Talk Back Thursday

Thank you so much to Branka, Sarah, Lois, Cindy, Stitchywitch, Julia, CarlaF, Mamafitz, Elaina, Shannon, Lisa and Uta for talking back to my last confession! I asked if anyone bought patterns after seeing a floor model made up in the fabric store.

The results were pretty evenly divided. Six people have bought patterns, and three people have bought fabric, because of an in-store display; while four people have not been influenced into a purchase by these displays.

The reasons given for the “no” votes included (a) being on a budget, (b) only shopping with a fixed objective in mind and not being swayed, and (c) being turned off by the poor quality of the workmanship in some displays.

Two other people reported that, while they aren’t particularly enticed by the typical floor model at a fabric store, they are strongly influenced by seeing patterns made up into outfits in other venues – in particular, Stitchywitch called out magazines like Vogue and CarlaF called out sewing and fashion blogs.

I thought that one of the coolest things was that FOUR of the commenters – Lois, Julia, Mamafitz and Lisa – have all had experience making those floor displays! Most of them reported that they were able to choose the pattern and fabric themselves and make it up in their own size. Once it had been on display for a while (i.e., several months), they got to keep the garment. It does sound like the seamstress has more control over the pattern selection when the display is for an independent fabric company – in fact, Sarah pointed out that multiple Joann’s have the same garment on display at any given time – so those folks aren’t getting to choose. And Mamafitz shared an interesting tidbit – the store she sewed for pulled the bolt of fabric that she used off the floor while her garment was on display, because otherwise most people would just make an exact copy of her garment (as best as they could).

ETA: Oops, I misunderstood Mamafitz. The store pulled the fabric bolt WHILE she was making the garment, to make sure they had it available while the garment was on display - to HELP people who wanted to copy her version of the dress. Sorry!

I would think that it would be pretty cool to see your own work being modeled in a fabric store – and especially cool if you found out that the sales of that pattern went up because of your garment. ;)

Thanks again, to everyone, for sharing your stories! :)

Photo credit: Uta provided this link to this store display that she couldn't resist!