I’m feeling like a bit of a fuddy duddy old person here, trying to figure out the cool new way to sewcialize. (Like when I decided not to learn how to use Periscope, because my life doesn’t need more distractions.) I figure, if I feel confused about new communities, maybe other do too – or maybe you’ve figured it all out and can explain it to me!
So, The Fold Line.
It’s the latest of many attempts to make a “Ravelry for Sewists”. Other have tried, but all have fizzled (and now I can’t even remember the website names… I know I’ve signed up for at least 3 in the past!). In truth, we’d dreamed up something similar when we started the Sewcialists, but then realised how massive a job it is. I’m really excited that it seems like The Fold Line might actually work!
According to their “About Me” section, The Fold Line is “We hope the site will be the central hub to socialise, review patterns and keep up-to-date with the latest news and pattern releases.” It’s run by Kate and Rachel, who met while working at Sew Over It but are also both involved in the business side of sewing patterns: pattern cutting, marketing, etc.
Here are the great things:
- I’ve seen lots of buzz about The Fold Line online
- They had a party in the UK and lots of familiar bloggers went
- The organisers seem really friendly and excited
- The site has already been responsive to requests for other features and improvements
- The site has lots of capabilities: searching patterns, groups, pattern reviews, etc
- It has clean, modern graphic design
The thing is: I log in, and then I don’t know what to do! Checking notifications, look through and add some new friends… most of the groups I joined have a bit of activity but not much. I log in, excited, but then it’s a bit dull compared to IG, FB, or Twitter. Is that because it’s only just getting going? What am I missing?
If you care to find me, I’m GillianCrafts on The Fold Line, just like I am on Twitter and Instagram. Let’s be friends! And you can help me figure this out. Pretty please? (Also, what is the difference between “following” and “adding a friend”?)
Are you on The Fold Line? What do you like about it? Please, fill me in!
Crafting A Rainbow 
Eh…it looks like a Pattern Review for people into slick graphic design.
Honestly, if someone wanted to make a site where sewers keep in touch with each other, it should have an integrated blog/Instagram feed reader. That’s how most of us connect at the moment, and that’s unlikely to change. But a site that allows blog and Instagram content to be viewed at the same time? I’d sign up for that! And if it also had a forum and pattern reviews and all that jazz? Yes, please! 🙂
For now, though, I like Pattern Review for pattern and other type of info, and blogs and Instagram to tap into the online sewing community. But thanks for hipping us to this one! I’d never heard of it, now I can keep an eye out for its spread.
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I’ve never really gotten into Pattern Review – never had a membership, so i peek at the reviews, but haven’t tried the forum etc. I honestly find the graphic design so hideous that i just can’t get into it. Shallow, yes, but it’s like trying to wear an ugly top just because you like the soft fabric – no fun!
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It is truly hideous, but the good part is you don’t need a paid membership to access reviews and the forum! I don’t live on the forums (forums take waaaaay too much time and energy to follow), but any time I want to decide between patterns, being able to read older pattern reviews has been priceless.
I have actually been that person who wears the cozy but ugly garment….mine is a jolie laide style. :-p
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I totally agree with you – and I don’t even like Pattern Review (but I use it for the reviews and photos the way I use Ravelry, when deciding to make something…)
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It’s hard to imagine any other site building up the wealth of reviews that PR has from the past 5+ years! And that really is the best part of PR…
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I laughed as soon as I saw the title of your post! 🙂 I don’t get it either and I’m a web programmer. I had a look at it again this morning after receiving an update email from them and thought, ‘no, I’m just confused, will go and do something else’.
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I am SO GLAD i’m not the only one!
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Yeah, me too. No idea. And when I searched for patterns above a size 20 it just showed me… patterns that weren’t above a size 20.
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And what are these groups you’re mentioning? I haven’t seen that
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I searched for mens patterns and got women’s patterns mixed in! Uhhhh, nope.
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When you first log in on the splash page, one of the big circle prompts at the top is “browse groups”. You can join groups, or make you own groups and invite people… so I guess you could have a “cashmerette patterns” group if you wanted? I’ve seen at least one sewalong group, or “fans of ___ pattern designer” group.
