Alright fam, help me out here. I’m currently working on porting the FreeSewing website from Docusaurus to Vite (pull request here).
As I was working on the home page, I got a little bored of always seeing the same thing, and so I decided to update the Reasons to join text with something that was written on Reddit recently which I thought was kinda funny:
“Focus on privacy” was a big one for me, in addition to what you already listed.
Hosting my measurements somewhere else, where they’d get monetized and I’d see ads for weight loss drugs () or sold to insurance companies or whatever, is not something I’d do.
It’s also why I donate (granted, a teeny weeny little amount, but at least it’s recurring), to show you guys you’re important, appreciated, & needed in our crazy world.
Edit: and I guess related to what Alicia the Witch wrote, “Join the revolution”
Edit #2: the privacy thing is also why I moved to posting more here in your private forum than in Discord.
I took up sewing again during the pandemic. After a year, I started learning how to create my own patterns using CAD software, but I was frustrated by the lack of parametric methods.
I found FreeSewing, and the fact that it is free and open source is extremely important to me — that’s the main reason why I’m still here. However, I have never been very successful with the FreeSewing approach to measurements and pattern adaptation, either for myself or for others. I am developing my pattern-making skills using books and free parametric software, and I dream of the day when I will be able to translate my knowledge and ideas into code. This will probably happen when language models are universally accessible and mature.
"In my youth there was a website called natronundsoda.net made by two goth girls who created a community in which people could upload instructions to making your own sewing patterns. That’s where I learned to sew.
I’ve gotten out of the habit since, and the only clothes I’ve made in a long time are LARP clothes based on archeological finds.
I want to get back into making my own (and possibly friends’ and family’s) daily wear. FreeSewing reminds me a lot of my sewing origins."
As an addendum, why I joined: back then as well as now I like the (small scale) community aspect of it: having people to talk to about projects, cheering each other on when playing around and trying out new things.
The data privacy aspect is much appreciated though.
To be fair my friend dropped me link to this website almost a year ago. Then I had no idea much about how patterns work and I was addicted to Etsy. Now, I know a little bit better about patterns and after burning quite a few times from Etsy garbage trap 2$ patterns I revisited once again on here and instantly realised - these patterns are fit to custom measurements!
I am mostly looking for techwear/cyberpunk style clothing as that is the reason I started learning sewing in the 1st place, but after making Teagan & Toni i was very impressed how good they are. Very customizable in addition of exporting them to use in the vector programs like InkScape or layering in Seamly2D.
My goal is to learn how to draft patters myself and in perfect world be able to share them with other would be nice too. Right now I am dabbling with Winifred Aldrich metric pattern book. Not a fan, looking for something else with more about “do this because” instead of “do this”.
Long story short - I like good fitting result and customizability of the patterns + available bodice blocks are very nice bonus.
) or sold to insurance companies or whatever, is not something I’d do.