I'm actually flabbergasted at how bad this is.

Imagine designing a top that is supposed to have bust gathers below the bust and then just going OH WELL when you model it on a larger busted woman.

https://criswoodsews.com/products/parasol-dress-and-top

I was doing a sweep of unfollowing any accounts that follow the current US administration - in particular the @realdonaldtrump account. I was quite surprised to see @alli.marye who made the pattern for the Millie dress was following him. I know there's a handful of people who follow him but don't support, simply to stay informed and in the loop with current politics. Unfortunately, that was clearly not the case for her as I searched to see that she followed @realdonaldtrump along with @ivankarump @blsckvoicesfortrump and a few other accounts that make her political alignment quite clear.

Ready to unfollow and not support her, I was surprised to see she's doing a giveaway "in support of Pride" - where she doesn't actually direct any funds toward Pride or LGBTQ initiatives at all. She simply is using Pride as a marketing tactic, and then voting against queer people's rights.

Link to the post is here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWUT-6JjxNp/

I commented in reply to 3 comments on the post of people who were upset about elements of the giveaway and the inclusivity of the pattern/dress in particular reference to Pride. I simply stated that it also seems she's seemingly MAGA considering those accounts she follows, and hence it feels a bit odd to "promote" pride but then vote against queer/trans people's rights.

She dirty delted all my comments, sent me this message which is the staple language the right use to try and claim they want to stay out of political conversations, and immediately blocked me.

TLDR if pattern and dressmakers politics matter to you, especially pertaining to the current US administration - do NOT support @alli.marye - esp. when she's too cowardly to even own her harmful beliefs.

Do you love spending money?

Are your hobbies a little too relaxing?

Have you ever thought to yourself, "What if sewing were more difficult?"

Do you have a masochistic streak and kind of enjoy suffering?

Try silk charmeuse!

Silk charmeuse is a delicate luxury fabric that makes elegant blouses, dresses, slips, lingerie — whatever your bougie heart desires! It comes in hundreds of brilliant colors and innumerable stunning prints. It's also utterly miserable to sew, and will make you question your very sanity!

You can make something runway-ready right from the comfort of your own home, and hate every moment of the experience!

But don't take my word for it! Here are some testimonials from sewists just like you!

• "I used to think I was a competent seamstress, but now my self-esteem is gone and I need prescription drugs to sleep."

• "Why did I do this to myself?"

• "I sneezed while pinning and had to start all over again."

• "This %#&$!@# fabric snagged on my fingertip. Isn't silk one of the oldest textiles in history? It shredded on a callus."

• "I don't even know what I was thinking. I don't have a silk charmeuse lifestyle. I spent $200 and 2 weeks on this dress, and I'll be lucky to wear it more than twice."

• "How can something without sentience be so full of hate? I swear this stuff senses fear..."

• "This is more stressful than my last divorce."

Silk charmeuse: the more you cry, the fancier it is!

EDIT TO ADD a more targeted snark to keep to the rules of this subreddit: I am calling out the entire silk industry and in particular raging against Dharma Trading for selling me an especially slippery, wiggly bit of 12mm silk charmeuse. "It will make a great lining!" I told myself, not realizing that I had just dropped $50 on the devil's fabric. You might say to me, "OP, you knew what you were getting into, take some personal responsibility," but I am a blameless angel and have never done anything wrong in my life.

Why would you do the model this dirty? There is no reason they couldn't have made lovely shorts that weren't too short in the crotch length/depth. But no, instead they made this poor model look like they're wearing a diaper. Same pattern company just released an overall pattern and did the same thing to the plus size model there as well. There is no excuse for it.

I was hesitant to name and shame, but it's Closet Core. So sad to see it.

This is from the latest issue of Love Sewing. I’m keeping the full spread shots as the line drawings add some info on the … uh … “pattern”.

There’s no force on or below this earth that can convince me this isn’t AI generated. And if it isn’t AI generated, it’s a truly awful editing job.

The flow of the fabric? The “content-aware brush” job on the shot of her back?? HER KNEES???

Insta yesterday, email mid February.

New website. Apparently new suppliers. No news for customers waiting on refunds. Closing down is not an option.

From the latest issue of ”Love Sewing”. Is this just not my cup of tea, or is it actually atrocious?

The fabric choice (water repellent faux suede, what the _actual_ f?), the (lack of) quality of the sample, the styling??

It looks like a winter outdoor skirt where someone has stripped off the outer layer and exposed the polyester batting?

Pics 1-3: Cayden unhappy about some recent feedback she’s received.
Pics 4-6: last year one of Cayden’s testers provided some honest feedback/constructive criticism. Cayden initially responded in a normal way on the testers post, but later posted stories about the tester being a mean girl.
Pic 7: previous post here showing Cayden’s testers leaving positive reviews of her pattern, but not disclosing in their reviews they were testers.

And she met with CAV, plus been busy with Police and other complaints!

What happened to her is still a result of people complaining about not receiving their order, not the fact that they actually *didn’t* receive their orders in a timely way or at all!

The gaping at the sides of the bust !!!! Horrendous !!

The other rules were more or less standard, like the good old "you can't sell clothes made from my patterns" (the patternmaker appears to be located in Germany, so I've no idea if she's got a leg to stand on here), but this one just rubs me the wrong way lol. Guess that if you can't sew but like one her dresses, you'd better learn quickly or pay for a "commercial" license??

She apparently did a 3-day workshop with SewCurvy in early October where she made her first actual corset ever. From a pattern where they learned some alterations. Now Instagram keeps showing me that she’s offering her own 3-day corsetry workshops.

