In sewing news this week, The Sewing Party has relaunched.
You might remember last November when The Sewing Party was a daylong online craft conference. 30 teachers conducted online workshops and the event was sponsored by Etsy, BurdaStyle, Joann Fabric, Pellon, Coats, McCalls, Simplicity, Singer, Husqvarna Viking and Pfaff.
The Sewing Party is owned by SVP Worldwide, whose brands include Singer, Pfaff, and Husqavarna Viking, and organized by Devon Iott, Creative Eduction Director for SVP Worldwide (Devon blogs at MissMake).
When the conference ended the site went quiet for nearly a year. Then a month and a half ago several prominent sewing bloggers began using #thesewingparty hashtag on Instagram posts showing images of their new, high end sewing machines. I wondered if the event was going to return this November so in early June reached out to Paige Hutchens, the account coordinator at the public relations firm in Nashville that handles SVP Wordlwide’s PR, to ask. She wasn’t aware of the hashtag or that there was any news about the site, although when I followed up a few weeks later she said indeed something new was coming soon.
This week The Sewing Party site has new content. An announcement reads, “This year, we’re doing something a little different. The Sewing Party is transitioning into the collaborative blog of Singer, Husqvarna Viking, and Pfaff brand sewing machines.” There are eight contributing bloggers. Devon stated in the contributor recruitment email that the new blog will include things like “tutorials, project journals, and general sewing interest articles, to be mixed in with column-based content that we will provide (like sewing tool roundups etc.).” The Sewing Party site has forums now as well, conveying a hopefulness for community involvement.
Contributing bloggers are given a new sewing machine up front that is theirs to keep after they’ve contributed a certain number of posts the site. The more the machine is worth the more they need to contribute. Some will write 12 posts a year and others six.
The program has resonances with those of two other major sewing machine manufacturers: Bernina and Janome. Bernina’s Ambassador program loans bloggers a machine for a year in exchange for posts on Bernina’s We All Sew site. The Janome On-Loan Ambassador program works in a similar way. SVP’s stands out, then, in that bloggers will keep their machines at the end of their service.
It makes sense for most major companies today to have a blog where they can post useful articles that build a community to whom they can then sell their products. As Devon wrote in an email to a potential contributor, “SVP will be behind the site, but it won’t contain aggressive marketing content. The idea is to attract readers to the site with the content, and in the process expose them to our brands.” Instead of starting a blog from scratch they’re capitalizing on the name recognition of an event they threw last year and using that as a foundation to build upon.
I think the messaging could be somewhat clearer overall. The Sewing Party’s Instagram profile reads, “Community-centered blogger collective celebrating all things sewing. You’ve found your people. Join the party!” with no mention of a connection to the brands it represents. A descriptive name for the blogger program that clues readers in to how it works would also be a positive step toward greater transparency.
Lola with her new machine.
The bloggers involved seem thrilled with the deal. Marcy Harriel of the blog oonaballoona was excited enough about her new Pfaff Creative 4.5 to give it a name when it arrived. “Celebrating an excellent historic day with rainbow thread and the start of an excellent week with my new guy!! His name: Gorgeous. Surname, George,” she exclaimed and blogger Lola of Love Lola described her new Husqavarna as her “boyfriend.”
Edited August 7: The Sewing Party has updated their Instagram profile. It now reads, “The Sewing Party is the community-centered blogger collective of Singer®, Husqvarna Viking® and Pfaff®. We celebrate all things sewing. Join the party!”
Edited August 11: The Sewing Party has changed the theme they’re using on their site, adding the logos for the brands it represents above the fold.
Thank you Abby for the info. I was also wondering what it was all about this year. After last yera’s online “party”, I was pretty sure it was for those companies’ marketing. Always interesting to learn something new in the online sewing business world :-).
Kathie, Did you know who was the organizer behind the online event last year? I remember trying to get to the bottom of it and not being able to figure it out. I think for people to understand what an event or website is all about they need to be able to quickly find out who is behind it.
I didn’t actually know, just assumed since the workshops seemed so driven towards marketing products. I did look up a few of the sponsors and noticed they were interconnected in some way. I agree, I appreciate knowing what/who is behind an event and why….especially if one is paying for it. I had won a ticket, otherwise would have probably skipped the event. Thank you for your investigative work, I’ve learned so much from your column.
I asked Paige how many people attended the event last year, but she didn’t get back to me.
Thank you so much for figuring this out! I was so confused when people started tagging posts #thesewingparty. Oonaballoona and Sunni are the only two people chosen that I follow on Instagram, and I thought they just coincidentally both bought super nice Pfaffs at the same time. I don’t mind the program, really, but I agree that it should have been much clearer what was going on. I had the impression that Joann’s was primarily responsible for The Sewing Party last year, but that could have been a mistaken impression.