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I think it’s a little confusing, but the “featured patterns” show above your search results, so it looks like they are part of your search. I think the whole thing is up to us, we can make it a great place to chat, share skills and discoveries and our makes. I’m being all Anne of Green Gables again!
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Hahah – yeah, I get all optimistic, too! I’ve but at least 10 hours into the sit, trying to find people find groups, start conversations, join in, answer questions etc… but it still hasn’t clicked for me, so I’m hoping someone can sell me on it, or I’ll probably give up!
(And in my search, the women’s patterns showed up in the second page of the search, not in the featured patterns section! 😉
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Blogs, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr plus Pattern Review, Kollabora and now The FoldLine? When does a person find time to sew?
I find the The FoldLine site clean and appealing and the pattern search is far superior to Pattern Review. Not a fan of discussion boards…for example, I don’t want to search years of discussion to find free patterns.
Ideally, these two would merge….
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I like forums, usually, but they need to be quick and easy to skim through. I don’t think the Fold Line groups are easy to quickly look through yet, though I’ve seen them promise to work on that!
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Never heard of it! Isn’t it a bit like Kollabora?
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Seems like it? I like that the fold line includes “big 4” patterns as well as indies, which I don’t think kollabora does? I never got into kollabora either though, so I could be wrong!
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I’m not sure what I think of it yet. I haven’t got much out of it and some of it seems “clunky”, but maybe when all the bugs are fixed?
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I’ve got that same feeling: “Maybe this will all work better in a while?” But then, other people seem it, so then I feel like I’m missing out? I never got into Kollabora though, so maybe I’ll just never get into this either. (Then again, maybe I just like how easy the CSC forums are to keep track of. One new comment? Easy to check!)
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I’ve never heard of it but will pop over and have a look. Was interesting reading all the comments, and like most things in their infancy there’ll be lots of room for improvement. I occasionally look at pattern review, but wish there was an English version m, maybe this is the answer. ….off to check it out……😃
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English as in British? The Fold Line is definitely UK centric, so maybe it’ll be perfect for you! 🙂
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Yup, British …on PR I see all sorts of adverts that I can’t buy 😳
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That’s really interesting! I’m Canadian, so i guess i’m just used to nothing being from my own country – i never noticed that PR was American, but of course it is! 🙂
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You have Thread Theory! Make me wish I was a bloke when I see their patterns! 😃
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That’s true – we have good designers! Closet Case Files, Jalie, Sewaholic, Ohhh Lulu, Thread Theory… but if I order fabric from a Canadian store, it’s just as expensive as shipping from the US – i.e. the shipping is equal to the cost of fabric!
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I signed up for the Fold Line, but I think it might just be one too many things for me. And I am not totally sure of what I will get out of it. I feel the same way about Pattern Review- although it seems helpful, in theory, it’s clunky and I don’t bother.
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Yeah, PR is an amazing success in lots of ways, but dear me it’s hideous and clunky and I hate using it! The Fold Line is prettier, but I kinda feel like it’s missing core functionality that would make me want to spend time there!
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I find PR so visually ugly that it’s offputting. I also find navigating around really difficult, there’s no easy way to quickly skim through variations of the pattern to find one I like, the photos are too small, and lots of people don’t link to somewhere where you can see them bigger. Really the number 1 thing I want from something like this is a quick way to look at how a pattern looks on a body like mine – it’s what I use Ravelry for the most, too. I guess I’ll keep using google image search for now!
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I just want to be able to chat to other sewists/sewers/sewistas – no one I know in my day to day life is really into sewing! I haven’t got instagram, so I don’t know about that.
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If you just want to hang with sewists, IG might be the best place! Twitter used to be, but it’s less active now… IG is the place to chat, keep in touch, and get to know each other better. Perhaps worth a try?
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Yes maybe I will 🙂
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Yes the Fold Line is better looking, like Kollabora, than PR. I still think I have to learn how to use it though, like Kollabora. I like PR for the pattern reviews and Contests, which I consider to be “Challenges” just like those on the Monthly Stitch, which I also like. I like getting feeds from blogger’s, like on Bloglovin and Sewcialists. I like getting Pattern reviews on PR. I try everything, for a while, trying to find the perfect thing, I guess the perfect thing isn’t out there yet? For me, pattern reviews of Big 4 and Indie patterns, and a blog feeder with comments allowed is heavenly, and yes every now and then I just want to look at the pictures on Instagram! It is wonderful that there are so many hard working people out there keeping our addictions fed!
