Well, I promised you sub-standard graphs for OWOP and that's exactly what you're about to see! Quite a few of you are still making up your minds about which pattern to use (which is totally fine by the way, it's not a decision to be taken lightly), so these stats are based on what people have signed up for so far. You wouldn't believe how long these bits of rubbish took me to create, and they're still not perfect. But hopefully they'll give you an idea of which patterns and garments you're all choosing to work with.
Amongst the pattern companies, Colette is the clear winner with about 15% of you choosing to use their patterns. The chart below shows all companies that have had their patterns chosen more than once. Not shown are a long list of new indie companies whose names only cropped up once - I just couldn't fit them on the graph!
The one big difference since the last OWOP is that far more independent pattern companies now exist. Last time, Colette was still the dominant pattern company, with relative newcomer Sewaholic the only other independent pattern company in the top ten. Things have changed quite dramatically this year, with 57% of chosen patterns being from independent companies. What I refer to as Commercial Patterns (Simplicity, New Look, Butterick, Vogue, McCalls and Burda) represent 29%, with a fair few of you (8%) choosing to use patterns that come from books. A handful are using a self drafted pattern and just two people (myself included) will be using a vintage pattern.
When it comes to type of garment chosen, there's a big shake up in this category too. As you'd expect, the majority of you have chosen a top, blouse or shirt pattern as they offer the most choice for styling. The skirt is still relatively popular, and just a few of you have gone for trousers or shorts. I think if I had a go-to trouser pattern I'd be tempted to choose trousers too, but I haven't quite found it yet. The big surprise though, is that dress patterns have proved to be so popular. The thing I love about dresses is that you have a whole outfit in one go and obviously lots of you (34%) feel the same way too! What's great to see is that there are lots of popular indie dress patterns cropping up, such as the Colette Moneta, Kitschy Coo's Lady Skater dress and the Emery dress by Christine Haynes. Tried and tested designs from the larger companies still remain popular - it's nice to see Simplicity 2444 getting a couple of mentions too!
There you go - FASCINATING STUFF! My charts may not be very professional looking but I can give any statistician a good run for their money when it comes to boring you rigid! There's still a month to go before One Week, One Pattern kicks off, so if you fancy it (and who wouldn't after reading that?!) then go and sign yourself up on this post. We'd love to have you on board. x
