Trouble in Crafting Paradise?
First we lost Joann’s, now Design Group has filed for bankruptcy?
If you craft, I feel like we’re taking hits left and right and it’s just not fair.
I know that not everyone was the biggest Joann fan—me included—but they made crafting accessible to areas that there’s a huge gap in now. In Atlanta, we have options which I’m grateful for. And after Hancock Fabrics went out of business, I made it MY business to get to know fabrics well enough to feel comfortable-ish buying online—ok, not really. I ended up buying a bunch, seeing what I loved, learning what I hated, and winning in the end because I learned so much.
But now Design Group of America has filed for bankruptcy after being sold for $1!
And I’m over here like et tu Brute?!?!
I wish I had more information about what was going on because I was once a designer for KnowMe but I was dropped and haven’t received any communication about what’s going on from them directly. Which is weird because I do still get royalties from them… or did.
Whereas Mimi told everyone business was as usual when the sale happened, this doesn’t seem to be aging well. KnowMe pattern launched 2 more designers that are dropping their first designs for the fall but now, we don’t know what’s going on. I heard that we won’t be getting paid any longer from our pattern sales but who knows what the truth is anymore.
While I wasn’t the biggest user of commercial patterns, I know that they were an entry point for many as they can be bought from stores, websites, yard sales and more. I hate that so much in the world is impacting this area that brings so much joy to so many.
I’m curious… What are your thoughts?
I am over them. As I said on one of my last videos. I support them for ideas and inspiration and I’m very disturbed that your royalties are gone!
I will hold and cherish forever my vintage Vogue designer and other patterns from these companies. I have learned so much about cutting, shaping, style lines, and yes, even construction methods from them. And I will continue to buy designer vintage patterns when I find them. As well as the sewing books pattern companies once published with all the how-tos, until YouTube which I rarely ever use.
But the loss of the Big Four could have predicted given the demise and conglomeration of so much of the home sewing industry (the merger of Singer, Viking, and Pfaff and loss of the textile manufacturing in the US). Remember (or if you never knew) that the first leveraged buyout in the pattern industry was McCalls in 1983, by Reginald F Lewis (look him up!) who turned it around in four years and then sold it (to buy Beatrice Foods). Once Lewis showed that could be done, other corporate raiders began circling.
I know the companies only very recently started to be more size inclusive— indeed, they used to single sized! I know the size grading and consolidation has made it impossible to trust a pattern without making a toile first— though most indie patterns need one too. I know the construction directions have devolved into whacko territory — though again, the same can be said of many indies. But still the big four patterns could be inexpensive and accessible for those who wanted to create and I will be saddened by their loss.