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Maybe that’s part of the challenge for any new website starting up – we already have different websites/social media meeting our needs!
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Ok, I finally bit the bullet and signed up–I’ve been seeing it all over IG for the past week or so. I’d been holding off because of all of the other flash-in-the-pan attempts to be Ravelry for sewing, but hey, what’s one more community? 😉 😛
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I was really hoping the FOld Line would be the one… and I was rather expecting people in the comments here to convince me it is! But everyone seems a bit bemused and waiting for it to develop further. I guess only time will tell?
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I haven’t check this site out yet, but I’m usually not an early adapter anyway. I signed up for Kollabora but I never use it. I do use PR, at least the pattern reviews, because that was one of the first sewing sites I would frequent. I don’t comment or chime into the forums much, but I do try to post reviews when I feel I have something useful to say. I would love to have a ravelry-esque sewing site, but really between keeping up with the blogs and trolling IG… who has time??
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Time is such a huge issue! I read blogs on Feedly on my phone/computer, I check IG when I’m out and about… but logging into a website and digging through groups to find what is going on just isn’t user-friendly enough. It might get there, though?
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I did see something about it on IG, but haven’t really looked into it yet. I have accounts at both PR and Kollabora and barely use either. Or my old BurdaStyle account, for that matter. For me, it’s just too much work to go through reformatting my blog posts and uploading pictures for everything a second time, at least for sewing. I don’t mind it as much on Ravelry, since I’m a slow knitter and therefore only have to deal with it a couple of times a year. So I’m honestly more inclined to see if this one lives up to that promise before bothering. It gives me more time to get the new blog up and running anyway. Or maybe do something crazy like actually sew.
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YES! Who has time to retype what is already in a blog post just to upload it to some other site? No thanks. How are you finding WordPress?
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So far, so good! I just finished uploading my new header picture, and the redirect post at Blogger. So the new blog is official now.
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I don’t have much time so I don’t think I’ll be diving in. 😦 I’ve signed up to a few in the past but I don’t even post on PR anymore. Hell, I even had to cut loose Twitter.
I like Instagram for quick fixes, and blogs for more details—maybe what we really need is a Sewcialists search engine, that could bring up all kinds of patterns, blog posts, and discussions that take place in different forums…
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Hehehe – my Sewcialist search engine is asking Twitter or IG for help! Someone always has the right suggestion or link to something useful! 😉
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I’m wary of adding new social media, too, but I did join the Fold Line to search out new patterns and read reviews. None of which I have been able to find. I think, and I say this without criticism, I will end up deleting my membership as it just doesn’t work they way I need it to.
I agree with Tanit-Isis, using the #sewcialists tag on existing social media will make it easier to find what we’re looking for.
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I”m not feeling The Fold Line either. i’ll keep trying it for a while, but with so many great options for connecting with sewing peeps (and, you know, actually sewing) why waste my time?
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Eager to find out what it’s *actually* all about I rushed down to the comments only to find we’re all as baffled as each other! Haha.
While a visit to PR does make you feel like you’ve stepped back in time 20 years, I think it’s going to be difficult to replace it. It’s an amazing and established database of information that will take a long to to match starting from scratch. Like pretty much everyone I think the PR site is in desperate need of an overhaul, in which case I’d be more likely to use it than new/er sites.
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I really did think people would convince me to like the Fold Line – there seems to be so much excitement online! but, um, nope. I think you are right that PR is just so established with it’s reviews that it’s hard for any newcomer to compete!
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I signed up, but I don’t know how much work I’ll put into it. I like the idea of it, but it seems to be buggy and clunky, for all the pretty. Like that first dress you made, before you knew how to finish your seams and press everything. It has promise, but still needs lots of work.
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What a great analogy! That’s it completely!
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Thanks for the intro. Even if I never use the forums I’ve just found at least 6 maternity patterns that I’ve never seen despite months of trawling the internet. For that I’m happy!
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Hey, awesome! That’s great!
