Hi Everyone
Last year I went to a craft de-stash was held roughly every three months or so, that’s roughly a 20 minute drive away from where I live in Canberra, ACT. It was interesting to see what crafty things were for sale and it gave me an insight to what tools, patterns and projects were popular many moons ago. There were quite a lot of stalls that had various styles of stamps for card making or scrapbooking, quilting or dress making fabric, dress making patterns, some scrapbooking papers, folk art and knitting supplies.
As I’m writing this post and reflecting on the last paragraph, I realise I’ve talked about this a little bit in an earlier post about the possibility of our projects having a shelf life. However, this post is somewhat different because I’m curious about how our de-stashing will look like and be in the years to come.
Digital vs Physical De-Stash
Our craft is very much a tactile, physical thing that can be replaced with an electronic version, but it’s not the same. On the Internet there are apps that we can download and we can pretend that we are doing digital stitches by pressing buttons on our screens. What we love about our craft through, is feeling the fabric, the needles (as much as it might hurt when we poke ourselves!), the floss and holding the projects in our hands. We don’t have the glare of our screens – unless we’re using Pattern Keeper and it’s a different story then!
What I’m questioning here is how will our destash look in the future as we go ever deeper down the digital rabbit hole?
I love the PDF patterns that many designers and shops provide. I also love the instant gratification of being able to download the pattern as soon as I’ve paid for it and our current climate very well. But what if I want to move the pattern onto someone else? Especially if I’ve already stitched it or I have stitches remorse and my tastes have changed over time and I’m not interested in stitching the pattern any more?
For physical patterns and kits for as long as we’ve all been doing cross stitch, we’ve been giving away our stashes or selling them for a small amount of money to recoup the costs of the initial purchase. Theoretically, this should be the same for digital patterns – especially if they’re out of stock and the designer is unable to or not wanting to release or create more copies of the pattern.
The Internet
Thankfully there are soooo many different ways in which we can connect via the internet and with the movement towards digital patterns for many of our crafty things, theoretically it’s easier to transfer or share what’s in our stash that we want to get rid of. A quick Google search has found a number of sites that could assist you with any stash you might want to get rid of. The two main sites I found was the Etsy Destash Market and Facebook Cross Stitch Destash Group.
The great thing with these two groups and many others like it is that it’s for anything connected to cross stitch that people have in their stash. Ranging from patterns and kits through to needle minders, fabric, floss or threads and anything in between!
Stitchy-kindness
On Flosstube I’ve heard people talk about Stitchy-kindness, where they have received some things in the mail from viewers and friends who had been thinking about them and some stitching related things that they might like. Similarly, I’ve heard people talking about exchanges or swaps that people have participated in that has enabled them to swap some threads for fabric or a pattern for a needle minder. Things like that.
Be aware of Copyright with your de-stash
Ninety-nine percent of us are honest people and we want to do the right thing (I think). When we are looking to move on some of stash – especially if it’s something that’s out of print, theoretically there should be no harm in asking for some money from our years of collecting and creating. Especially since the Facebook and Etsy links show people asking for some money for the stash they are wanting to move on. My point here is more about not to making a profit out of the re-sale if you’re not a business and trying to make a living out of it.
The conundrum is what can of worms am I opening up by mentioning copyright?
ThreadBare.com wrote a really good article on the legalities around this dilemma, published on 24th August 2017 titled “Cross-Stitching Legalities: Copyright, Artwork, Licencing and Copying.” It’s a really well written article and I’ve learnt a lot from it especially when Thread Bare talk about the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and the reason why there is such as big price difference between some of the websites that sell the PDF patterns. It’s important to note that Thread Bare are strong advocates for promoting the fair and legal use of images on the internet and ensuring that any images acquired for cross stitch patterns have been purchased from a licensed and reputable source.
It’s also important to note that if you find an image on the internet that you think will make a really good cross stitch pattern, I agree with what Thread Bare were saying in their article, and make sure you take all reasonable steps to try and find out who the artist is and seek their permission to use that image.
What do you think? What are your experiences with digital de-stashing? What do you think the future holds for the digital world and cross stitch?
Until next time,
Happy Stitching!
Related Posts:
- How to host a successful Instagram destash – blog post by Blossom Heart Quilts. Posted in March, 2019. Whilst this post talks about the destashing of quilting supplies, the same principles could be applied to any craft – including Cross Stitch!
- Crafters Destash – website. This may be an alternate option to using social media if you’re wanting to make space in your collection.
The XStitching Runner 