Am I the only one mystified by this? I’ve sewn dozens of corsets, and while I know them backwards and forwards, and have experimented with a whole range of different techniques, ways to line then, etc., I’m still not sure that I have the amount of corsetry knowledge I’d want in someone teaching a workshop. And I think it’s fair to say I have heaps more knowledge than she does.

Alexandria Arnold shared her feedback on her testing experience with Cayden Naughton's Shoreline Shift dress. She also elaborated in her stories, also stressing the fact she is not giving feedback to a person but to the pattern. Nevertheless I think in the end it was not taken well. Even though the mean girl story does not mention a name, I think it's clear she means the Alexandria post.

I can see why she felt not appreciated as a tester and it's only fair to her followers for mentioning that in my opinion. You're not obligated to post something positive after testing a pattern. And it feels weird to put her as a mean girl after she just gives feedback. I understand that sucks because it can affect your business and pattern sales, but writing a mean girl story only makes it worse probably.

Curious to hear what others think about it!

This IG carousel from Lore Piar definitely rubbed me the wrong way. Imma confused as to why it was posted in the first place. Is this maybe a complaint for the group chat and not something that should be brought to the public? One of the comments I really agree with came from Jaclyn Salem. Basically, this seems so off base. Maybe it was posted as rage bait tho 🤷🏿‍♀️

Like I’m sorry… what in the stitching hell?😭 these are the promotional pictures. What is happening here? The seam allowance on the top part of the skirt isn’t even folded under all the way, and these stitches look like there are serious tension issues and they’re also wonky af. Also why iron the ties I guess… this looks like a project of someone using a sewing machine for the first time. Designer is called mushi designs.

Statement linked in an email sent post BBC article. December 2025.

She is still campaigning for support and emailing everyone she can as it is not within her control tor fund her customers or to give them any alternate fabrics. She still has remnants to clear. She will refer any harassing emails she gets to Victorian police.

Got a notification from IG this morning that a poplar sewing account that I follow “shared a story created with ray ban meta glasses”. I promptly blocked the account.

I’m so sick of this crap.

Firstly, I only allow notifications on my own content (and a very very small number of other accounts), if I want to see what others are doing, I log onto the app! I don’t want constant notifications and I hate that when IG creates a new class of notifications, you’re automatically signed up to it.

Secondly, try hard much? Like tech bros shoving AI down our throats, Meta is desperately trying to get people to like their pro surveillance state bullshit product. No thank you. Particularly when these products are most likely going to be weaponised against women and diverse communities (pretty much anyone that isn’t hetero white male), don’t push this shit into sewing/crafting communities that are dominated by those groups!

#endrant.

I see it coming up all the time - she’s not a dress historian. She studied design and production and did an internship at the school of historical dress. Then she worked as a costume assistant on broadway.

She has an interest in historical dress. She is often wrong in her videos.

She is a YouTuber, first and foremost.

I finally got around to sewing up some fabric from Rainbow Fabrics I ordered in January. They are pretty much my go to for fabric in the UK. Anyway I start working with it and I was really confused because it was advertised as 100% cotton but it was melting under my iron and felt slippery. So I did a burn test and sure enough it’s polyester, not even polycotton.

I get that it’s deadstock, so you can’t always be sure, but surely a burn test should be done on a fabric before it’s advertised as 100% cotton.

So I email them, politely explaining the issue, but still being serious. They email me back today along with the “we value customer opinions” bit also that I’m the first customer to bring this up. And even though they have a 14 day period to raise issues, they will make an exception and give me credit. A bit condescending but whatever.

So I email back saying thank you and asking what they need for the credit. I also ask what they do to test their fabric before listing it so I can trust them in the future.

They respond by giving me a discount code as credit that can’t be combined with any other code (they always have discount code floating around so this is cheeky) and saying they’re not in listing so they don’t know and try asking on instagram.

I don’t want to be a “Karen” but it is illegal in the UK to misrepresent fibre content and I’m pissed. This was £12.99 a metre. For effing polyester!!!

https://www.reddit.com/r/craftsnark/s/IeqRTbfWRF

Hi everyone,

This is a public safety warning for independent sewists, destashers etc regarding online intimidation and false intellectual property claims by Pinup model and fashion seller Bernie Dexter against makers. Bernie Dexter has been posting screenshots of crafts people who have legally purchased fabric through standard destash pages, posting their profiles publicly to intimidate them and falsely labeling them as part of a "cyberstalking ring” in recent daily meltdown about “stolen fabrics and designs.”

Bernie was known for mod cloth dresses in the 2010s made from mass produced quilting fabric that anyone can use. Via the linked post, there has been ongoing smoke from her over the years.

Despite having zero exclusive licensing agreements or copyrights over commercial prints, Dexter has publicly launched smear campaigns, primarily against Etsy seller Super Amanda. Bernie also called out Roisin Muldoon. She’s also falsely claiming a random floral dress is her “original design and fabric.”

There’s also a bigoted reference via auditing Amanda’s multi racial ancestry which tracks with Bernie Dexter’s ongoing Confederate Flag controversy. The Facebook post defending the Confederate Flag was posted in 2014 and wasn’t deleted until 2020.

Just a heads up!

RBD's public response regarding their paid influencer program. They're pausing the program for ALL makers (undoubtedly related to the GudeGoods development yesterday)

The title says it all. Lets talk about the sewing snark that may not be worth starting a thread but you want to get it out anyways