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I have joined up for this too but I am not sure if it will just be another thing that fizzles out for me. I am not sure how to use things at the moment. I really liked Burdastyle when it was first up. It was so easy to share things, connect with people and find patterns. I also liked Pattern Review but agree it is ugly and clunky and I think that the demographic may be biased towards older people (says me at 45 *hahaha*). I am on there as MotherofReinvention is anyone wants to add me. I do think that it looks pretty swish and modern. I hope that it takes off. Looks like they have put a lot of work into it. Xx
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I really do think the women behind The FOld Line have worked hard on it – and I feel bad giving up on it so soon! But… maybe I’ll go back to it when it’s fully evolved?
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Patternreview is still my go to. I only got a membership this year although I’ve been going there for since 08′. No problem with ‘older people’..I’m at that place it’s fine. I really don’t care about pretty graphics as much as I do info. Okay, I admit I find it hard to stay on Artisan’s Guild for long though because the color scheme is depressing as heck, but I guess that’s how others feel about PR, huh? ; )
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I’ve never had a paid membership on PR – is it worth it? I feel like the new-to-me patterns I try are either blog classics or new releases, so either way, I don’t need to look up reviews often!
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I am so glad I am not the only one! After logging on a few times, I was thinking maybe I wanted to use what little time I had to sew. I have learned a lot about sewing and follow many bloggers because of PatternReview. I am on Kollabora but haven’t posted there forever, because it feels like a selling platform now. I am going to keep an open mind because I am curious about how Foldline works. I like these platforms because I am not a blogger.
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You make a good point, that platforms are a nice way for non-bloggers to connect!
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I am a long time member of Ravelry and don’t know what I would do without it. Whenever I begin a new knitting pattern, I go straight to Ravelry and look up the pattern and then click on “projects” that show all the other versions other members have knitted. I can get color combination ideas and I read their notes about making the pattern, in case there is anything to look out for or tips. This exchange alone is worth being a member of Ravelry.
Also, I love having my own page where I can keep track of my projects and upload photos. I basically have a library of everything I’ve knitted and my own notes about the project – handy if I want to refer back to a project or knit it again.
Besides these two things, Ravelry has forums where members can ask questions of each other about patterns and techniques.
This is why Ravelry is so popular with knitters. As a sewer, I have always wished for a similar site for sewing. The Fold Line looks like it could potentially be – it has the ability to “rate” patterns and give tips and share photos of finished projects. It just needs time to build a community of people who want to keep track of their own projects and share.
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Ravelry really does seem to do it all! I think that challenge for The Fold Line is that it’s not very user friendly to put in reviews, and there isn’t much incentive to add reviews for things we’ve sewn in the past. That’s going to make it harder for them to build up enough reviews to be a useful resource!
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I am so glad that I am not alone on this. I was starting to feel incredibly old because I couldn’t figure it out. I was so excited to join, but now that I have and I have a few friends and followers, I don’t know what to do. I’m even in a few groups and I’m just not getting it. Maybe there will be tutorials soon.
I wish there was a Revelry for sewers. Can you imagine being able to have an easily accessible list of all your patterns and fabric in one place? And your plans for them too? That would be awesome!
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Like you, I thought once I had friends and people to follow, it would all click into place.. but… nope! Stil a bit underwhelming.
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I don’t get it either. I was attracted to it initially because it looks soooooo much better than Pattern Review, which is pathetic. But I couldn’t figure out how to get what I need out of it. Bummer! I love anything that has great visuals, you know?
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It is SO much prettier than PR – and for people who like sewing, I think the visual is important!
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Absolutely!
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This is such a great conversation Gillian! I follow Foldline on IG but haven’t signed up online. I do use PR and like it because the members are super helpful and supportive. I find their reviews easy to search up. I also use Kollabora and like its format and its site is so pretty! I just don’t find it as “chatty” as the PR members are. As far as Foldline goes…. I’m always behind on these things and will likely join if that’s where all the FUN is. You know? I’m always trying to find a balance… social media is time consuming and so it has to have good value to consider joining.
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I’m pretty cut off from the online sewing community, since I only blog. I hate twitter, don’t have a smart phone so can’t do instagram, and I don’t even know what else is out there. I definitely feel like I’m missing out a lot, especially not being on instagram, but it’s not worth the headache to get involved in it, for me.
