)

One thing that we really love about Indie Pattern Month is the chance to introduce people to designers they may have never heard of before, and to encourage people to try making up patterns from new-to-them labels. There’s so much creativity and talent out there, so many wonderful things to make!

And then we got to thinking – wouldn’t it be fun if a whole lot of us shared patterns we love with each other? And also that getting presents is rather fun….

So the idea of a pattern swap was born. 😉

Here it is, folks – the inaugural Indie Pattern Month Pattern Swap!

The idea is simple – sign up, we’ll give you the name of someone you’re paired up with, and you send them a pattern. And someone else sends you a pattern in return. New patterns! Happy mail! And the fun of choosing something for someone else. Yay! 🙂

There will be two swaps happening – one for PDF patterns, and another for paper patterns. You can sign up for either one (or you can even sign up for both!).

It’s a round-robin type swap, which means the person you are buying a pattern for isn’t the person who will be buying one for you. So you’ll have no idea who is sending you a pattern. Mystery mail! Yeah!

For either swap, you’ll purchase an indie pattern and send it to your swap partner.

And then you get something fun and exciting in the mail. 😀

We’ll also ask you which pattern companies you already have patterns from, so your swap partner can find you a pattern that you definitely won’t own yet. (I.e. from a pattern label you don’t own.)

So that’s the overview. Here’s the specific details.

Timelines

• You have until 11 May to sign up for the swap.
• You’ll get the details of your swap partner on 14 May.
• You then have until 21 May to buy a pattern to send to your swap partner.
• And once you get your pattern, show it off to us on Facebook, coz we’ll all be curious to see what you got!

(We’ve also set the timelines so everyone should have their new pattern in time for the New To Me sewing challenge, for those who want to enter it.)

Swap rules

• You can sign up for either the paper patterns swap, the PDF patterns swap, or both.
• You must purchase a new pattern to send to your swap partner, from a pattern label they don’t currently own.
• For PDF patterns, you should spend at least USD $9 on your swap pattern.
• For paper patterns, you should spend at least USD $14 on your swap pattern (excluding postage).
• (Note: if you are buying a pattern that costs less than that, you can always get two for your swap partner! The dollar figures were chosen to make sure that everyone got a fair swap deal.)
• Ideally, you should get the pattern sent directly to your swap partner. (That way you don’t have to worry about it arriving with you and then being sent on to your swap partner within the swap timeframe. Plus, less postage costs as it’ll only be getting sent once!)

Keen to take part?

Unfortunately sign-ups for the swap have now closed. Sorry! But if people like it, we’ll run another one some time!

We’ll then be in touch on 14 May to let you know who you’re sending a pattern to.

Let the fun begin!