How Original Can We Really Be?

When the alarm went off this morning, I felt like hitting the button, rolling over, and going back to sleep only not much gets accomplished that way so I got up. Roll over days are rare. I'm such a morning person. Normally, I prefer to get up and get going. It must be those grey skies today. The whole weekend presented more like fall than summer. Apparently, we're not having summer this year, just teaser days.









My stash is stored in the closet with the fabric folded and then placed folded end out in a box with the box placed on side so that each piece of fabric is contained, visible, and touchable. On Friday, I fingered my way along the piles until I came to this paisley print in shades of green. It's lighter weight, drapey, and there's more than enough yardage for Vogue 8743 so I pulled it out and then it sat on the work island all weekend. I didn't feel like sewing. Mostly, I worked and read.



Earlier last week, I watched a video at Silhouette Patterns and in it the woman talking - Peggy I believe - indicated which pattern copied which garment by which designer. She was very up front about the fact that she had developed the pattern from seeing that designer's work.



Later in the week, I was reading Marcy Tilton's book on skirts and in it were techniques that I first learned from Pati Palmer, and later from Ron Collins, and then read in Sandra Betzina's books, and then recapped again in Pati's books and... It made me think about how much information is new and how much is recycled. It seems it's all recycled but it had to start somewhere.









Last fall, I was shopping in a women's dress store in Nanaimo (BC, Canada) that is just around the corner from where Sandra Betzina and Ron Collins teach their spring workshop. Hanging up was a blouse that looked exactly like Vogue 1165. When I mentioned the pattern to the shop owner, she said yes, she knew about it, that the original blouse was designed by a small start up company, and that she'd been incredibly disappointed to see Sandra and Ron pour over every detail of the original, copy it, and put out the pattern. I was disillusioned. It made a woman whose creativity I have admired for years suddenly way less creative and when I saw the blouse above in a store in Vernon the other day and it reminded me strongly of Vogue 1260, I wondered who copied who.









We're all inspired by someone or something. It's impossible not to be. I like the button arrangement on this blouse. Look how they are all different and how they are placed. The first five are close together to avoid gaping and the remainder are spaced along the rest of the button opening. It's a fun idea and I certainly have enough buttons to do this but will I? Maybe but probably not.



In this case, I wouldn't be copying for profit which is a completely different thing than copying for personal use although even that has some grey - plagiaristic - areas. What matters to me is being original and unique, not dressed just like everybody else, which I've come the conclusion is quite difficult to do - LOL. What do you think? How original can we really be?



Talk soon - Myrna



Grateful - teachers and learning