Craftsy has launched an in-house fabric line and is now seeking designers to create digital quilt patterns for exclusive kits. Called Boundless Fabrics, the line launched with a collection of solids sold as yardage and pre-cuts in the supplies section on Craftsy.com.
In September of 2015 word spread that Craftsy was launching its own yarn and fabric lines. The yarn line, Cloudborn Fibers, has been available on the Craftsy site for a few months.
Cloudborn Fibers is Craftsy’s in-house yarn line.
Craftsy’s announcement of the yarn line caused a stir when they sought out established knitwear designers to ask if they’d design exclusive patterns for the yarn in exchange for online exposure. Many expressed outrage at what they perceived to be Craftsy’s disregard for their professionalism, although some designers seem to have taken them up on their offer. In response to my post about the incident CEO of Craftsy, John Levisay, wrote an open letter to designers which I published.
This time around the company seems to be taking a different approach. A letter sent this week from from Ashley Smith, Product Development Associate at Craftsy, to quilt designers read,
Craftsy is looking for designers to develop exclusive quilting patterns for project kits, and we want to explore the opportunity to work with you! Our goal is to identify a select number of inspired and unique designers to (1) develop exclusive patterns for quilt kits, and (2) serve as fabric ambassadors for the collections used in the kits.
It went on to spell out the compensation details,
What does this opportunity mean for you?
- Significant marketing exposure for you and your designs
- Internal email(s) to Craftsy’s 350K registered quilting users
- External emails through Craftsy’s marketing partners
- Marketing on Facebook Quilting Club (591K followers) and Quilting Kit Club (68K followers)
- Quarterly compensation for all pattern sales
- Price per pattern will be negotiated, and you will be compensated for every project kit sold
- Opportunity to continue to grow/develop a partnership with Craftsy
The company is asking that patterns designed for Boundless Fabrics quilt kits be exclusive to Craftsy for “a period of 6-12 months.” They letter specifies that they are seeking designers with “a strength in creating patterns digitally because the patterns will be sold as PDFs with kit purchases.”
Amy Gibson’s Boundless Starlight Sampler Quilt Kit is available now on Craftsy
Debbie Caffrey’s Boundless Solids Quilter’s Quandary Quilt Kit is now available on Craftsy
Two designers already have patterns for Boundless solids available on Craftsy: Debbie Caffrey of Debbie’s Creative Moments and Amy Gibson of Stitchery Dickory Dock. Their quilt patterns were released in late Janaury. It’s not clear if the latest designer call is for more solids quilts or if the print collections will be launching soon. Also not clear is the quality of the greige goods (the raw fabric before dying) although the fabric is described in the Craftsy shop listing as “premium quality.”
The Boundless Fabrics logo was designed by Aprile Hodgkins who says on her site, “The Boundless brand was designed with the intention of inspiring unrestricted creativity and passionate creation.”
Thanks for this info! I was wondering if you had an e-mail address or a web link to submit ideas or get additional information?
I’m sorry, but I don’t. I think if you search around on the Craftsy site you’ll find someone to contact or you could call?
Oops! I need to read more carefully; I though you wrote fabric designers. I do make quilts, but I am not great with written directions for what I do.
Where are the fabrics made? Korea, US etc. thanks!
You would need to ask Craftsy.