Hi Gina, I think your impression that Joann’s was the organizer of last year’s event speaks to the lack of clarity, and therefore lack of effectiveness, of the effort. Joann’s was a sponsor, along with several other companies involved in the home sewing industry, but The Sewing Party event was organized by SVP Worldwide. When this sort of information is hidden customers and fans end up frustrated rather than more loyal.
Hey Abby! I came over via Closet Case Files, nice to meet you :). I’m actually writing more about my part in The Sewing Party later this week on my blog (the launch coincided with my birthday week, and it was all too celebratory IRL to get much done online). But I’ll confirm, I am seriously thrilled with the deal. It doesn’t make sense to me to collaborate “on loan,” and I’ve been a major Pfaff lover since finding my Pfaff 1171 Tiptronic (named Lucile Ball-er, and her mate is Ricky Riccar-do, a Riccar 2600. I kinda name everything…), so I’m so happy to spread the word and get a truly awesome machine in return for the effort.
Side note, I’ve been feeling like instagram is taking the place of blogging (a temporary trend, hopefully)– for example, TSP website’s front page has a great explanation of what’s happening, but the instagram profile is what’s noticed first. Do you ever feel like instagram is adding to our general confused sense of ADD? I miss reading actual thoughtful posts (like this one) and not blurbs and hashtags…
(Plus, I always feel bad for the pound sign. It was robbed!)
Thanks for your comment! When you look at Bernina’s WeAllSew blog, the Bernina logo is at the top left. It’s really prominent and clear that the blog belongs to Bernina (http://weallsew.com/). Janome’s blog is the same http://janome.com/en/blog/). Although the front page of The Sewing Party blog states to whom it belongs, I think it could still be clearer. I also think the blogger program could be clearer. If you’re a Bernina Ambassador I understand from the start that you’ve received a machine for free. In this case it’s really hard to determine that. I love the program and I’m glad SVP Worlwide has joined the world of blogging. I just think clarity and transparency show respect to the reader and content consumer.
Hi Abby,
I just reread this post. its my understanding that the blog contributors on the sewing party are being paid with a sewing machine. its very similar to the post re stick dots you wrote about some time ago. what are your thoughts on this.
k
Hi Kiri, You raise a great point. Just for reference, here’s the post you’re referring to: http://whileshenaps.com/2014/11/work-for-free.html
In both cases crafters are being given a company’s product in exchange for content creation. With GlueDots that product is inexpensive. The products that the crafters create are not only going on the GlueDots website, but in some cases are also being photographed and used for advertising flyers for the company that are going into stores like Hobby Lobby. While the graphic designer, writer, and printer are being paid for their work, the crafter who created the project is being paid in glue because, as the folks at GlueDots reassured me, they are stay-at-home moms.
In the case of SVP Worldwide, they are giving contributors to their blog sewing machines with a retail value of several thousand dollars (and a wholesale value of half of that). In exchange, contributors are creating blog content as a way to pay off these expensive, highly specialized tools. Will the company profit from their content in other ways (ie. by creating print ads with it or using it in other ways)? I don’t know. I haven’t read the contracts involved here so I’m not privy to those details.
In both cases, I think the important thing is for all of us to examine and understand what these deals look like. They might be the right deals for some of us, and the wrong deals for others, but when we don’t know what the details are we can’t make good decisions. My goal always is to shine a light on the details so that we have full information to guide our own decision making.
Thanks for digging into this, Abby. At the time the original Sewing Party happened, I thought it was filmed and organized by an independent business. It was never clear. But this kind of inquiry does help create a culture of respect within the blogosphere. I personally find it really important to know when a brand is involved in some way, even if those involved would naturally support or write about them with or without a sponsored gift.
Indeed it was never clear, and you and I both own businesses in the home sewing industry and looking closely at what’s going on. I imagine the average consumer had no idea who organized it.
I agree that being upfront creates, as you said, a culture of respect. I don’t begrudge anyone from doing content marketing (I certainly do quite a bit of it!), but it’s important for readers to know who’s behind it.
hey Abbie
yes you are right, in that there needed to be more transparency. When TSP started with the videos it was unclear to me who it was sponsored by. I hope that now the information is a little clearer, and if there are any more vague instances it can be addressed by SVP on their site. Granted since it’s a first time program, there will be glitches in information but hopefully as The sewing party continues it becomes a robust forum and contributor tutorials. Not entirely sure if my contract prohibits me from discussing the terms of my contract but would be happy to give you a general run down via email.
Lola,
If you’d like to share the details of your contract with me please read it carefully first to be certain as to whether that’s allowed. I’d be happy to include those details here, but in no way do I want you to compromise a professional relationship. Thank you.