Designer Spotlight – Wrap up and Poll Results

Welcome to the final post in the Designer Spotlight Series. I enjoyed getting to know each of the 12 featured designers and hope you did too! I think we may have a new divide when it comes to pizza toppings though! I mean, pineapple? I know it’s common enough on pizza, but I just can’t do it! Take a moment to catch up on the interviews if you missed a few days. You can find all the posts by selecting the Designer Spotlight category to the right, or just click here.

We had 250 responses to our poll, and I want to thank all of you who took the time to answer our questions, especially the many of you who left extra comments and feedback. When I originally thought up these questions, I was hoping to see a clear pattern of strong suits from each designer, so if someone said to me “I really like sticking to one or two pattern styles so if I stuck with one designer, which one puts out the best variety?” or “I’m really not a typical learner and need a lot of support to sew a bag; which designer offers that?” then I’d be able to refer to this list and bam! have a clear answer, but it didn’t really work out that way. It turns out that a few designers are favourites across the board. I’ll call those “The Big 6” for now. The Big 6 really dominated the answers, and for good reason: they each have large followings and a large number of patterns, plus have been designing bags for a long time. The Big 6 are (in alphabetical order): Blue Calla, Chris W., Dog Under My Desk, Emmaline Bags, Sew Sweetness, and Swoon.  When I take out the Big 6 from the poll results, I was able to see a bit of a pattern of individual strengths. In alphabetical order, these were the top 3 of the remaining designers for each category:

​Variety
Andrie Designs, Little Moo, Noodlehead

Easiest to Follow
Andrie Designs, Emkie Designs, Noodlehead
​
Value
Andrie Designs, Emkie Designs, Noodlehead

Support
Andrie Designs, Little Moo, Mrs. H

Innovative Designs and Techniques
Betz White, Mrs. H, Noodlehead

A few “others” that came up consistently were: Bagstock, Moments, and ByAnnie.

What I took away from these results is that so many of us have different styles and preferences, and I’m grateful that we have so many great to designers to choose from.

Now for the fun part! The rest of the poll questions were asked to establish our preferences, and I think designers can use these responses in order to better understand what bagmakers are looking for. Some of the answers really surprised me, and some didn’t surprise me at all. For example, I think we’re all pattern hoarders!

Many of the “Other” answers here were that people would buy if they liked the bag, which I guess teaches me to not assume that’s already implied. I sure wouldn’t expect people to buy a pattern for a bag they didn’t like. Some other comments were simply that they wanted to support the designer, and that’s something I can certainly relate to. Another interesting comment was from someone who said she waits to see what others do with the pattern – I love that! It’s great being inspired by the rest of the sewing community.

This is a good mix, and probably reflects whether people are just starting out in their bagmaking adventure, or have been around the block a few times. I am a bit surprised to see that every response was from someone who has purchased at least one pattern.

Congrats to the 15% of you who sew up more than 80% of the patterns you buy! I always have grand ideas of being able to sew lots and then I run of time, womp womp!

This one isn’t really a surprise, I mean we go back to who we love, right? Again, thank you to the person who responded they let their cat decide, also gave me a chuckle. I added that option because sometimes I have a hard time deciding too. The Other responses were mainly that people would decide based on if a pattern had a certain technique they wanted to learn or option they preferred to the other.

This one surprised me because I personally prefer Digital Drawings, and I was expecting closer to a 50/50 split, and surprised not a single preference for text only. Some of the comments at the end of the poll added more to this question, stating it depends on the quality of the pictures. Many people also commented that fabric choice for the bag being made in the pattern if using photos is really important and determines if the photos are helpful or not.

I love that this one has a variety of responses because I think it represents the variety in pattern styles too! Some comments were that pattern length should be related to difficulty or complexity of bag. Some people really didn’t want long patterns and some really appreciate the extra detailed instructions.

Additional Comments

• Full disclosure: some of you really weren’t happy with me asking you to pick favourites, but I really never had the intention of making this a popularity contest. I think polls are fun, and thought it would be a neat way to highlight how awesome these designers are, and what makes each of them special. By breaking down into categories the hope was that it would encourage people to try someone new and find a new designer they love. We picked the designers that we featured because their work is already outstanding and we trust them and know that when you purchase a pattern from any one of them it will be well worth it.
• Tons of praise for Dog Under My Desk!
• Requests for: structured bags, less materials required, functional bags, losing “tacky” disclaimers about insisting you credit the designer and link back to them, more sales, pattern pieces (rather than listed dimensions), cutting charts, and consistency between designers for where seam allowance is placed in pattern, plus requests for free patterns to try out that designer’s style (a “try before you buy” type of thing).
• Others mentioned that they stick with specific designers because they really enjoy the groups and how the designers collaborate with each other. 
• Lots of you commented simply that you really enjoyed the poll and interviews; thank you for saying so! 

Giveaway!

Thank you again to each of the featured designers. You all took time out of your busy schedules to answer our questions. Thank you also to each of the designers for contributing patterns for the giveaway. Heather M. won the Happy Okapi prize pack of one pattern from each featured designer, and you’ll have to head over to The Nosy Pepper to see won that prize pack.

With all this thanking, I feel like I’m receiving an Oscar, but seriously, I’m so grateful to everyone who took the time to complete our poll, leave comments, and read all the interviews, plus of course the designers, and one more person to thank: Cyndi of The Nosy Pepper! She did so much work for the series and I really couldn’t have done it without her!

Tell me what you thought of the results: what surprised you? Or what did you enjoy most about this series? Any designers you’re going to try out now that you’ve had a chance to read about them?