drafting original designs

Dear Lots...,

That's not how copyrights work. If you took a commercial pattern, and used it to sew up a handbag, then you sell it, you'd be infringing on that company's copyright. On the other hand, if you sit down with ruler and pencil, and come up with your own design, whatever the shape, then embellish it in your own way, it's yours and you can sell it. Make sure that you keep your original sketches and copies of the patterns developed from the sketches, to back up your claims of originality.

I had work stolen from me many years ago. It was used to launch a cloth doll magazine. The woman who owned the magazine at the time simply removed the seam allowances from my patterns, and made the doll a bit smaller. But it was a complete ripoff of my work. The magazine has since gone belly-up. The same book (that I wrote) was used to get work into a Better Homes magazine issue by a woman who claimed it was her work. She didn't even bother to change the type of fabric used for the clothing. Better Homes wrote a correction in the next issue, but who reads them except the person who was plagiarized?

Many designs are done over and over (princess seams, for instance). If the pattern is the work of the dressmaker, it's considered original. But even an altered commercial pattern can't be used for sale of a garment, unless only one garment is made from the pattern for a client who has paid for the pattern, fabric and labor. Another pattern is required for a separate client.

Teri

Yes, you are very right: Save all sketches and pieces of paper for a design that you make at home and date them!

Do patterns you draft yourself have to be significantly different (how is that determined) than existing patterns? Or does it not matter as long as you don't use the exact pattern to make items for sale?

I guess it seems gray to me whether or not a pattern company can claim violation of copyright if one sees a bag design on a pattern and then drafts one's own pattern that looks similar (in shape most likely, not exact colors and fabrics). After all, one is not using their actual commercial pattern to make items for sale; one is using one's own drafted patterns. But the design is probably too similar to be allowed? So is it the exact paper pattern that is copyrighted or the pattern's design itself in any form? If it is just that exact pattern as printed that is protected, then I guess any self-drafted patterns would be ok. What about patterns printed by pattern companies that have designer names attached? Do the designers (eg: Laura Ashley) have any rights to those designs as represented on the patterns?

Dear Lots...,

A designer's name on a commercial pattern means that the designer has "licensed" his/her name, and will receive royalties for each pattern/item sold. When you see designers' names on many different items, it doesn't mean that they have designed them, but have approved them to use their names on them.

Finished garments seen in fashion shows are not covered by copyright laws. That's because there are only so many different ways that tubes for our bodies can be cut. But, if patterns of the garments are offered for sale, they are covered. It gets confusing, doesn't it?

If you're designing your own things for sale, the best way to proceed is to go out and see what's in the market at the price range for which you are aiming. Not to copy, mind you, but to see what kind of things are popular and are selling well. You wouldn't want to offer beaded, spangled somethings if tailored, hard-edge designs are what sell best. Then you can go back to your studio, confident that your original designs will be desirable.

Teri