Wednesday, September 7, 2016

WIPS: Pattern Hacking

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Do you hack patterns?  By this I mean take a pattern and tweaking it, but tweaked beyond personal preference and individual fit type issues.  So maybe "tweak" is too mild of a word.  I do this a lot.

I sometimes wonder how designers feel about pattern hacking -- do they love that someone admires their handiwork that they want to incorporate it into something new and unique? Or do the designers think of it as a bastardization of their work?


Maybe I could call myself a designer, I'm not sure.  I just love to create and I sometimes remember to jot down notes during the process and then share them.  I personally would LOVE to know that something I created inspired someone else's creativity.  

(Just to be clear, I'm not talking about stealing someone's work/pattern and calling it your own.  Although, that does beg the question of how far removed from the original does something need to be before it's a new pattern.  That's a question for another day.)


Today's WIP (work in progress) is a pattern hack.  I'm taking a lovely crochet dress pattern, The Sunrise Sunday Dress & Top, and turning it into a skirt.  I absolutely love the dress,  you can read all about that in my review, but I think a stand alone skirt based upon the pattern could be something really pretty.  

Little Abbee is sponsoring a giveaway for the Sunrise Sunday Dress pattern, but it ends today!  (September 7, 2016)

In other yarn-y news, The Yarn Fanatic Party is back!  Please come link up your knit and crochet projects -- and anything else that uses yarn.  The party has returned to a weekly format.  I hope to see you there! 

Do tell me your thoughts about pattern hacking!  Do you do it?  Are you a designer?  Do you hate it?   



I'll be linking up with Small Things, Frontier Dreams, and some of these places




5 comments:

  1. I use other peoples patterns to make things....for example on my blog today, I used a couple of granny squares, added a couple of rows, and incorporated them in a blanket. I didn't use the colors exactly the same. I guess I should have credited where I got the patterns. I will in my next post. I didn't consider it hacking since I didn't claim them as my own, and they put them on their blogs for others to use. Personally, I think crochet and knitting have been around for so long, how can anything be new!

    Cindy Bee

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  2. (WIPS: Pattern Hacking) This is interesting to read about, I had never heard anything about this subject before.

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  3. This is interesting. I've had to tweak patterns to fit a certain size but never like this before

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  4. I'm guilty of pattern hacking myself when I'm working with someone else's pattern...I can't help it! I think I'm an artist and I have certain opinions about design.

    I just became a pattern designer (plastic canvas designs), so I haven't experienced someone hacking my designs yet. Gosh, I'm not sure how I'd feel. I'd like to think I would be delighted! But probably part of me would be upset if the hacked design didn't agree with my sense of style.

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  5. I can't say that I pattern hack because I don't think I am sure of myself enough to successfully make something other than the original pattern. I love what you are making.

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Thank you so much for taking the time to comment! I love reading each and every one!