I love Ravelry, and I’ve learned so much just from hanging out there and talking to other knitters on the forums. I find I miss having a resource like that when I’m sewing – I really do wish there could be a Ravelry for sewing. I’ve only just glanced though Foldline (only heard about it from this post!), but maybe this could be it, once it grows and evolves? Once I sign up, I’ll find you on there. 🙂
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This is such an interesting discussion! I do think I need to give IG a go maybe…. but I think the Fold Line has the potential to be the “Ravelry for sewing” we all want. It’s bound to take time to build up the reviews, but I suppose that’s up to all of us. We can make whatever groups we want, start whatever threads we want, anything sewing related – and there’s a website group for us to make suggestions of features we’d like. I gather they are going to be adding a pattern wishlist and a page to show all your reviews to everyone’s account, so that’ll be good. The more people dive in, the better it’ll get 🙂
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P.S. I’m rosiejane on Fold Line if anyone wants to find me!
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I agree with Jane – if we want it to work, I guess we all have to get behind it and make it a good site, by adding content. That’s the only thing that’ll make the difference I’m guessing. But it is hard to find the time … (jamjar15) 😀
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I think Jane has hit the nail on the head – what makes Ravelry and PR so great is the content everybody has contributed over the years. No wonder there’s not much to do on the Fold Line right now, the content isn’t there yet. So if people keep coming then time will indeed make the difference. I’ve signed up too but haven’t been back since. Unfortunately I’m not sure I have time to invest in this but we’ll never get the Revelry for sewing if nobody puts the effort in!
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I’ll put myself into the old category too. I can’t keep up with the social media I am a part of, but I have been a part of Patternreview for a long time, and I really appreciate the community and the depth of help I’ve found there. I spend a lot of time and effort writing thorough reviews so that if someone is needing help on a fiddly point at 1 am, it can be got because I’ve totally been on the other side of that. (Burda jacket with the L-shaped darts, I’m thinking of you). The non-slickness of PRs design actually is why I threw my hat in their ring. As a beginner back in the day, sites like Burdastyle were ultra intimidating to me…I felt for a long long time that I couldn’t contribute there unless I had mad skillz, ultra fancy fabric, and magazine quality photos, yet on PR, people were and are very encouraging to beginners and people with really cruddy cameras and camera skills…I appreciate that kind of honesty over oogling and oozing over people with pretty pictures who may not necessarily have skills (not that people on the Fold Line don’t–I really don’t know. This is actually a question I have continually about food writers. I read so many cookbooks and use them extensively that at this point, my ability to catch a bad recipe is pretty good, yet I see SO SO many recipes written online using either bad technique, are very untested, or just aren’t going to work out (imprecise measurements in baking for instance)….yet so many of these sketchy recipes are the ones that get all the IG, Pinterest etc. praise because they are simply photographed well. While I realize that aside from being in person, good pictures are the only way to communicate quality, I always wonder, am I as a consumer of media simply being taken in by pretty pictures or can I peel back the veneer to test the real quality?). I don’t mean to sound ranty; I truly am left with lots of questions when evaluating whether or not I want to/can invest the time in another version of social media.
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I’ve joined too. It’s really too bad that social media has become the main hub, because things disappear so quickly. But at the same time joining ‘yet another’ site always seems to be a pain.
I did the same thing as you, joined, logged in…then….?
A site like this definitely needs a discussion forum of sorts. Communicating, sharing and getting to know one another is the key: that AND getting a critical mass of people using it so that there’s always something new and exciting to see, but that there’s also troves of reference material you can go back to at anytime.
I will keep my eye on it though. I am so happy there is such a vibrant community online with bloggers and non-bloggers alike, but it might be nice to be able to find each other in one place
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I love the idea of a UK centric site. I like PR and actually pay for membership but don’t benefit from all the member bonuses as I’m not in US; pattern postage is too expensive. I have FB and I believe even IG; I don’t use IG at all and FB rarely. I joined a couple of other sites Stitchers Guild and the Sewing Forum but keep forgetting to log in to see what’s happening. I get a daily digest from PR and from Blogger and I like that. I’ll probably wait and see as I already have too many things keeping me back from actually sewing!
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