Thursday 8 January 2009

4

Drum roll please...Maybe


The double breasted coat tutorial is done. I made a hood today (no coat, just a hood!) so I could photograph it and finish the tutorial. So what do I do now that it's done? I'm really not sure... There's still something wrong that's keeping me awake at night. Other than Jamie.

I originally intended for the whole thing to be a pdf file, as I think most of the people buying it will be from the US, and buyers could get it immediately and not have to wait for the post. Plus, if I ever decided to submit it to YCMT, I wouldn't have to do heaps of work to get it electronically ready.

I divided all the pattern pieces into smaller pieces so they could be scanned in, emailed as a file and then printed and reassembled by the recipient. It took me donkeys years. I saved them all exactly at the size they were scanned at (no cropping or scaling). But when my tester printed them all out and reassembled them (printing without scaling), each piece had shrunk proportiately by about 5%, throwing off the entire pattern. I just can't figure out how to get this to work.

So I changed my plans, I was going to make the whole thing a physical pattern, with a printed tute and pattern pieces all dispatched in the post. There are 15 pages to the tutorial, and each one has several colour photos explaining the steps. I looked around online for printing services for quotes. Anyone that was afforable wasn't interested as my volumes were too low. I took it to Staples. They quoted me a cost per 15 page tute that was roughly 70% of what I was thinking about charging for the pattern! So that's a no-go too.

Now I'm stuck in sewing pattern purgatory. I have it done, people are asking for it, but I don't want to send them an e-tute instantly and physical pattern pieces a week later. It seems cruel, like 'Look, you can't make this yet!', not to mention unprofessional...

Can it work if I send an e-tute and a physical pattern? Or does it just look bad? Could I post the tute somewhere online that was password protected, and include the password with the pattern pieces? Does anyone have any suggestions or a workaround?!

4 comments:

  1. Oh WOW, it's SO cute! Well done!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Amanda. So sorry to hear your little one hurt her finger. Thank heavens she didn't loose it completly.

    There has got to be a way to get that pdf for the pattern to work. Did you try asking someone on Etsy?

    Munora
    (Teresa)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks, Honeybomb Bay! I have another half a dozen that are partially finished, I just have to find the time!

    @Teresa, I know there must be a way, I just can't figure it out yet! I did buy 300m of butcher's paper to trace the pieces on. Yes, 300 meters... Delusions of grandeur anyone?!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sorry to hear about your daughter's finger.

    As far as the pattern goes, I would think it a bit odd to have the tute e-mailed to me and then the pattern pieces come in the physical mail later. I think the password protected site is a good idea. Maybe you can e-mail the tute part as a .pdf and do a protected site for the pattern pieces only.
    BTW, What sizes are you offering the pattern in?

    Lovely coat, I am def. looking forward to you figuring a workable way to sell this. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete